the societal situation
Indonesia’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita is steadily rising year by year. (refer to table below):
GDP per capita (USD) Year
2,272 2009
2,947 2010
3,471 2011
3,557 2012
Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
Indonesia is rich in many natural resources, such as petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold and silver. However, many challenges arise in using and managing these natural resources. They include ensuring that benefits of the utilisation of these resources are evenly spread amongst most Indonesians, in order to optimise the rate of usage of mineral reserves while keeping in mind the interests of future generations, and still achieving sustainable forest and maritime exploitation.
It is ironic that even though Indonesia’s wealth is mostly due to its abundance of natural resources and has become its pillar for its economic growth, poverty is still a pressing issue in Indonesia. Although one of the major reasons for poverty is natural disasters, corruption plays a role as well. It is a well known fact that the Indonesian government is corrupt, and like India, funds meant for the people are not fully utilized for the good of the people, and are being squandered away.
GDP per capita (USD) Year
2,272 2009
2,947 2010
3,471 2011
3,557 2012
Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD
Indonesia is rich in many natural resources, such as petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold and silver. However, many challenges arise in using and managing these natural resources. They include ensuring that benefits of the utilisation of these resources are evenly spread amongst most Indonesians, in order to optimise the rate of usage of mineral reserves while keeping in mind the interests of future generations, and still achieving sustainable forest and maritime exploitation.
It is ironic that even though Indonesia’s wealth is mostly due to its abundance of natural resources and has become its pillar for its economic growth, poverty is still a pressing issue in Indonesia. Although one of the major reasons for poverty is natural disasters, corruption plays a role as well. It is a well known fact that the Indonesian government is corrupt, and like India, funds meant for the people are not fully utilized for the good of the people, and are being squandered away.
Examples of corruption:
Case Study Example-- Suharto:
Former Indonesian President, Mohamed Suharto, successfully stole $35 billion through a system dubbed by his political opponents as KNN ("corruption, collusion, nepotism"). He did so by handing the control of state-run monopolies to family members and friends, in return for tribute payments amounting to millions. Those payments were usually cloaked as charitable donations to the dozens of foundations (known as yayasans) overseen by Suharto. These organizations that were supposed to assist with the constructions of rural schools and hospitals were merely a facade for Suharto's personal piggy bank.
In order to exploit Indonesia's natural resources, companies had to enlist the aid of Suharto’s cronies (i.e. one of his children) in order to get past the bureaucratic red tape (includes complicated rules and procedures that may result in long delays). In return, the cronies demanded a hefty stake in the enterprise, without putting forth any monetary capital.
Suharto and his clan also used service firms to draw cash from larger companies. Companies affiliated to Suharto, the man himself, could "borrow money" from Bank Indonesia, the central bank, without paying back a dime in return.
The impact of corruption:
Indonesia functions based on capitalism, causing a jarring income gap. Last year, 3 million laborers from hundreds of thousands of companies in 40 industrial estates in Indonesia planned to engage in a national strike due to the government's inability to meet their demands for basic employment rights. This mass action is a result of the continued struggle of the Indonesian people, including millions of women and children fighting against the shackles of poverty under their repressive capitalist free-market system which forces them to be exploited as cheap labourers. The annual report on the Global Slavery Walk Index published by the Free Foundation, revealed that at least 200,000 people are living in slavery in Indonesia in 2013.
Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (2012) found that Indonesia was more corrupt than the year before, dropping from 100th to 118th place, among 174 countries (note 1st place being the least corrupt)
This report was followed with its 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, which polled individuals in 107 countries about their direct experience of corruption. Majority of Indonesians reported that corruption had “increased a lot” in the last year, with vast majorities describing the police (91 percent), legislature (89 percent), judiciary (86 percent), political parties (86 percent), and public officials and civil servants (79 percent) as corrupt. More than a third of Indonesians reported that they or someone in their household had paid a bribe in the last 12 months, including two thirds of those who had contact with the judiciary and three quarters of those who had contact with the police. This places Indonesia on par with the likes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, despite its high profile efforts to curb corruption.
Measures taken to combat corruption:
In 2002, Indonesia established an independent agency dedicated to combatting corruption. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has spent the last decade investigating and prosecuting high-level corruption cases. It has been meticulous in its approach to targeting perpetrators and has consequently maintained a 100 percent conviction rate. Unfortunately, this commitment to perfection also means the KPK has caught only a mere fraction of those elites engaged in gross corruption. And its successes have also pulled back the curtain on the prevalence of corruption at the highest rates of the state.
The KPK arrested Akil Mochtar, chief justice of the Constitutional Court, on October 2 on charges that he accepted bribes to fix a case regarding a local election dispute. The court had previously been seen by many Indonesians as the only other transparent and reliable government institution in the country besides the KPK. In addition to Akil, the KPK has in the last year arrested a former youth and sports minister, a former police inspector general, and the brother of the governor of one of Indonesia’s largest provinces, among many others.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected in 2004 and again in 2009 on promises of fighting corruption, especially by working with and offering support for the KPK. In the early years of his presidency, and the KPK’s existence, the commission targeted high level congressmen, diplomats, and legislative commissioners. Just as elections approached in 2009, Yudhoyono’s son’s father-in-law, a member of the president’s Democrat Party and a former central bank governor, was arrested and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for embezzlement. The arrest helped Yudhoyono brand himself as a “no exceptions” anti-corruption president.
However, support for KPK cases has been a less prominent part of Yudhoyono’s second term, and opponents argue that he has grown soft on corruption as his party has been devastated by high-profile convictions. Dadang Trisasongko, head of Transparency International in Indonesia, said, "Yudhoyono has an anti-corruption policy but he has only provided very weak political support for it.”
In regards to the right-based approach attached in the new sight of poverty policy in Indonesia, the government has formulated the concept of poverty alleviation program in three different clusters based on the beneficiaries segmentation—very poor, poor and near poor. The first cluster is social assistance program which aims to fulfil the poor basic needs—in food, health, education, clean water, and sanitation—as well as to decrease their life burden, and to enhance the poor’s life quality. The second cluster is the empowerment program which has objectives to enhance capacity and income of the poor as well as to get the poor involved in the development process based on empowerment principles. The last cluster is the small and micro enterprises’ (SMEs) empowerment which aims to give an access and to enhance the economy of the SMEs.
Case Study Example-- Suharto:
Former Indonesian President, Mohamed Suharto, successfully stole $35 billion through a system dubbed by his political opponents as KNN ("corruption, collusion, nepotism"). He did so by handing the control of state-run monopolies to family members and friends, in return for tribute payments amounting to millions. Those payments were usually cloaked as charitable donations to the dozens of foundations (known as yayasans) overseen by Suharto. These organizations that were supposed to assist with the constructions of rural schools and hospitals were merely a facade for Suharto's personal piggy bank.
In order to exploit Indonesia's natural resources, companies had to enlist the aid of Suharto’s cronies (i.e. one of his children) in order to get past the bureaucratic red tape (includes complicated rules and procedures that may result in long delays). In return, the cronies demanded a hefty stake in the enterprise, without putting forth any monetary capital.
Suharto and his clan also used service firms to draw cash from larger companies. Companies affiliated to Suharto, the man himself, could "borrow money" from Bank Indonesia, the central bank, without paying back a dime in return.
The impact of corruption:
Indonesia functions based on capitalism, causing a jarring income gap. Last year, 3 million laborers from hundreds of thousands of companies in 40 industrial estates in Indonesia planned to engage in a national strike due to the government's inability to meet their demands for basic employment rights. This mass action is a result of the continued struggle of the Indonesian people, including millions of women and children fighting against the shackles of poverty under their repressive capitalist free-market system which forces them to be exploited as cheap labourers. The annual report on the Global Slavery Walk Index published by the Free Foundation, revealed that at least 200,000 people are living in slavery in Indonesia in 2013.
Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (2012) found that Indonesia was more corrupt than the year before, dropping from 100th to 118th place, among 174 countries (note 1st place being the least corrupt)
This report was followed with its 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, which polled individuals in 107 countries about their direct experience of corruption. Majority of Indonesians reported that corruption had “increased a lot” in the last year, with vast majorities describing the police (91 percent), legislature (89 percent), judiciary (86 percent), political parties (86 percent), and public officials and civil servants (79 percent) as corrupt. More than a third of Indonesians reported that they or someone in their household had paid a bribe in the last 12 months, including two thirds of those who had contact with the judiciary and three quarters of those who had contact with the police. This places Indonesia on par with the likes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, despite its high profile efforts to curb corruption.
Measures taken to combat corruption:
In 2002, Indonesia established an independent agency dedicated to combatting corruption. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has spent the last decade investigating and prosecuting high-level corruption cases. It has been meticulous in its approach to targeting perpetrators and has consequently maintained a 100 percent conviction rate. Unfortunately, this commitment to perfection also means the KPK has caught only a mere fraction of those elites engaged in gross corruption. And its successes have also pulled back the curtain on the prevalence of corruption at the highest rates of the state.
The KPK arrested Akil Mochtar, chief justice of the Constitutional Court, on October 2 on charges that he accepted bribes to fix a case regarding a local election dispute. The court had previously been seen by many Indonesians as the only other transparent and reliable government institution in the country besides the KPK. In addition to Akil, the KPK has in the last year arrested a former youth and sports minister, a former police inspector general, and the brother of the governor of one of Indonesia’s largest provinces, among many others.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was elected in 2004 and again in 2009 on promises of fighting corruption, especially by working with and offering support for the KPK. In the early years of his presidency, and the KPK’s existence, the commission targeted high level congressmen, diplomats, and legislative commissioners. Just as elections approached in 2009, Yudhoyono’s son’s father-in-law, a member of the president’s Democrat Party and a former central bank governor, was arrested and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for embezzlement. The arrest helped Yudhoyono brand himself as a “no exceptions” anti-corruption president.
However, support for KPK cases has been a less prominent part of Yudhoyono’s second term, and opponents argue that he has grown soft on corruption as his party has been devastated by high-profile convictions. Dadang Trisasongko, head of Transparency International in Indonesia, said, "Yudhoyono has an anti-corruption policy but he has only provided very weak political support for it.”
In regards to the right-based approach attached in the new sight of poverty policy in Indonesia, the government has formulated the concept of poverty alleviation program in three different clusters based on the beneficiaries segmentation—very poor, poor and near poor. The first cluster is social assistance program which aims to fulfil the poor basic needs—in food, health, education, clean water, and sanitation—as well as to decrease their life burden, and to enhance the poor’s life quality. The second cluster is the empowerment program which has objectives to enhance capacity and income of the poor as well as to get the poor involved in the development process based on empowerment principles. The last cluster is the small and micro enterprises’ (SMEs) empowerment which aims to give an access and to enhance the economy of the SMEs.
Education:
Though Indonesia has a steady economic growth of about 6% each year, the indonesian education system is said to be one of the worst worldwide. In a country where 57 million students attend school annually, only a third of Indonesian students complete basic schooling. According to the results of the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment, 15-year-olds scored second from the bottom in math, science, and reading. This may be due to the fact that less than half of the country’s teachers possess even the minimum qualifications to teach properly , and teachers' attendance rates are low, with about 20% being absent. On top of that, many teachers in the public school system work outside of the classroom to improve their incomes. This hinders them from properly connecting with their students and focusing on their studies to allow them to meet their maximum potential. Also, Indonesian Corruption Watch states that almost all of the schools in the country suffer from graft, bribery or embezzlement, with 40 percent of their budget siphoned off before it reaches the classroom. Moreover the Indonesian education system does not encourage independent, creative thought but focusses more on learning by rote. Discipline is strict, commendation little and many students are expelled for what in the western world we would consider slight misbehaviour.
One of the Indonesian government’s responses to these findings has been to restructure the Indonesian curriculum, including postponing teaching science, geography and english until students attend secondary school. However, for a nation coming into the economic forefront, this is not exactly pragmatic.
The future success of communities depends on today’s youth and the education they access. Education is important, especially in the world's poorest communities, and it is vital that Indonesia does something to improve the quality of their education in the near future. Otherwise, consequences will be borne by the generations to come.
Though Indonesia has a steady economic growth of about 6% each year, the indonesian education system is said to be one of the worst worldwide. In a country where 57 million students attend school annually, only a third of Indonesian students complete basic schooling. According to the results of the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment, 15-year-olds scored second from the bottom in math, science, and reading. This may be due to the fact that less than half of the country’s teachers possess even the minimum qualifications to teach properly , and teachers' attendance rates are low, with about 20% being absent. On top of that, many teachers in the public school system work outside of the classroom to improve their incomes. This hinders them from properly connecting with their students and focusing on their studies to allow them to meet their maximum potential. Also, Indonesian Corruption Watch states that almost all of the schools in the country suffer from graft, bribery or embezzlement, with 40 percent of their budget siphoned off before it reaches the classroom. Moreover the Indonesian education system does not encourage independent, creative thought but focusses more on learning by rote. Discipline is strict, commendation little and many students are expelled for what in the western world we would consider slight misbehaviour.
One of the Indonesian government’s responses to these findings has been to restructure the Indonesian curriculum, including postponing teaching science, geography and english until students attend secondary school. However, for a nation coming into the economic forefront, this is not exactly pragmatic.
The future success of communities depends on today’s youth and the education they access. Education is important, especially in the world's poorest communities, and it is vital that Indonesia does something to improve the quality of their education in the near future. Otherwise, consequences will be borne by the generations to come.
The character of Indonesia's educational system reflects its diverse religious heritage, its struggle for a national identity, and the challenge of resource allocation in a poor but developing archipelagic nation with a young and rapidly growing population. Source: http://lucshiarashi75.blogspot.sg/2012/07/education-in-indonesia.html
UNICEF provides poorer students with education, and an opportunity to seek higher education, enabling them to find a better job in the future.
Healthcare:
Indonesia's health-service infrastructure includes government health services, foreign aid, non-profit health organisations (NGOs), religious organisations, and the private health sector. All public and private medical facilities in Indonesia are open to foreigners, however, only locals are able to enjoy the benefits of local healthcare schemes.
However, due to the introduction of decentralization policies which delegates the provision of local services (including key health services) to sub-national Governments in 2001, the quality, efficiency and equity of health provision is affected. In 2006, ratio of general practitioners was 19.9 per 100,000 population while ratio of midwife per 100,000 population was 35.4. In addition to this, there is a limited number of general practitioners and midwifes in rural areas, thus making healthcare less accessible to those who do not live in urban areas.
To her credit, Indonesia is generally regarded as having relatively adequate levels of health provision. On average, there is one public health centre per 30 000 people. In addition, there are enough sub centres to account for 10 000 people each. However, just like the dwindling number of medical practitioners in rural areas, people in remote interior or small island having particularly poor access to medical centres. Also, Indonesia has low levels of bed provision at 625 beds per 100,000 citizens.The utilization is also low, with bed occupancy rates at about 56.2 % in both public and private facilities.
The role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector in Indonesia has been growing. However, since there is no regulation of pricing or quality of service in place, users are vulnerable to excessive treatment and expenses.
Though medical technology is advanced enough for medicines for tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS to exist, drugs are not reaching everyone due to limited affordability and availability. Despite the presence of a strong Drug Regulatory Authority, responsible for the registration of medicines as well as quality control and inspection, counterfeit drugs remain a big problem. The fight against counterfeit drugs places strains on financial resources and requires a large amount of cooperation from other sectors. At the same time, the use of traditional medicines (such as ‘jamu’) is popular and widespread in Indonesia. However, there is not much quality control for these traditional medicines because large numbers of small-scale manufacturers exist.