Mid-August is traditionally a solemn time for Indonesians. A period of remembrance of the nation’s sacrifice and struggle. A time to take stock of the past year, and set new goals for the coming one.
During this month of Ramadan, celebrations were more subdued but no less significant as the tasks, failings and challenges of the nation were laid before us.
As a country whose survival is founded on the need for unity (in diversity), the stark contrast at the grassroots level was plain to see. While the President proudly declared that he had dealt with discriminative laws, groups gathered to express concern at the government’s lack of action in “tolerating” attacks against freedom of religion.
More than 1,000 people protested last week the state’s silence on the persecution of religious minorities. Specifically they were concerned at the latest incidents at the HKBP Pondok Timur Indah church in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, after a year of persecution from Islamic hard-liners and intolerant local residents.
“We were evicted from our place of worship,” congregation members said.
Those who gathered came from a wide range of organizations, including the Institute for Democracy and Peace (Setara), the Wahid Institute, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and also several public figures.
No one must have been more thankful for Independence Day than convicts who received reduced sentences as part of the traditional remissions given by the government to mark Aug. 17.
Some 40,000 inmates across the country were granted remissions. These include 17 of 25 inmates convicted on terrorism-related charges and held at penitentiaries in Central Java. They had their sentences cut by up to five months.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s State of the Nation address garnered a ho-hum reaction from most pundits. It was an unimpressive 4,100 word speech of high platitudes that seem disconnected with the realities on the ground.
Both his speech and later presentation of the 2011 state budget proposal were underwhelming at best.
For most economists, they signaled stability without inspiring much impetus for newfound economic vigor.
The government’s targeted economic growth of 6.3 percent in 2011 was “quite realistic” given this year’s encouraging results, and many are hoping growth will exceed the predicted 5.8 percent this year.
However, there were questions on whether the GDP growth of between 7 percent and 7.7 percent between 2012 and 2014 could be truly achieved.
Unsatisfactory infrastructure, a weak investment climate, poor coordination between central and regional governments and lack of qualified human resources in the regions are the often cited factors hampering faster economic growth.
The President claims these targets will reduce the poverty rate to 12.5 percent of the total population in 2011 as more jobs are created, based on the government’s assumption that a 1 percent increase in economic growth would absorb 400,000 workers. It forecasts the 2010 poverty rate at 13.5 percent, versus 14.15 percent in 2009 (or 32.5 million people).
The 2010 inflation rate was placed at 5.3 percent through 2011, with the projection the rupiah would fluctuate between Rp 9,200 and Rp 9,850 against the US dollar over the next four years.
The conservative growth target also drew criticism. Former vice president Jusuf Kalla said the target was too low.
“Singapore can reach 13 percent, while Thailand is at 8 percent and the Philippines is at 7 percent.
We’re richer... The growth rate could be as high as 10 percent in four years time. Now, that’s realistic,” Kalla said after hearing the President’s speech.
The most notable and interesting development was the formal announcement of the national census results, with an increase of 32.5 million people over the last 10 years signaling a quiet population boom.
In the years 2000 to 2010, the country recorded population growth at 1.49 percent per year, higher than the population growth in the previous 10-year period – 1.4 percent per year – and also above the projected 1.2 percent growth estimate made by the BPS after the 2000 census.
According to results from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia’s population stands at 237.6 million, up from 205.1 million in 2000, ensuring that the country will remain the world’s fourth largest nation by population, after China, India and the US.
These results were the sternest warning yet of the need to revitalize family planning programs.
National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) chairman Sugiri Syarief contended that family planning had been given scant attention over the last 10 years.
“The BPS has made its projections using the assumption that family planning would be carried out as well as it was in the 1990s but ... family planning has been neglected,” he said.
He added that the BKKBN needed an annual budget of Rp 3 trillion (US$333 million) to Rp 4 trillion to meet the national target of reducing growth rate to 1.1 percent by 2015.
The government allocated Rp 1.6 trillion for family planning this year. On our borders, the continuing flurry of counter claims with neighboring Malaysia persisted.
The latest dispute occurred when Malaysian Marine Police detained three Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry inspectors after the latter and other Indonesian officers arrested seven Malaysian fishermen for trespassing and illegally fishing in Indonesian waters.
The usual round of diplomatic protests and nationalistic grandstanding proceeded, but cooler heads prevailed. Ultimately a diplomatic solution is the only recourse.
— Meidyatama Suryodiningrat
