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n a bid to strengthen the country'€™s research sector, president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo announced that he may eventually increase the state budget intended for research purposes.

Speaking in a seminar at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) on Tuesday, Jokowi said that he could expand the current Rp 10.4 trillion (US$ 868 million) budget allocation.

'€œWe'€™ll see. Currently, our fiscal room to move is very narrow indeed. Maybe in my second year we will spend more for research,'€ he said.

Jokowi made the statement after asking LIPI head Lukman Hakim about the ideal level of funding for research purposes in the country.

Lukman said that it would be 1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), or Rp 80 trillion.

He said that the budget increase would significantly improve the quality of scientific research in the country.

According to LIPI researcher M. Riefqi Moena, the growth of research has been stunted because of the government'€™s lack of political will.

'€œIf we look at the ratio of the research budget to the state budget from 1969 to 2009, it has actually declined,'€ he said during the seminar.

Riefqi said the LIPI would continue sending data to the government on the current state of scientific research in the country.

'€œBut there was no follow-up,'€ he said.

Riefqi also attributed the problem to a lack of quality human resources, as well as the inability to think
critically.

'€œEven as we have been living in the post-authoritarian era, which should have guaranteed the freedom to think, there are still restrictions [of expression or exploration] in some areas,'€ he said. '€œMeanwhile, the number of our scientists with Ph.D degrees is also declining.'€

Meanwhile, Vedi R. Hadiz, professor of Asian societies and politics at Murdoch University, said that it was not enough for the government to simply send people to get their post-graduate degrees overseas.

'€œWhen they returned to Indonesia, they will only be relegated to teaching classes in universities,'€ he said on Tuesday.

Vedi suggested that the government collaborate with overseas universities to pick some of the best candidates to get post-doctorate degrees, after which their dissertations could be published as books that would benefit the community more.

Besides increasing the budget for research purposes, Jokowi also said that he would establish a new ministry, separate from the current education ministry, that would manage higher education and research.

He said that all research budgets would be pooled in the new ministry.

'€œIt will be clearer where the budget goes and the results can also be measured easily,'€ Jokowi said. '€œIf not, then each ministry will conduct research based on their needs only. That'€™s dangerous.'€

According to him, the country'€™s research projects have not been well consolidated in the past few years.

'€œThe budget [for research] can be found everywhere, but the results are nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that we have the LIPI and other research institutions,'€ Jokowi said.