They must put their country first for the welfare of the people and Indonesia'€™s reputation.

Rainier Virya Mangala

If they are willing then we could compete with even the most advanced and richest countries.

Mohammed R. Jamaal

Their return is the mark of the advancement of our nation.

Zhang Jin Long

What kind of incentives would encourage them to do so?

Philippe Marland

The problem lies in the system itself. Once you prepare a comfortable environment for research to be conducted and grow, the whole floor will elevate. Take a look at the US for example. If you go to US universities, you'€™ll see that their graduate programs are dominated by foreign students, especially the science and engineering graduate programs, where more than 75 percent of the students are foreign students.

US students are not really interested in getting masters and PhD degrees because they can get good jobs with bachelor degrees. Getting a post graduate degree is a painful journey and takes lot of time and energy. Most American students don'€™t see it as worth the time and effort.

Foreign students, on the other hand, are motivated by the idea of getting a permanent job and residency in the US and so having a US degree is helpful. From this standpoint, the painful postgraduate journey is worth the suffering.

The question is whether a country is willing to invest money for the purpose of obtaining long-term gains. Most developing countries, including Indonesia, fail to see and realize this.

Itsbad

The biggest problem is Indonesia doesn'€™t produce enough scientists to begin with. Compared to the Chinese and Indians, most Indonesian scientists return to Indonesia. In contrast, 90 percent of Chinese and Indian PhDs in engineering and the sciences don'€™t return. It'€™s not about money. Iran'€™s science and research studies are far ahead of Indonesia, Malaysia and even Singapore in certain areas.

Weilim

I strongly agree with the idea. I particularly hope Diah Satya Darmawati comes back. She is currently a lead engineer at Boeing Aerospace US. She is an alumnus of Sriwijaya University in South Sumatera with a degree in civil engineering.

Please come back to Indonesia, Diah. Your country needs you.

Usri

On the Indonesian side, the available research budget is cut into many small pieces. Indonesia has no structural PhD programs of its own that carry an impact. Its master-level education is more professional-oriented rather than research. So, the upstream is problematic.

In our political elite, we lack those who understand the importance of research and at the same time are sensible enough to come up with plans that work. Habibie tried that with his Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology and an aircraft industry. For various reasons these business models ended up failing. So I guess Indonesia is waiting for the next proposal.

Sudarshana Chakra

How could expatriate Indonesian scientists and their families want to come home if there are poor or inadequate research facilities here, a lack of scientific equipment, materials and infrastructure, religious and political scientific interference, not to mention a probably severely downgraded personal lifestyle too. It is just wishful thinking by the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.

May Ling
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