Opening Address by

H.E. Mr S. Wiryono
Ambassador for Indonesia to Australia

At the ANU Indonesia Update
Coombs Lecture Theatre. ANU, 23 August 1996

Professor Hal Hill
Fellow speakers
Ladies and Gentlemen

Before anything else, I would like to thank Professor Hal Hill for inviting me to address this 13th annual ANU Indonesia Update, a forum which traditionally assesses various aspects of life in Indonesia, including political, economic, security and other specific developments of the previous year. May I also take this opportunity to congratulate the ANU on its 50th Anniversary. As you know, it was only last week that Indonesia celebrated its 51" Anniversary - which means that the ANU and Indonesia have grown up together and it is therefore altogether appropriate that they should take a great interest in each other.

Over the years, the ANU Update has provided insightful and valuable contributions to the study of Indonesia. It has promoted better understanding in Australia of its neighbour to the near North, which seems to be always an enigma. As former Prime Minister, Paul Keating has said, "...Australians fail to understand Indonesia in all its complexity That might have been stated in terms that are too absolute but I feel there is some degree of truth in it.

As the theme for this year's Update is Population and Human Resources. I should like to share with you some background on this topic as well as a few thoughts on Australian-Indonesian relations.

Among the many things that have been achieved in the course of Indonesia's national development, none have been considered more important than improvements in the quality of life, education and employment opportunities of its citizens. Certainly none has been more dramatic than the drop in the percentage of the population living below the poverty line from 70 percent two and a half decades ago to a little over 13.5 percent today.

From the early days of the Republic, Indonesia's leadership realised that a steadily broadening education base and sound health practices were necessary foundations for modem nationhood. While nation building was the primary focus of the nation's leadership's efforts at that time before the advent of the New Order, during the past 25 years the Government endeavoured to strengthen the economic and social foundations of Indonesian society in order to maintain and strengthen national cohesiveness. It has been our experience, however that whenever a problem is resolved, new challenges arise in its place. There will always be those second-guessing the Government's system of priorities. Whatever policy the Government adopts, there will always be those who gain more and those who will be less fortunate.

Naturally, those who are left behind have a tendency to complain and even become impatient. Not only are these processes of nation building, economic. development and democratisation replete with pitfalls - they also exact a social and political cost that many developing nations cannot afford, but sometimes cannot avoid. Indonesia is fortunate that by following a policy of maintaining political stability, promoting economic growth as well as equity, it has so far been able to surmount these challenges, albeit not without the occasional hiccough.

The Indonesian Government is constantly identifying areas that have to be addressed in order to ensure steady social and economic development. Always of high priority are measures towards the eventual eradication of poverty among the so-called "left-behind communities", both in the cities and in the villages. For this purpose, the Indonesian Government has mustered massive resources to provide quality health care as well as expanded educational opportunities and training to improve the quality of the country's human resources which is absolutely necessary for further development. This creates a new pressure on the Government; for those who have acquired an education now clamour for an appropriate place in the economic development process and this is not always possible. What needs to be done is to not only improve the quality of human resources, but also match these human resources with the requirements of economic development. This is one aspect of population planning that the Government is now giving more attention to.

All our endeavours at development have been guided by a basic philosophy which is often enunciated by President Soeharto, the Trilogy of Development. The three elements in this Trilogy are Stability, Economic Growth, and Equitable Sharing of the Fruits and Responsibility for Economic Growth. There has to be stability for economic growth to be possible; there has to be economic growth so that there will be fruits of development available for sharing out, and the sharing of the fruits of development as well as the responsibility for it has to be equitable - so that the people's common sense of social justice is satisfied and thus stability is maintained. The Trilogy works like a spiral and its three mutually-reinforcing elements are regarded with equal importance.

When we in Indonesia speak of stability therefore, we do not mean imposed or enforced stability, but one that is based on the strength, resilience and creativity of the nation. To maintain that kind of stability, we must see to it that more and more Indonesians share in the responsibility for and the fruits of development. This means wider and more intensive participation 'm the decision-making processes which affect their lives and their future so that they acquire and maintain a sense of control over their own destiny. In a word, democratisation.

This we are determined to achieve, not at a pace that is dictated by external influences, nor as demanded by a vocal minority in the country, but one that is comfortable to a majority of our people. I am confident that it will be achieved - for the experience of many nations has been that as people attain prosperity, as the middle class grows and the people no longer have to worry about their day-to-day basic needs, they tend to grow more politically active. We just have to make sure, however, that political activism is neither a mask nor an excuse for anarchy and gross irresponsibility.

Meanwhile, through a national policy that has dedicated every means available both to increase national wealth and to ensure its equitable distribution, poverty is being systematically eradicated in Indonesia. World Bank statistics indicate that Indonesia has demonstrated the highest annual reduction in the incidence of poverty over the past two decades. Some 25 years ago, the population of Indonesia was 145 million, 70 percent of whom lived under the poverty line. Today the population of Indonesia has increased to 195 million but the percentage of population living below the poverty line has dropped sharply to 13.5 percent. This is no less that a two-thirds reduction of the incidence of poverty - but what makes it particularly impressive is that a large part of Indonesia's poor started at levels close to the subsistence level. As people rise above the poverty line, they are on their way to joining the middle class. This means that we are now developing a broader, stronger middle class. The American economist Edwin Mills once observed that Indonesia's middle class "...is stronger than that in many countries in its stage of development, but fairly typical of Southeast Asian societies. The benefits of such rapid growth are not shared equally in any society, but all major groups have benefited greatly (in Indonesia)".

In relation to health services,' the Government continues to upgrade hospitals and other public health facilities all over the country and to establish new ones where needed. Through these medical and health facilities, most Indonesians now have access to basic medical care, immunisation and vaccination, treatment of common diseases and nutritional guidance. During the past decade, the number of medical professionals in Indonesia has more or less doubled.

In the field of education, Indonesia's highest priorities today include the expansion of the educational system, particularly at the junior and senior elementary levels, and the upgrading of its teaching staffs, keeping in mind the requirements of economic growth and the realities of the job market. As a result of the Government's determined endeavours in education. the national literacy rate has greatly increased during the past two decades. University enrolments have also grown rapidly and the Government predicts that by the year 2000, each year, some 3.9 million students will be earning college degrees.

In the early 1990s a key concern among Government planners and private businesspeople has been how the country could train a sufficient number of 'skilled workers to meet the growing requirements of the rapidly growing economy. They knew that if the country could not provide the employee skills at a. quantity and quality that matched demand. there would be a tremendous loss in terms of economic opportunities and competitiveness in the international market on which much of Indonesia's prosperity depends.

In response to this challenge, Indonesia's policy-makers have begun to redefine the role of Government in education: No longer would it serve as the sole provider of education but would now also assume the role of catalyst for training programs initiated and maintained by the private sector. So we now have a situation where an array of increasingly sophisticated skills-training programmes are being developed by the private sector and more imaginative and focused programmes are being developed by the Government. Once these advanced and refined social infrastructures are firmly in place,' Indonesia should be well on its way to acquiring a work force that is more capable of meeting the challenge of global competition.

New jobs created for some 15 million workers during the past decade have been the result of policies of sound economic management, leading to robust economic growth. Such growth indeed has been described as

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especially marked by rapid job creation in the manufacturing and service industries. Also emblematic is the increasing importance of private enterprise - as distinguished from government or state-owned enterprises. The private sector has now truly become the engine of economic growth and as such the chief provider of new jobs. Over the past two decades, we have seen a greater number of women enter the work force. rises in the level of the minimum wage and a general improvement in labour conditions. The labour laws of Indonesia are now being codified in conformity with ILO standards in order to ensure that the rights of labourers are exercised and respected.

Although the achievements of Indonesia in economic development have sometimes been described as "miraculous we have no illusions that we have solved all our problems. We know, for instance, that some 25 million Indonesians still live below the poverty line, that we have to watch our current accounts deficit and our external debt level carefully. We know only too well that Indonesia has indefatigable detractors waging a relentless propaganda campaign against the country in international circles. It is therefore vital to Indonesia that it is perceived for what it actually is, rather than as it is variously and simplistically imagined by both detractors and friends.

Indonesian society is complex enough to start with: we are 195 million people living in an archipelago of 17,000 islands, with more than 300 ethnic groupings speaking more than 200 different languages. Apart from that we are also trying to achieve two objectives which at least at the beginning, could and often do contradict each other: economic development and democratisation. Indeed these twin objectives have been subjects of continuing debate which will I suppose go on for a long time. One view, propounded by former Prime Minister and now Senior Minister Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore, is that democratisation should not be a priority in a developing country, as discipline rather than democracy, is what is needed to achieve economic growth and social progress. A contending view, held by Madame Aung Sang Suu Kyi of Myanmar, is that the length of time it took Western countries to achieve democratisation should not be used as a valid reason for Asian countries to be slow in its implementation within their own countries.

Indonesia has chosen to take the middle path towards democratisation, as we are aware of the complexity of the effort in realising these twin objectives. If an observer takes into account the complexity of Indonesian society and the complexity of what we are trying to achieve, perhaps a less judgemental view might emerge from our friends and neighbours. Certainly, over-simplifications and stereotypes shed no light and will not help bring about mutual understanding and goodwill.

As to Indonesia's relationship with Australia, it has often been said that no other two countries could be so geographically close to each other and yet be so vastly different from each other. This I do not dispute, for we differ in our historical experiences, in our political system, and in our cultures and social structure, as well as in many other ways. And although we are neighbours, we do not really know each other very well, a state of affairs which I feel needs rectification. This feeling is shared by many Australians, many of whom have gone beyond merely lamenting it to doing something about it, by going to Indonesia and investing there or simply enjoying themselves there. In this respect, the role played by the Australia-Indonesia Institute, and the soon to be announced Indonesia-Australia Institute in Jakarta, is very important in contributing to the promotion of mutual understanding. The organising of the visit of Australian editors to Indonesia a few months ago, is an example of a useful and constructive activity initiated by and involving Australians who desire to strengthen our existing bilateral ties.

Australian economic interest in Indonesia has over the years grown tremendously and can be seen from the fact that last year alone, the investment flow from Australia to Indonesia amounted to A$3.7 billion involving 38 projects, thereby making Australia the ninth largest investor in Indonesia. The number of tourists from each country visiting the other has been constantly on the increase and there appears to be a growing number of Australians who have finally realised that Indonesia has a great deal more to offer for the wholesome enjoyment of the traveller than the beaches of Bali. The number of Indonesian students choosing to study in Australia is continually growing. At any one time there are some 15.000 Indonesian students enrolled at various educational institutions all over Australia. In addition, I am pleased and impressed by the enthusiastic effort among Australian schools - primary and secondary, as well as tertiary institutions - to teach Bahasa Indonesia. To me. this bespeaks a keen desire to promote the relationship between our two countries and educate students so that any remaining barriers of ignorance can be broken down.

On the other hand. Indonesians feel a growing need to know and understand Australia better. In this, it has been of great help that there are a growing number of literary publications on Australia now circulating in Indonesia. The translation of these reading materials into Bahasa Indonesia has been initiated but needs to be expanded.

What is important is that we should not let the differentiations between our two countries become obstacles in the growth and flourishing of a mutually beneficial relationship. The differences between our systems, our cultures and our respective situations are real and are not easy to bridge, but it may rightly be pointed out that these differences are precisely the ingredients for a synergistic relationship, an effective partnership for economic and social development, as well as a sharing of responsibility for the maintenance of regional peace, security and stability.

Indonesia is a country in transition: economically, it is moving towards industrialisation, politically it is moving towards greater democratisation. And the nation-building process goes on. We are, of course, already a nation but, given our problems and our aspirations, not yet the nation we wish to become.

Indeed, after almost 30 years of rapid economic development and 6 Five-Year Plans which have brought the Indonesian economy to the take-off stage, and with the rise of a new generation that experienced neither the throes of revolution nor the upheaval of the mid-60s, Indonesia would seem to be entering a new era. Both forces of continuity and the forces of change are interacting in Indonesia and their interaction should be managed in a creative and constructive way if the future of Indonesia is to be more secure. To be able to do so, we need to share the objective observations and the useful insights that can be provided by solicitous friends such as the ANU. That is why it is very important for me. as Indonesia's Ambassador to Australia, to be here listening to and exchanging views with you.

Let me also say this in conclusion: my country is grateful for the attention, patience and understanding, as well as cooperation extended to it by its friends and neighbours. It is also eager to prove that it is worth all that attention, patience, understanding and cooperation, not only by reciprocating bilaterally but, most importantly, by contributing as much as it can to regional and global peace, stability and equitably shared prosperity. That is the constitutional mandate of the Government of Indonesia. That is also the sentiment of the Indonesian man in the street.

Thank you.