Indonesia then.........

GOING HOME

Anton Alimin


Every four years I go ‘home’ to Indonesian to see how my country is doing. The last time I went back was in 1989. Since then I have been bombarded by the media in the West about how Indonesia handles issues such as human rights, political freedom and standard of living.

Before I left Australia a few friends said, ‘You will get lost in a Jakarta!’ Oh yes, how could I get lost in a city where I spent most of my childhood and part of my adult life?

I landed in Jakarta and straight away the climate of development seemed to be everywhere. Taxis from the ordinary to limousine. In the city, many huge office buildings along Jalan Thamrin with lots of luxury cars on the road. They were right, I could get lost in this city. Jakarta has changed so much in only four years!

‘Gee, Jakarta looks like any big city in the world.’ But then I asked myself, ‘What about people in other smaller cities and other islands in Indonesia? Do they enjoy and feel the result of Pembangunan (development)?’

Then I started my ‘fact-finding mission’ on development in Indonesia. Padang, Pekanbaru, up to Ujung Pandang and back to Jakarta, Sumedang, Yogya, Blitar, by all kinds of transport from speed boat, bus, canoe to walking. And I went to one of the smallest islands of Sumatera, with a population of 2,000. The people on the island seem happier and dress better. The streets and roads are asphalt. Therefore, the development is not only in Jakarta but is also in small villages and on outer islands.

According to the World Bank, in two decades the proportion of people living in abject poverty has dropped from 60 % to 15 %. So the issue now is not whether Soeharto’s government has done something to improve the standard of living of the majority of the people or not but whether is has paid enough attention to human rights and to equality in the distribution of wealth.

One thing is certain. Something which was unthinkable five or ten years a go is happening now. For example the government is not so uptight about people demonstrating in the streets. Demonstrations are weekly events. A recently published book called Primadosa questioned ‘the role of Soeharto’ in the 1965 coup. The book is banned but the author is still free! Therefore the process of democratisation is ‘rolling’.

Indonesia has moved from an impoverished backwater to an economically influential country in the region with an average annual growth of six percent since the mid 1980s.

In the next thirty years, Indonesia might catch up with Australian economically. So when my plane took off from Ngurah Rai airport something strange stuck in my mind. ‘I am going home’, and I am going to tell all my housemates and friends to buy Australian products to help the Australian economy, starting with the simplest things in the house which are toilet paper, sugar, coffee!