Organised by the Indonesian Student’s Association of Australia: sub-branch at the Australian National University (ANU) together with the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, the former Vice President Jusuf Kalla visited Canberra on 10 June 2010. At the ANU, he gave a public lecture on “Recent Economic and Political Developments in Indonesia.” Peppered with humour, his presentation warmed the 160 person of audience in a cold Canberra winter’s day.
Discussing about Indonesia as a democracy, Kalla argued that democracy for Indonesia is not an objective; it is rather a means to achieve welfare as its objective. The problem that the Indonesian Government should address is how to achieve welfare in a democratic way.
Being wealthy through democracy is now the name of the game. Indonesia still has many problems but they have offered opportunities to change and to reform itself. While the process of reformation is still ongoing, the government should aim at promoting economic growth with equality. For 60 years, Indonesia has experienced 15 big conflicts within the country in which the sources of the conflicts were Ideology for 3 conflicts and Equality for the other 12 conflicts. Hence, equality is indeed an important factor for achieving economic growth.
Being wealthy through democracy is now the name of the game. Indonesia still has many problems but they have offered opportunities to change and to reform itself. While the process of reformation is still ongoing, the government should aim at promoting economic growth with equality. For 60 years, Indonesia has experienced 15 big conflicts within the country in which the sources of the conflicts were Ideology for 3 conflicts and Equality for the other 12 conflicts. Hence, equality is indeed an important factor for achieving economic growth.
A question and answer session was held after his very entertaining presentation; including an interesting question about the difficulty in bringing peace into the Indonesian Papua. Kalla informed the audience that Papua and West Papua Province contribute around 1.7 billion US$ of its natural resources per year to the government and the government subsidies the provinces around US$2.9 billion per year.
It means that the Indonesian Government has tried its best to improve the prosperity of the people of the Indonesian Papua. Moreover, these provinces have received its status of special autonomy in 2001, through the Law of Papua Special Autonomy no. 21 / 2001. This law gives much bigger power to the people of Papua to govern their own province and to receive much larger funds for their provinces’ development so that the people can improve their lives.
Responding to a question about key challenges that may confront Indonesia in the future, Kalla mentioned four important sectors that should be prioritized by the Indonesian Government, namely: infrastructure, the banking system, energy and the bureaucracy.
During his two-day visit to Canberra, Jusuf Kalla was also interviewed by ABC TV, Canberra’s Multicultural Service Radio and the Sydney Morning Herald. In the evening, Jusuf Kalla and his delegation was invited by the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia and Vanuatu, H.E. Primo Alui Joelianto to have dinner with the Australian-Indonesian Business Council (AIBC), the Indonesian Student’s Association of Australia-ANU and the Embassy’s staff. The dinner was very intimate and is expected to bring the business and people links between Australia and Indonesia to a higher plane. (Source: Indonesian Embassy in Canberra)