From Prof Dermawan Wibisono (TI 84, lecturer of SBM ITB)
When awarded a scholarship to Australia in 1995, Indonesian students were put into 3 nights in a resident's house in a village to absorb the shock culture faced.
I am with my friends from Thailand to stay in Balarat, at the farm of an Ausie who lives husband and wife together wcode# headerith his only child. The extent of his ranch is about the Arcamanik sub-district, with the number of cows and sheep, hundreds, whose own pemlik do not know for sure, because it never counts and is difficult to ensure exact.
One afternoon I got into conversation with her only child in the long summer home yard, in Janauari 1995.
Aussie: "Why so many people form your country take a PhD and Master degree here?"
Me: "_Why not? Your country give a grant, not loan, for us? So you just finish your education at Diploma level, it's free for Aussie to take higher degree?
Aussie: "I do not need that degree, my goal is just to get a skill how to make our business broader. Now I am starting my own business to produce it, not to get any rubbish degree "
Twenty years later I was still pensive, trying to digest the phenomena that occur in this country. So many people are crazy about doctorates, professors, just like in the 1970s when many people are crazy about the nobility of RM, RP, GKRH.
And certainly the person who is trying to get the title is not too familiar with the substance contained in the title that is held. I once asked my supervisor in England over there for a while, while taking a PhD:
"Why do not you take a professor?" I asked naively to my supervisor who is not a professor yet his doctor cum laude and has guided 10 new doctors.
I immediately withdraw my right hand. She looked at my eyes sharply.
"Look," he said with a serious face:
"..Professor is not a status symbol or level in expertise, but professor is mentality, is a spirit, is a way of life, is a wisdom, so get it, is just the matter of time if you have ready for all requirements ... But have you prepared with the consequence of it? "
And my professor is faster, I get from my wise and wise counselor.
Contemplating the two events, the more I realized, that Indonesia has all the resources to advance, but mentality is the main obstacle.
Social sciences and social behavior are the most important thing in a study that should be done by people who have high IQ, EQ and SQ abilities. And unfortunately, it has long been believed here that exact science is more difficult than non exacta. And non-exacting entry requirements in Australia need IELTS 7.5 compared to engineering that only takes 6.0, inversely proportional to the one applied here. As a result, the country becomes chaotic because a lot of governing countries and governments are not people who have the ability to do so.
Where to begin to fix this?
Basic Education and Higher Education. Like Finland whose education is among the best in the world. The teachers there are honorable professions with sufficient self-fulfillment. So the teacher got from the best of class from educational level. So the Finnish population is almost 100% Master degree. Not obtained from second choice, third option, or rather than not working.
Seeing Kick Andy's event a few days ago: Nelson Tansu and Basuki, as guests of the invitation, are concrete examples, two qualified Indonesian experts working in USA and Sweden, and they are incorporated in 800 Indonesian experts recognized overseas and working abroad. This means Indonesia can, Indonesia has the ability. The problem is how to manage them in Indonesia environment? How we arrange them, how to make synergy between government, industry, university to bring Indonesia together to be world class?
See the management of a shambled government?
Do not bother to analyze with the integral folding of three things. Just look at one simple spec: the President's salary of 62.5 million and the salary of the minister 32.5 million compared to the salaries of directors of state-owned enterprises and financial institutions reaching more than 100 million per month, it is obvious, that determining the salary alone is not paying attention: range of responsibility , authority, impact to the Indonesian society, and so on, let alone determine the other. All the origin of copy paste from outside without seeing the essence it contains.
I reflect, remembering my talk with my dad when my graduation was 26 years ago. To him I expressed my intention to travel abroad, and what he answered:
"Do not go, if all the children of Indonesia yes