20 Years of Reform and the Efforts to Overcome Gaps

20 years of Reform Photos / Antara Photo Exhibition

Chairman of the Association of Strategic Socioeconomic Sector, Cadet Suroto said that disparities can be triggered from the implementation of the constant economic growth model. This model does not only create income gaps but also dependency. This is what happened during the New Order government.

"The New Order government was able to increase its political legitimacy by massively reducing the economic pressures from inflation up to 640 percent. Inflation fell by 11 percent and the growth reached 9.4 percent in the first five years of administration," Suroto said, as quoted by Antara News Agency on Monday, April 16th, 2018.

Since then, whatever the political situation in the country, the solution  would  and should always be  economic growth, and Indonesia was eventually trapped in constant economic growth. Suroto said the development that relies on constant economic growth will be highly vulnerable to deficits, and problems of poverty were only temporarily and partially addressed.

Therefore, development that is based on a constant economy should be avoided. The government should instead seek to build economic growth that aims at reducing income gaps between individuals, as well as inter-regional disparity and regional dependency on the central government. This can be achieved by encouraging regions to develop their self-reliance and  implementing development that  focus on the most outer regions.

Quoted from President.go.id, President Joko Widodo said that our joint effort to provide social justice for all Indonesians  must be strengthened  in the spirit of solidarity (gotong royong). The strong sense of self-reliance and the spirit of gotong royong  underpin the government effort to build social justice for all Indonesians.

“The spirit of self-reliance is what makes us highly motivated to improve asset redistribution and provide small businesses with capital," said President Jokowi, end of2017.

For example, the government has been massively building infrastructure: border gates, ports, roads, and railways,  to give added values to local products produced at village level or by SMEs. In addition, the President also believes that infrastructure does not only provide a solution to    economic problems, but  also unites and maintains the unity of the Indonesian nation.

“Equitable distribution of  infrastructure will provide a sense of  justice and   unity for all Indonesians," said Jokowi.

With the spirit to build Indonesia from the most outer areas and to bring the administration closer to the people to reduce gaps, the 2018  Indonesia Development Forum will be carried out. IDF 2018 builds on the previous IDF which took the theme of 'Fighting Inequality for Better Growth.' This year, the theme chosen is 'Pathways to Tackle Regional Disparities Across the Archipelago'.

Like before, IDF 2018 is a joint effort initiated by Bappenas and supported by the Australian Government through the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI) to find solutions through science-based, experiential, and fact-based development policies.

"IDF 2018 aims to encourage open dialogue on research and evidence related to priority development issues and policy options address it, explore opinions and insights from experts," said Deputy of regional development of the Ministry of National Development Planning, Rudy Soeprihadi Prawiradinata mid-May 2018.

Participants' ideas and inputs will constitute  the starting point of preparation for the Medium-Term Development Plan 2020-2024 and other strategic policies such as the Medium Term Investment Program Plan for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"Actually Bappenas already has a grand design for RPJMN, five years into the future. It's just that we want to capture input from the public that we may have missed out, "said Rudy.

And if a paper presented is later decided to be implemented, the producer of the idea will be involved in the relevant government program. The follow up of  IDF 2018  outcomes will demonstrate the collaboration between the government and society to address regional inequality in Indonesia.

This way, Indonesia Development Forum 2018 is expected to deliver what the reform that took place 20 years ago in Indonesia wished to achieve, which was to  increase security and economic independence to deliver equitable welfare for  all Indonesians, and this be achieved if we can managed to reduce optimally  the inter-individual and inter-regional gaps in the country.