A full and absolutely fascinating 24 hours in Jakarta. Indonesia is a large and complex country still in a challenging transition from a long period of dictatorship into the world’s largest Islamic democracy. We go straight from the airport into a business meeting addressed by the Indonesian Trade Minister, UK Trade Minister Lord Green, and the Prime Minister. These speeches make it clear that the UK has not really penetrated the emerging markets of Indonesia as successfully as it has other markets in the ASEAN region and that there is much potential for future growth. This applies as much to higher education as it does to other sectors and we explore opportunities at a British Council organised roundtable for the remainder of the afternoon.
To be frank, this discussion lacked focus, possibly reflecting the rather random group of Indonesian HE institutions present, and the late organisation of the event. There were some important take away messages – the UK has a very small share of the HE market in Indonesia, attracting less than 1000 students a year (compared with more than 20,000 who go to Singapore). We are viewed as a high quality system, but expensive, demanding high English language competency, and having an unsympathetic visa system. It was clear that there was a lack of information and some misinformation that had led to this rather negative view. As with any other market, improving our position will need a sustained and coordinated effort from UK agencies such as the British Council as well as individual universities. From Southampton’s perspective I noted that there is a great need for capacity building in higher education, we learned that among the hundreds of Indonesian universities less than 12% of academic staff have PhD’s and that there is a great appetite for upgrading within Indonesia.
The evening saw us descend on the Presidential Palace for a formal State dinner. By this time news of the Indian Ocean earthquake and threat of tsunami has reached us and hung over the event. President Susilo Bambang Yudhono (or SBY as he is affectionately known) and David Cameron make respectful and sensitive speeches, with the President able to inform us of the emergency response in Aceh, and the declining threat of a tsunami. A quirky highlight of the evening was the performance of a song on the protection of the environment – “Save the World” – composed by the Indonesian President. It was very good, though someone somewhat disrespectfully suggested that we would do well to enter it into the Eurovision song contest! There was a general consensus that we didn’t want our Prime Minister to follow suit in this side-line of national leadership.
A benefit of joining these tours comes from the incidental meetings. During the many “informal networking sessions” (there is a lot of hanging about waiting for the PM and Ministers on these delegations) I had an interesting chat with the Chairman of Arup, Philip Dilley, about our potential participation in a British led bid to contribute to reconstruction efforts in Libya, particularly in health care training; I heard from the Regional Directorof BAE Systems, Alan Garwood, on their reasoning for relocating their SE Asia HQ to Malaysia, presenting us with an opportunity to extend our existing relationship to our new campus; and had a fascinating chat with the Chief Executive of the English Premier League, Richard Scudamore about our joint concerns with the current visa system in the UK (a message I passed on to David Willetts in a late night discussion in the bar).
For me, the highlight of this leg of the trip was to join the Prime Minister together with the small group of HE colleagues for his speech at the Al Hazhar Islamic University in Jakarta early on Thursday morning. It was a powerful speech advocating the virtues of democracy, and the threats to democracy posed by authoritarian governments, by corruption, and by religious extremism. Given the context in which he delivered the speech – to a large group of students at an Islamic University it was a particularly strong message on what he referred to as the “poison” of Islamic extremism, and a strong plea to the next generation of leaders to build on the foundations of democracy already established in Indonesia. Judging by the comments of the students we spoke to after the speech, it was very well received, especially the messages about religious tolerance and extremism, though many remain deeply sceptical about corruption in Indonesia. If you have 10 minutes the speech is worth a read.
One benefit of travelling with the PM is that the roads are closed for his convoy and we were taken directly to the airport in 15 minutes on a journey that might normally take over an hour. By 9:30 we were on board our plane and ready for take-off to Malaysia.