Indonesia is one of the 189 signatory countries that have adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000. This adoption represents Indonesia’s commitment to establish the eight goals of MDGs which are reducing poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, TBC, and other infectious diseases, ensuring environment sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development by 2015. However the internal conflicts, the weak law supremacy, the poor bureaucracy, the global financial crisis, and the climate change since 2007, have raised new challenges before the policy maker or government achieves the goals. Consequently, there has been no significant progress accomplished for the last five years.
We can easily find out some indicators around us. The first indicator is that there are many people still live below the poverty line. 42% of the total 240 million populations are suffering from poverty and hunger. Let’s just think of how many beggars and homeless people we see in everyday life at almost every place we go. It is quite an irony if we take a look at the national constitution (UUD 1945, pasal 33) which stated that the government would take care of the poor and the excluded children.
The second indicator is that there are many children across the country have not been able to complete their elementary school. School dropout rate has reached 8.5%, meaning that the target of 9-year compulsory education program has not totally succeeded. A lot of schools and universities today are more business-oriented than service-oriented. They tend to earn more money by providing various special offers for students who can pay more, such as better facilities, better teachers, and some advanced education programs. Another point is that there is a big difference of education quality in the cities and in the rural areas. It has been a long debate over this matter since the government maintained the national test (UAN) as the basic standard of graduation.
The third indicator is that a lot of health problems still exist in this country. It is hard for underclass people to get a good health service because they do not have money to go to the doctor or to pay for the hospital. One of the serious problems is the high rate of maternal and child mortality. 40 babies die per 1000 births. The common causes are acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, meningitis, encephalitis, and birth complications. Meanwhile, one mother dies in every 65 births because of maternal complications during childbirth and pregnancy. Mothers are supposed to regularly see a specialist doctor or midwife for pregnancy check up, but many of them don’t because they cannot afford it, especially those who live in the poor regions. Another big problem is the growth and the spread of HIV/AIDS. This particular case relates to the issues of free sex and commercial sex practices. So far, the campaign of using condom when having a sexual contact has not really made a change. Until March 2007, nearly 8.988 cases of AIDS and 5.640 HIV cases are reported. It is estimated that more than one million Indonesian people will be infected by the end of 2010. I think what government should rather do is to provide more jobs, especially for women.
The last indicator is the increasing number of illegal logging and the natural resources exploitations. Besides that, I want to point out the trash problem. There are approximately 12 soccer fields-trash piled up every day in Jabotabek area in which the bad thing is that the trash relatively has not been thrown in the garbage. Indonesian people should be more aware of their littering habit. The government also has to be stricter about the environment policies just like the Singapore government.
Achieving the eight goals of MDGs by 2015 indeed is not an easy work. It requires distinct coordination, cooperation, and commitment from all stakeholders, especially government both local and national, civil society, academia, media, private sector, and donor community. If these groups can work together, it is never impossible to make a significant progress in the realization of the MDGs.
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