Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

the government tried to shield the inter-race conflict
as what happened in other countries. The government
does not want any conflict between races to happen in
Malaysia, which can burden their development and
may result to the nation to falling apart. In this case,
the educational development become one important
key of general stability and also economic and health
development in.
The Happy and Healthy Families
One of the major visions on Health Development
which relate to child welfare is the vision towards the
creation of happy and healthy families leading to a
productive and enhanced quality life. To build a happy
and healthy family, the focus on reducing infant and
child morbidity and mortality was put into place.
One of the main objective of health development is
to provide comprehensive health care services for the
prevention of morbidity and mortality, especially for
the following groups: pregnant mothers and newborns,
infants and toddlers, school children, and children with
special needs.
Since Malaysia consists of Malays, Chinese, Indians,
Iban, Kadazan, Orang Asli, and other ethnic minorities,
the government tried to work hard in creating better
human quality, not only by educating the younger
generation, but more important is by producing better
“raw” material (children). In ensuring that the health
condition is better than before, there are several strategies
developed in the eight Malaysian Development Plan
(2001-2005) as follows:
• strengthening ante-natal, post-natal and peri-natal
care through the adoption of risk approach, districtteam
problem solving approach, safe motherhood
projects, maternal mortality reviews and setting up
of alternative birthing centers;
• strengthening infant and child care through the
high immunization coverage and the introduction
of early detection and intervention of child health
(growth and development);
• advocating schools to take up initiatives in promoting
health related activities;
• Intensifying breastfeeding promotion through
implementation of “Baby Friendly Initiative” in all
hospitals;
• Strengthening nutrition promotion through healthy
eating practices and development of healthy recipes;
• Strengthening primary health care with continuous
effort to upgrade the primary health care infrastructure,
equipment and support services, and the function
of family medicine specialists as team leader at the
THE EMPOWERING THE POOR AND VULNERABLE
341
primary health care level;
• Intensifying evaluation process of primary health
care services with the development of new quality
assurance indicators with new approaches measuring
process and outcome; and
• Strengthening information and communication
technology in primary health care settings with the
active involvement of health clinics in the related
ICT (information and communication technology)
initiatives.
It can be seen that health development program
conducted by the government are mostly related to
economic, education and technological development.
The same thing can also be seen in the “Vision 2020”
where there is no specific description on challenges
related to health issues. Most of the challenges faced
by Malaysian are related to economic, technology,
education and the importance of Malaysian norms
and values. Therefore, health development also will be
related to the challenges above.
DISCUSSIONS
When we talk about the influence of global changes
and the lessons which could be learned by Indonesia
from the experiences of the two countries, people
should remember the condition in Indonesia during
the monetary crisis. The monetary crisis that struck
Indonesia influenced nearly all aspects of the economy.
As an example, the exchange rate of 1 US Dollar on 2
June 1997 was around Rp2,465. (Kompas: 17 March
1998, 9) On 22 January 1998, 1 US Dollar was worth
around Rp17,000. (Gatra: 21 March 1998, 82)
The chart below shows the fluctuation of Rupiah to
the US Dollar. From Chart 1, the value of the Rupiah
compared to the US Dollar rapidly decreased in the
last four months (December-March). Related to the
depreciation of the value of Rupiah to US Dollar, the
inflation rate in January-February 1998 in Indonesia
increased rapidly compared to the rate in 1997. In
January-February 1997 the inflation rate was 5.29%
compared to the rate in January-February 1998 =
28.73%. (Kompas: 3 March 1998, 1) To provide a
brief description of the inflation rate in Indonesia, the
chart below compares the rate of inflation in 27 cities in
January-February 1997 and 1998.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows