Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

342 SESSION V
Chart 1: The Fluctuation of Value of the Rupiah
and US Dollar.
Source: Kompas, 17 March 1998:9 and Gatra, 21
March 1998:82.
Chart 2: Comparison of the Percentage Rate of Inflation in
27 Indonesian Cities in January-February 1997 and 1998 .
Source: Kompas, 3 March 1998:1.
From Chart 2 above, it is not difficult to imagine the
difficulty of living in Indonesia in this period. Especially
when the price of sembilan bahan pokok = Sembako
(nine basic food materials i.e. rice, flour, cooking
oil, sugar, milk and eggs) increased dramatically. For
example, the price of 20 kilograms of the setra ramos
rice in mid-December was around Rp28,000; but in
mid-January 20 kilograms of the same rice cost around
Rp40,000. The price of one litre of fresh milk in mid-
December was around Rp3,700; and by mid-February,
the price had increased to around Rp6,400. The price of
1.8 kilograms of formula milk in late December 1997
was around Rp38,800 that increased to Rp77,200 by
February 1998. (Kompas: 4 March 1998, 9)
The irony of the increase in the price of Sembako, was that
there was no improvement in the salary of civil servants
and laborers. As a consequence, there were many people
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
forced to live below the poverty line. Moreover, in
this period of data collection (mid-September to mid-
March), the number of Pemutusan Hubungan Kerja =
PHK (discharged from a company) and the number of
unemployed increased. As an example, there were 16
banks in Indonesia which were liquidated in October
1997. If one bank had 2,000 employees, then following
the liquidations of 16 banks there were 32,000 people
who lost their jobs. The number of unemployed
increased in each development sector in Indonesia. As
a consequence of this long crisis, the number of street
children in Jakarta increased rapidly; that reached more
than 12,000 in December 1998 (Pos Kota: 8 December
1998, 2) In this situation, the child welfare condition
decreased rapidly because the government could not
manage the crisis as that of neighboring countries in
Southeast Asia and East Asia, such as Japan.
Japan Strategy in Dealing with Global Changes
The different levels of development in education and
health sectors are related to the status of both Japan and
Malaysia. For example, Japan as a developed country
adopts the welfare state concept because they have
a strong and stable economic condition compared to
Malaysia and Indonesia as developing countries.
The welfare state concept as mentioned by Deacon
(2002, 4) is “a society in which the government accepts
responsibility for ensuring that all its citizens receive
a minimum income, and have access to the highest
possible provision in the fields of health care, housing,
education and personal social services”. In relation to
this, the government created a system which ensures the
wealth of their society. However, the system which has
been developed for more than 50 years will face serious
challenge when the number of people in productive age
gradually decreases. When there is a trend to become an
“aging society”, the system which supports their welfare
through social insurance and social assistance should be
reconsidered. Therefore, the Angel Plan is one of the
solutions which will maintain the welfare of Japan’s
society.
As an example of how comprehensive health care services
for children in Japan, Chart 3 is one example in antenatal,
post-natal and peri-natal services at a glance. This
is only one part of the system built by the government to
ensure that children as human assets will always receive
good services since he/she is in the process of being a
human. There are many more services undertaken by
the government and non-government agencies in Japan
which is not covered in this paper.