Home | Vol 17 Table of Contents | Previous Issues | Contact Us: 07 55278753 / 0405463663 | Email: judybyronbay@yahoo.com
In Memorium - La Rose
During 2003,
AIAA President and Poetry Co-ordinator Ibu Malia Ritaningsih organised an Indonesian
delegation to attend the Sydney Writers Festival. Included in the Delegation
were Indonesian poet Fatin Hamamah, Indonesian writer La Rose and Education
expert Ibu Faiqoh.
AIAA members have been very sad to hear of the death of Ibu La Rose late in 2003, after her return from Australia. We very much appreciated her attendance at the Sydney Writers Festival as she was in mourning at that time for her husband who had passed away during the week that La Rose was preparing to leave for her visit to Austrlaia.
Her dedication and profesionalism were evident in her decision to continue with the plans for her participation in the Festival. The delegation also visited Canberra and made school visits in Sydney. Many thanks also to Bpk Yudhi, Cultural and Education Attache at the Indonesian Embassy for supporting their stay in the ACT. Please see below some papers presented by Ibu La Rose and Ibu Faiqoh at the Festival.
‘Literature, Cultural and Philosophical Approach for a Better World.’ by La Rose
As we gather in this special event, my friends Fatin and Faiquo and myself choose to read, and speak about a culture consisting of poetry, philosophy (philosophy of teaching), or literature.
Is it not interesting to know why we chose poetry, literature, culture and philosophy instead of science and technology? Because it is not that science has provided us with the knowledge and the tools that has produced the modern industrial age? Is it not that we are calling for more and more young people to take up careers in science and engineering in order to keep pace with the advancement of other nations… Thus where does poetry fit into the picture? Or is it that poetry, philosophy, and literature is obsolete in the presence of a scientific age?
The Sciences study physical and social phenomena in order to arrive at an accurate picture of them. They try to describe how things behave. They may be concerned with the movement of the heavenly bodies, the inner workings of atoms, physiological processes, social movements, or human behavior.
Indeed science gives us power, it enables us to exercise a certain degree of mastery or control over the physical and social phenomena of the world in which we live. Another way of answering the question… science enables us to produce things applied by the engineer or the physician: it helps us to build bridges, roads, or restore health. And yet the same knowledge can also be used, as we know, to destroy things and to kill men… every day we read and watch the war machine.
Science gives us the power which can be used either constructively or destructively. It provides us with means which facilitate our pursuit of bad ends as well as good. Science itself is not morally neutral, that is, indifferent to the value of the ends for which the means are used, it is also totally unable to give us any moral direction, for it affords us no knowledge whatsoever of the order of goods and hierarchy of ends. So science must be supplemented by literature, poetry and its philosophy if the means that science gives us are used for worthwhile ends. And yet there are people today that think that poetry, literature, and philosophy is useless as compared with science, because it cannot be applied in the production of things or the control of means. And yet literature, poetry and its philosophy is useful in a quite different and superior way. Its utility or application is more directive, not technical or productive. Where science furnishes us with means we can see, philosophy directs us to the ends we should seek.
The conduct of human life and the organization of human society depend on our answer to such questions as to what happiness consists in, what our duties are, what constitutes the common good of our global society, what freedom men should have, and so on. Not one of these questions, or any question like them which involves right and wrong or good and bad can be answered by science, now or never.
Without the answer of these questions, we are adrift in a world without compass. As long as individual bark or ship of state has little power at its disposal, we may not be in great danger. But, as in this atomic age we can move at great speed and with great power, catastrophe threatens us at every turn if we do not know the right turn from the wrong. It is poetry, literature, education and its philosophy, not science that teaches us the difference between right and wrong and directs us to the goods that benefit our nature. Just as the productive utility of science from its accurate description of the way things behave, so the moral utility of poetry, literature and its philosophy derives from its profound understanding of the ultimate realities that underlie the phenomena which science studies.
Each kind of knowledge answers questions that the other cannot answer. And that is why each is useful in a different way.
It is literature, poetry and philosophy, not science, which should be uppermost in any culture or civilization. Simply because the questions it can answer are more important for human life. Surely the more science we possess, the more power we have, the more we need direction, compassion… and love… thank you very much for sharing with us…
La Rose, Indonesia delegation 2003
An Overview of Indonesian Education
"Before giving an overview of the current state of the Indonesian Education system, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Faiqoh, and I am the Director of Religious Education and Training Boarding School, the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
"It is important for you to know that the education in Indonesia is administered
by two ministries. They are the ministry of National Education and The Ministry
of Religious Affairs. I am in charge of the Religious Education and Traditional
Boarding School at the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The total number of institutions
dedicated to Religious education is 6.707 (six thousand and seven-hundred and
seven), which are attended by 664.329 (six hundred and sixty-four thousand and
three hundred and twenty-nine) students (santri). There are 12.783 (twelve thousand,
seven hundred and eighty-three) Traditional Boarding Schools all over Indonesia,
attended by 2.974.626 (two million, nine hundred and seventy-four, and six hundred
and twenty-six) students.
"The present quality of education in Indonesian schools is poor. As stated
by the United Nations Development Program on Human Development Report 2002
Indonesia's education system has been scaled 110 (one hundred and ten)
points below Vietnam's (which stands at 109). This is due to factors such as
the quality of teachers, student motivation, facilities, finances, and many
others.
"Many educational experts, (including the House of Representatives) said
that the poor quality of education stems from the lack of funding provided by
the Indonesian government. The government allocates only 6 to 7% of the total
budget to education, an amount barely sufficient to improve the quality of the
teachers, facilities such as laboratories, libraries, text-books for students,
and other supporting facilities.
"Another factor that may contribute to the poor quality of education
in Indonesia is the economic crisis, which has prevailed since 1997, and seems
not to end. The government still has difficulty to allocate enough of the budgets
for education, though the Poeople's Consultative Assembly has mandated the government
to allocate 20% of the budget for education.
"As stated above, I am in charge of the religious education and the traditional
boarding school, and would like to say that in general the quality of the religious
education and the traditional boarding school is lower compared to the schools
under the Ministry of National Education. Albeit they in some cases have the
same qualities or even better - but the number is still limited. This is because
all of the schools' needs have to be provided by communities or by the private
sector. For example: teachers (ustadz), financial, facilities, books and other
needs. The government only provides a little budget for the religious education
and the traditional boarding school. Consequently they have financial difficulties
- considering the money provided by the community is also limited.
"Another problem is the lack of students reading habitually, as most of
the students come from low economic backgrounds. Henceforth, their typically
unschooled or poorly educated parents do not have a strong motivation to encourage
their children to read. Contributing to the problem is the limited number of books available.
"For the reasons that I have mentioned above, I would like you to participate
in helping to solve our problem by providing a grant or a loan to improve our
schools in Indonesia. I am quite sure that if the religious education and the
traditional boarding school procure a sufficient budget, they will be able to
provide a better education for their children.
"Although both the religious education and traditional boarding school
have weaknesses on finance, they are independant in the management of their
schools, and have promptly applied the
community-based education and school-based management system."
Ibu Faiqoh, Indonesia delegation 2003