What I Hope to Hear from The Candidates of President of Indonesia

Last sunday (May, 24th, 2009), the large city dump in Bantar-gerbang area, just the outskirt of Jakarta, became the place, where Megawati Soekarnoputri (Democratic Party of Struggle/PDI-P) & Prabowo Subianto (the Greater Indonesia Movement/Gerindra), made their declaration for the July presidential election. And that last declaration, that completed the three candidates declaration, who will be the next president of the Indonesia?

Okey .. i will not discuss about the politic, not because i against the politic, but simply, because i don’t want to. Politic serves its own purpose. Instead, i am curious, because up until now, i havent heard from the three candidates, about the issue of environment. Well, not the ‘environment’ per se, but, do they have the understanding about how the complex the environment? In particular if the situation projected to the future; for instance, ‘the climate change’. We can not diminish the fact that the climate change is real, in anyway one perceive that. Well, there are many loose end on the environmental issue, and to tie the loose end is not the same as tying the shoe.

Nevertheless, i hope that they would say something about that. Why? Well, the country like Indonesia, which in the form of archipelagic, naturally vulnerable to effect of climate change, like the the rising sea levels. Dependency for agricultural products, which rely on the season variations. What if because of the changing pattern cause worsening droughts? More forest fires? On the other side, more eroding tropical storm? The never ending flood? Ironic, on one side there’s water shortages, but on the other, floods.

But, how important those issues? Okay, let’s say that, those are the projections about the future. True, but i hope we can prepare; it is not just the ecological disaster, it is the burden that should be carry by the country, because, ultimately the people will suffer, and certainly, the economic cost for health cost, biodiversity losses, and so on. How important that would be, there are numerous reports that the issue of climate change would be a serious problem for the countries in south east asian region. There are several way to deal with climate change, such as protecting the remaining tropical forest, better agriculutral management, flood control, early warning systems, protecting coastal mangroves, better forest management, etc.

But those only some aspects that (i hope) they should consider for their campaign. I hope they would say something, instead of wasting time on issue like this.

All in all, vox populi vox dei (?).