Think about the way democracy
system works in our country, and you will find an interesting fact that most of
the time, no matter what you have done for this nation and our society, either it’s bad or it’s
good, it won’t affect your right to vote.
Those who pay taxes and those who
don’t, have the same equal weight to vote in the system. Those who committed
corruptions and those who don’t, also have the same equal weight to vote. And
the list will keep growing if you continue to do the comparisons.
Then when you look at from
education perspective, you can easily come to conclusion that the fate of
people having higher education is much likely determined by the decisions of
those who are not lucky enough to have the same level of education. To give you the
fact, by the end of 2016, only 34.27% of our 15-year old and above population
having access, or once had the access, to senior high school and universities. Now add
up the fact that in general, we all have the equal right to vote. This means
that the other 65.73% who don't have access to senior high school and universities will have the chance to determine the fate of the whole population by
the end of 2018. By the way, 16.6% of those don't even have the access to elementary school.
You can apply the same logic to see the other domains, and you
will end up finding the same pattern.
This inequality, particularly in
the education domain which interest me the most, has been creating a lot
of conflicts in our country, by which the symptoms usually show up only when
there are big political events, e.g., presidential elections. Ironically, those
who think they are smarter than the
others consistently raise up their complaints and point their fingers on them
without giving any solutions. It just keeps happening, consistently and
periodically, every time there is a big political event.
Have you ever paused for a moment
and think, imagine if you have never had a chance to get a good education, that
no one ever taught you how to think logically, do you think you will not end up
doing what those whom you blame and patronize are doing?
I do agree that this complex
problem is not just because of education inequality, but I am convinced that
this is one of the fundamental issues that causes this complex problem in our
society.
But I think we can do something together to reduce
this inequality. I am imagining to work with a group of people who
have the passion and the heart to provide better access for our fellow countrymen
for higher education.
What I envision is simple, and this
is not new in this universe:
"Imagine there is a trusted entity,
empowered with simple, robust, and trusted systems and processes, that enables
anyone in Indonesia to virtually support unfortunate Indonesian children to get
access to higher education."
The implementation can be very
broad. This can cover from supporting financially, emotionally, or even
spiritually. We can work with existing non-profit organizations having access
to those unfortunate Indonesian children while we provide the systems,
processes, expertise, and networks. The key success factor will be our capability to scale it so
that more people can provide the support and more children can get the support.
I am currently working on the idea
with a good friend of mine, Reuben. And I am looking for more partners to join
us. You don’t need to be full time here, both I and my friend also have our daily
business and job. But we need to be committed to deliver the result, and remember that we are not building a
for-profit organization. It will require our sacrifices, but I am convinced that
it’s going to be worth it. If you have the passion and the mind, please contact
me via Facebook messenger or mobile phone.
Let’s do one small thing that might
make a big difference for our nation.
