The Indonesian Institute (TII)

Mission

1.  To promote a better Indonesia: United, democratic and prosperous

2.  To provide concise analysis about Indonesia’s current and future challenges.

3.  To assist Indonesians in understanding the global nature of the world today.

4.  To empower the less unfortunate Indonesian people, particularly the young generations

In realizing the mission, TII is launching a campaign called:  Mindset Enhancement Campaign

Mindset Enhancement Campaign

This campaign is aimed at improving the mindset of the Indonesian people particularly that of the Indonesia’s young generations. We are motivated by the fact that, as Serle (1983) wrote in Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind, attitude and action, good or bad, are manufactured in the mind. By drawing conclusion to a broader context, a nation’ prosperity, unity and security are largely determined by its people’s quality of mindset.

Mindset enhancement campaign (MEC) consists of two complementary programs. The first is idea dissemination and the other is practical initiatives. The ideas dissemination program focuses on dissemination of objective and fair analysis and information about domestic and global issues. As the saying goes garbage in garbage out, bias and destructive analysis and information -- flowing massively online and offline around the world these days -- implanted in one’s mind will likely produce a bias and destructive attitude.  Providing inspiring messages and human-centered analysis is another focus on this idea dissemination program.

The practical initiatives include activities such as organizing public debates, establishing and promoting social discussion groups and helping local governments/communities in initiating public festivals that can bring communities together.

Presently, MEC is focused on equipping the Indonesians, particularly the young generations, for the 2004 general election due to the following reason.

The 2004 election

While the 1999 election was regarded the first democratic election in the history of the nation during the post Old Order era, the 2004 general election will be a decisive momentum whether democracy can develop in Indonesia or not.  Although a democratic and relatively peaceful process may occur during the pre and the post election, given the current social and political developments, there is a strong tendency that violence may arise.

The essence of democracy is the right to be different and the test for the future of democracy is a fair, honest and a qualitatively good election. These two fundamental tenets of democracy are still relatively new to most Indonesians. And the current political development has done little to help the mass to grasp and comprehend the two tenets. No better, political parties have yet to show constructive ways in educating the mass – by promoting objective, peaceful and stimulating debates for instance. On the contrary, political parties seem to resort to unproductive ways, such as exploiting symbols and people’s emotion to gain votes. Rather than uniting people, such practices tend to segregate people. Rather than promoting security, they tend to instigate violence. Rather than addressing and exploring solutions to the problems, the practices tend to divert the real issues faced by the nation.

We do not want the Indonesian people, in particular the young generations, to become the pawns of the irresponsible (political) leaders that could push the youngsters to commit violence for political purposes. It is then imperative to educate people about the nation’s current and future challenges constantly and objectively so that they will stick to substances, not group symbols – such as race, ethnicity and religion - and think about solutions not creating more problems.

We do that by

-    Providing online analysis and information about the nation’s current and future challenges. (Program #1)

-    Organizing live debates and discussions. (Program #2)

-    Printing offline two-to-four-page bulletin about the above issues and distributing them to high schools, colleges, universities, public libraries, youth groups and communities around the country. (Program #3)

-    Publishing and distributing our book entitled Indonesia’s Agenda: Unity, Security and Democracy.  (Program #4)

Program #1:   Providing online analysis and information about the nation’s current and future challenges.

The goal is to become an online center of Indonesian source for balanced and objective analyses as well as for mindset-enhancing writings.

This program is done continuously. Besides providing analysis and information about the nation’s current and future challenges, this program simultaneously facilitate Indonesians in expressing their ideas about the nation’s future. Thus far, the program has successfully produced many concise analyses that have grasped Indonesians’ attention from around the world. For instance, analyses such as Terrorism and Our Future, Searching for Good Politicians, Improving Our Nation’s Image from Within, Educational Bill and the Real Mess in Our Education System have widely been commented by Indonesians.  In addition, the program also has attracted some Indonesians to contribute their ideas and experiences in promoting their nation.

As we grow, we are expecting that by the end of 2003, there will be about 10 Indonesians who will contribute their ideas actively and more than 10 individuals who will participate irregularly.  By the end of July 2004, the numbers are expected to grow to 15 and 20 and the numbers of readers are expected to reach thousands daily.  In addition, the numbers of analyses – examined from many aspects – are expected to reach about 360 a year, enabling TII – with external financial support – to compile, publish and distribute the analyses to Indonesian society at a low cost.

Program #2:   Organizing live debates and discussions.

The goal is to promote and foster critical thinking and mutually respectful debates among Indonesians

Peaceful, productive and mutually respectful debates are the cornerstone of democracy. This cornerstone must be developed through out the country. The essence of debate is the right to have different opinion on a certain topic. We therefore view the promotion of debates as a fundamental step of our mission in promoting a democratic Indonesia.

We will begin the program by organizing a debate in Jakarta in the fourth week of October 2003. The contestants are restricted to the young Indonesian people with the age of 17-40. Through out the program year, we plan to organize 4 debates as follow.

October 2003      : A debate primarily intended for the people in Jakarta and its surroundings

January 2003     : A debate primarily intended for the people in the East Java and its surroundings

April 2004          : A national debate: pre-election

June/July 2004  : A national debate : post-election

Simultaneously, we will organize monthly routine discussions on actual topics faced by the nation. Besides developing the awareness of the Indonesians of their nation’ challenges and stimulating their critical thinking to examine and explore solutions to the challenges, the routine discussions also will foster close connection among people from different backgrounds.

Program #3:   Printing offline two-to-four-page bulletin and distributing them to various organizations and communities around the country.  

The goal is to get our united, democratic and mindset-enhancing messages across the nation.

This is a step-by-step work. First, TII will focus around Jakarta and then expand to other regions. The basic message of the bulletin is democracy, unity and study. It is intended to fill the gap that is being created by our mass media which do not effectively perform their function as a medium for social and political education to the Indonesian people.

The program starts at the fourth week of September 2003 and continues on a monthly basis.

Program #4:   Publishing and distributing a book entitled Agenda for Unity: Building a Value-based Nation. 

The book is being completed and expected to be published in October 2003 around the commemoration day of “Sumpah Pemuda” (Youth Pledge Day). As the title indicates, the book explores new paradigms and approaches in building national unity.

Schedules 

Resources

It is an axiom that anything valuable is costly. Our campaign is not without cost. The following is the estimate moderate cost of the campaign for the program year of July 2003 to July 2004

 Support Our Campaign

If you are interested in supporting us, please contact us at:

Feedback to Donors

Every two month, donors will be updated – via mail and the internet – of the campaign progress. And all progress of the campaign will also be posted on the Institute’s website.

 June 21, 2003