Indonesia’s education from the eyes of Satya Widya Yudha.

Agung Rino P. and Jean Tania
 Jakarta, 27 June 2013

 Satya Widya Yudha (51) is a member of DPR (House of Representative) in Indonesia for his first term since 2009 until 2014. He is part of the energy resource commission. Mr. Satya has been working in the energy industry for over 23 years as he was working for BP (British Petroleum). His vast knowledge in this business has led him to become one of Indonesia’s leading experts in energy and education. He has two children; which are now pursuing their Bachelor degree in Michigan (United States) and Manchester (England) respectively. Both of them are majoring in Economics.

 Mr. Satya has been working in different positions for BP and being stationed at different countries such as China, Vietnam, and England. These travels and working situations have allowed him to absorb the different cultures for efficiency in education. During the interview, he said that Indonesia still lack the proper education system to compete with other Asian nations.

 “My kids underwent a significant transition when we came back to Indonesia, as they are used to the International environment. As a result, I enrolled my kids into JIS (Jakarta International School) because it offers the same environment and network for my kids future.” Said Mr. Satya regarding the standard for education in Indonesia.

 His background suggests that he could be a director for P.T. Pertamina, however he still chooses to help the nation. This is a noble act and thought, as in the public’s eye, the members of DPR are mostly considered as people who are corrupters. Some also believe that these people do not necessarily represent the public’s interest. It is interesting to see that Indonesia is undergoing constant changes as it is still developing economically, educationally, and infrastructural.

 Mr Satya surprisingly does not only hold knowledge about energy resources but also has a very good point in Indonesia’s education level. Since he completed his Masters in London, he saw the limitations of Indonesian Scholars ability to compete with foreign Scholars; which according to him is one of the barriers why Indonesia’s education hardly can be compete internationally with other Universities.

 “The problem with Indonesia is language and the will to act. We are capable of producing journal entries of international standard. It is proven by our nation’s achievements in the science Olympiad and also the mathematic Olympiad. When I was doing my Masters, I was able to access journals from top universities like Harvard, MIT, and Oxford. If I were to order a book from America, it will arrive in less than two weeks via my University library.” Mr. Satya sharing his experience as a post graduate student.

 Mr. Satya was very adamant that his experiences teach him to be aware with international standards for education. He explained that China have developed into one of the leading Asian country in the field of economy and education. They have a university called Tsinghua University that has already existed in less than 50 years but it managed to be on the Top 50 list of World Universities. Whereas Indonesia has quite numbers of Universities that have existed more than 100 years but still cannot manage to get into the Top 400 list of World Universities. This achievement is quite remarkable considering the state of development in the world presently.

 Recently, Mr. Satya received an award ‘The Right Man On The Right Place” along with Jokowi, Roy Suryo, and Yusril Irza Mahendra. However according to Mr. Satya, this is just a token of appreciation not an achievement. The real achievement for him is being able to contribute to other people. When you contribute, it means that you are giving your best effort in whatever field of expertise you have. For him, helping Indonesia grow as a nation will be the highlight of his achievement. He said that he joined DPR to make his wish a reality. In order for him to contribute to the nation, he must obtain a vast amount of experiences so that he can bring his knowledge and use it to improve Indonesia in his field of expertise.

 His plans for the future after the current term is over are to try for a second term of election or go back to the energy industry. With his experience in the industry, it will seem reasonable that he would not have any issues finding a job anywhere in the world. If he were about to be re-elected for the second term, then he wants to contribute further towards Indonesia’s development. Mr Satya also explained that he does not want his children to follow in his footsteps because he thinks that they have the ability to succeed in their own and contribute using their own experiences in bringing Indonesia to achieve an international standard of reputation. And he substantially highlighted of how Indonesia should strive to think for the future.

 His message was “Indonesians need to act and contribute on an international level and compete with the world. That is how we can grow as a nation and stamp our place in the world map.”