Overseas Students

When talking to most (not all, just most) Indonesian students taking their graduate degrees overseas, you can't help to be optimistic about Indonesia's future. These people talk about creating a better Indonesia in which everyone will prosper (which incidentally is part of the opening of Indonesia's constitution).

Whether through social changes, process changes, or through technological changes these people I've spoken to wants to contribute to change. One talks about changing education, one talks about changing the research setting, another one talks about changing the processes at Indonesia's civil servants. When every one starts to create these small changes, it will eventually add up to an improvement on life in Indonesia.

Of course, thinking about change and actually implementing change is two different things. So when you see us in Indonesia, and we're twiddling our thumbs, just sitting doing nothing, not contributing to change. Remind us of our pact.