Bali - Although East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) offer competitive natural resources, the two provinces still need to contend with several weighty obstacles -- namely poverty, corruption and education quality -- before they will catch up with big sister Bali, experts said Wednesday.
Activist Sarah Lery Mboeik cited one example: Widespread corruption among officials in poor NTT has choked off any opportunities for residents to get a proper education and basic health services. Sarah spoke at a seminar held by Kompas newspaper in Kuta, where she represented the NGO Pusat Initiatif dan Advokasi Rakyat (PIAR).
The seminar was held in conjunction with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the three provinces on Dec. 20, 1958.
The Supreme Audit Agency found the 1,967 alleged corruption incidents in NTT between 2003 and 2007 had cost the province an estimated Rp 50 billion (US$4.6 million). Roughly half of those incidents, only 1,080, have been investigated, leaving 887 unaddressed.
"Weak law enforcement has led to many instances of alleged corruption ending with the imprisonment of unimportant officials, not the main perpetrators. Indonesia Corruption Watch even found NTT was the sixth most corrupt province in the country in 2005," Sarah said.
NTT and NTB development is literally far behind Bali, even though the three provinces faced similar hurdles back in the 1950s when they were all equally lacking in technology and infrastructure.
An economist from Udayana University, Nyoman Erawan, said Bali had managed to improve its economic conditions faster than the neighboring provinces because the Balinese were able to develop agriculture and a manufacturing base as a strong foundation for the development of mass tourism.
"Without agriculture and industry, island tourism will not be able to grow simply because people will be too occupied tending to their daily needs," he said.
Another economist, from Mataram University, Prayitno Basuki, said agriculture in NTB actually showed promise because the central and northern parts of the province had fertile areas for rice, fruit and mahogany timber.
He said the province needed investment in downstream industry more than in upstream.
"Capital from upstream industries would mostly flow out of the province, creating disparity between the owners and the local workers. Whereas downstream industries would be more beneficial for residents because it creates more jobs," he said.
With regard to promising investments in plantation, he would recommend commodities, such as corn, mango, watermelon and rambutan, a tree fruit similar to a lychee.
The effort to improve the agricultural sector, he said, depends on gains in the quality of trained people. That is why the local government should invest more in vocational schools than in general schools, he said.
Another speaker, Lalu M. Yamin, said the big problem in developing NTB`s human resources lay in Sasak culture, which did not value hard work as a habit, and the fact that the Sasak always relied on instructions to work.
"An owner of the only mall in Mataram told me the quality of the work of one Balinese was equal to the quality of four Sasak workers," he said.
NTB Governor Zainul Majdi said at the seminar the province would focus on improving the agriculture and tourism sectors in 2009.
"The problem in the agriculture sector lies in the fact that many people who hold land titles utilize only a small part of their holdings. This is stingy because it means the rest of the lands cannot be accessed and utilized at a time when many people need it," he said.
Zainul said plans for an international airport in Lombok, whose construction will continue until September 2010, is expected to help boost mass tourism in NTB. Indah Setiawati
Source:
http://www.thejakartapost.com (December 11, 2008)