by : HM Syarbani Haira *)
On one occasion, ULM intellectual, Prof. Dr. H. Hadin Muhjad, SH, MHum, expressed his concern. According to him, in terms of democracy, there has been extraordinary progress in this country. In particular, between the New Order era and the current reform era. If in the new order era, it was full of pressure, on the contrary, in the reform era now it is full of freedom. Press freedom is guaranteed. Freedom of expression continues. Political freedom is even a bit excessive. Civil society is even able to occupy space, which has never been owned before.
This dynamic has ushered in an unpredictable mass psychology. As a result, there are political leaders in government institutions, both those in the executive and legislative branches, who become an anomaly. This happens because political institutions, such as political parties, have not been able to carry out their duties and functions properly. Evidently, there are regional heads elected (executive), do not understand the duties and functions of their obligations. Mentioning the term job is still wrong.
This misguided condition, of course, can also spread to various other political leadership institutions, such as in the legislature. So it’s not strange if in practice, even when designing the development agenda, they often don’t really understand the issues of development. What do you want? As a result, even though the funds disbursed were quite large, due to a lack of understanding of the problem, the direction of development has not been able to overcome and at the same time take anticipatory steps, related to the interests and problems of development itself.
This misguided condition is of course not something that is encouraging. Whatever development is being carried out in this country, it should be intertwined with the changing times. Putting demographic change into perspective, like it or not, political leaders, both those in the legislature, especially those in the executive branch, must understand the starting point of the foundation and where the main direction of development must be implemented.
Demographic Change
Everywhere in the world, development is carried out solely for the benefit of the people, or demography. It is called that, because the step of development, in this case is to advance its human resources, which are related to economic, social, political, scientific and technological problems, as well as various other important aspects.
The current development policy, since 2023-2024, is of course different from the policy pursued by the country’s leaders at the beginning of reform, 1998-1999. Likewise with the situation at the beginning of the new order, 1965-1966, at that time the needs were also different. Especially when compared to the beginning of this country’s independence in 1945, there will definitely be far and many differences.
Today we have entered the 21st century. The century that experts call the era of globalization, the era of science and technology, the era of knowledge 4.0 and the human era 5.0. Not only that, we are also called to enter the melineal era. In this era, there is the term Y generation, as well as the Z generation designation
Demographically, as of last September 2020 (results of the BPS survey) the population of this country reached 270.20 million people. This means that there has been an increase in the population for 10 years by 32.56 million people (compared to the results of the 2010 survey).
Commenting on the results of the 2020 population survey, Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo, reminded political leaders, starting from the government (central and regional) to representatives of the people in parliament (also at the central and regional levels) to take breakthrough steps regarding this demographic change.
According to him, “the results of the 2020 population survey need to be considered by policy makers so that we can take advantage of the increase in population to maximize the potential for demographic bonuses through improving the quality of human resources (HR)”.
Political Leader Jobs
This demographic shift can be seen from the age group structure, where the productive age group aged 15 to 64 years dominates. The number even reaches 191.08 million people, or around 70.72% of the total population in this country. This situation far exceeds the previous tradition of population structure, where the age group 0 to 14 years lived 63.03 million people, or only 23.33%. Even for the age group of the elderly population, 65 years and over, which is now only 16.07 million people, or 5.95%.
The increase in the productive age group is of course very profitable for this country. Because if in previous years, the population dependency rate, either due to the factor of the large number of children under five or from the old age group, where they were before was still above 50%. Currently, that group’s figure is now only 41%.
The size of this productive age group is what is referred to as the “demographic bonus”. Why ? Because people who work, who make money, are bigger than those who are not productive.
The problem now is, not all age groups are all productive. This is something that must be well understood by those who are currently occupying important positions, as decision makers. They are in the executive, as well as in the legislature.
If they don’t understand, the demographic bonus that is currently sweeping Indonesia could be wasted. It means nothing to this country. The demographic bonus is nonsense. Therefore, the demographic bonus becomes homework for political leaders in this country
But if those who currently have the position of making interests, whose direction will optimize all potential demographic bonuses, of course this era can lead this country to become the 4th developed country in the world, when Indonesia enters the next Century in 2045, as many have predicted. world economists.
Given the urgency of this moment, the Indonesian people whose number has reached more than 270 million people, in tomorrow’s 2024 election which will be represented by around 200 million voters, should all of them vote for the leaders of this country, both executives and those in legislature, don’t get golput. Make it a success of the five annual events, legislative elections and regional head elections in this country, including the president and vice president.
Those who are elected should be people who have a brilliant and genuine vision and mission in advancing this country. If this is the case, then this equatorial country will truly become a developed country, in accordance with its demographic dynamics, which are now in the top 4 positions worldwide. Wallahu a’lam bissawab … !!!
*) Chairman of the Banjar Malay Rabithah, Founder of the NU University of South Kalimantan
