Indonesia is predicted to face many challenges in 2017. Moreover, the simultaneous election of regional leaders in more than 100 province and regency / city level regions makes 2017 a hot year for Indonesian political scene. It also indirectly affects regional policy patterns which also have an influence on the national level. Seeing reality as it is, KAGAMA, along with KOMPAS, organized a ‘Teras Kita’ National Discussion, titled “Indonesia Outlook 2017” on Friday (17/12) in the Faculty of Cultural Sciences Auditorium, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FIB UGM).
The event that made up the celebration of the 67th UGM and the 58th KAGAMA Anniversaries event series presented professional figures of diverse fields of expertise. Among these were macro-economic expert, Dr. Tony Prasetiantono. In Tony’s standpoint, the Indonesian economy in the next year will show positive trend. Although moving fairly slowly, Indonesian economy will grow at the rate from 5.1 to 5.2 percent. This is one of the impacts of the tax amnesty policy of President Joko Widodo.
“The economy of Indonesia in 2017 is predicted to grow from 5.1 to 5.2 percent. The increase in economic growth is due to the rising commodity prices caused by the rising world oil prices. To that end, the government is expected to maintain the momentum of tax amnesty repatriation fund as well as keeping the deficit of the Indonesian Budget fund,” he said.
On this occasion, Teras Kita also presented other speakers such as the FT (Faculty of Engineering) UGM disaster management expert, Prof. Ir. Dwikorita Karnawati, M.Sc., Ph.D., expert in political sociology and regional autonomy FISIPOL (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences) UGM, Dr. Arie Sudjito, and culturalism researcher of the UGM Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) Program, Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir.
From the social point, Dr. Zainal Abidin assessed that the impact of the current issue of diversity must be well-controlled by the government. In terms of law enforcement, the government must be firm to maintain the momentum of unity in Indonesia. “Law enforcement must be strict and indiscriminate, including small things that can pose as diversity threat if left unchecked,” he said.
Meanwhile from the political aspect, the 2017 regional leaders election momentum should be used as an effort of the community politics maturation. According to Arie Surjito, these two decades of Indonesian democracy benefit only for a few political elites. For him, the key to political success can’t be separated from the role of political parties. “The political parties must function as the democracy maturation motor, not just only showing political drama and power divisions,” he said.
From disaster prespective, Prof. Dwikorita Karnawati thinks that Indonesia, as a country with great disaster potential, must always be vigilant in the upcoming year. So, we need all elements of both government and community to be ready in order to avoid large losses. “What needs to be done is disaster risk mapping and its law enforcement, to avoid large loss during a natural disaster,” he said.
The event that was held at the Poerbatjaraka Building of the UGM Faculty of Cultural Sciences also enlivened by the presence of famous singer, Edo Kondologit, and keroncong artist, Endang Laras and Sukardi Rinakit, who brought national fairytale which emulated Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX.