Speech at Oklahoma St Univ, USA, March 25th, 2011

The Economist  as Politician

Dr Harry Azhar Azis

PhD from OSU in 2000 and now Co-Chairman of Committee XI (Financel and Banking Affairs) of

 the House of Representatives of the Republic  of Indonesia (DPR RI), March 25th, 2011,

 410 Ag Hall, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

Distinguished Professors and colleague students, and friends,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is a great honor to be here again and invited by Dr David M Henneberry, Interim Associate Vice-President of OSU, Dr Brian Adam and Dr Dan Tilley. I have to honestly says that Dr Henneberry, Dr Adam and Dr Tilley as my major adviser have been great Gurus for me when I was here as an OSU student. They and all other Professors at OSU had really taught me a great deal of knowledge as power to change the world for the betterment. This power of knowledge now helps me a lot in doing my job as a politician and legislature of the country. They are all parts of my destiny.

I come from a relatively low-income class of family, where my father only had an high school of education and my mother finished her middle school. we are a big family. I am the 6th son of 10 children from our parents. However, they always encouraged me to go thru higher level of education as high as I can pursue. For my parents to have a good education for their children are everything. Everything-else for a good life will follow after that. Now, i do the same things for my three-kids as my parents had taught me. I grew up until middle school in a small city called Tanjung Pinang located in a Bintan island, one from 5 big islands along with other 3000 small islands that since 2002 become the 30th province of Indonesia named the province of Riau Islands. Indonesia now has 33 provinces that consisted of 491 cities and regencies (kabupaten). These all 524 provinces, cities and kabupaten are called local governments. Local government consists of local administrations and local parliaments. Compared to the era before democracy, since 1999 these local governments are relatively more decentralized in political term. However, as the budget concern, about 44% of the provinces’ and 15% of the cities’ and regencies’ budgets are still come from central govornment’s budget. The rest comes from local tax revenues and levies such as tax on vehicles, properties and land-uses.

When I was still in stillwater, Indonesia has dramatically changed into a new era of democracy after the fall of President Soeharto regime on May 21st, 1998. Soeharto was the founding father of Golkar which is now called Partai Golkar, and which is sometimes called Golkar with new paradigm. The first democratic election was in  July 7, 1999, with 48 parties running for legislature seats.  In the 2004 general election, 10 parties won and shared the national parliament seats.  Although my party, Partai Golkar, had won the biggest numbers of seat (24%) in the 2004, this was down from 71% in the 1997 election while President Soeharto still in power. I got elected for the first time in 2004 and re-elected in the 2009 election, where the seats of the parliament increase from 550 (2004) to 560 (2009) because of inceased population and election districts. I represent district of Riau Islands in the National Parliaments and from Partai Golkar. Golkar is one of three big parties: Partai Demokrat (PD), Partai Golkar (PG) and Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (PDIP), that won in the 2009 election. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is from Partai Demokrat. PDIP had two presidents, Soekarno, one of the founding fathers of Indonesia (from 1945 to 1966) and Megawati Soekarnoputri (July 23, 2001 to October 24, 2004). Since its independence in 1945, Indonesia has produced six Presidents and many Primes Ministers during 1950s.

.It is not an easy entry to come to a politcal arena. As in bussiness environment, political area is more uncertainty. After graduating from Oklahoma State University in 2000, I started again my career as a profesor in many universities in Jakarta, including the University of Indonesia teaching master degree programs. I worked also as an economist at United States Agency for International Development (USAID) based in Jakarta from 2002 to 2003 and then also a member of the Constitution Commitee of The Indonesian National Assembly (MPR). Starting as a member of parliament in 2004, I was appointed by the party to be the member of Committe XI which is in charge for finance, banking, development planning and supervision for the national budget affairs. Because I am the only one among the party’s MPs that holds PhD degree from a US University and maybe because I was an activist during my university training in Indonesia (actually I was the President of the National Board of Muslim Student Movement-HMI from 1983-1986), from 2007 I was appointed to Co-Chairman of the Budget Committee of the Parliament then in 2009 become the Chairman of Budget Committee and then up to present Co-Chairman of Committe XI.

My background as an economist, of course, and thanks to OSU, benefits a lot to handle my daily jobs as the Member of Parliament. The country’s constitution mandated all of us who are in key positions of making laws and regulations to presribe all policies and allocate budget properly and fairly to all people so to increase the welfare of all people across the country. Indonesia economic growth has increased steady since the era of democracy. Control of morel people now to those elected persons, whether in government and/or in parliament, increases surprisingly. You do not need just popularity, but also a competency of providing regulation and budget spending to the immediate needs of the people you serve.

As an economist, I am so familiar with the term of efficiency, optimality and equilibirum with the constraints of the country’s resources. We have abundant of natural resources, but still lack of human skills and of economic infrastructures. We have to choose for what is called priority from one to the other policies and budget spendings. Reform in bureaucracy is now undertaken to be more poductive and friendly work to serve the country. About 20% of total budget are spent for the salary of  government officials (about 4.5 millions) across the country, but the productivity of these officials is only about half compared to the neighbor conutries. These figures are bigger for spending on the development of infrastructures and even spending on poverty programs. Our challenges is not only domestic but also global. For domestic needs such as the needs to increase economic infrastructures so economic transaction costs could be lower and mobility of people and goods and services increases as well. About 36% of total population (230 millions) are still under poverty level. Unemployment rate still big as almost 8%, but disgiused unemployment are bigger. From total labor force, for about 110 millions, about 67% of them are working in informal sectors, only 33% counted working in formal sectors. The pictures could be extended to many areas, regions and sectors. My main visions are to make all regulations and budget of the country to be more governance, more accountable and measurable for each policies and budget spendings.

I like to finish my speech so we will have time for discussion. Thank you.