INDONESIA has now become the fifth largest Asian economy and has occupied the 20th place in the international growth classification. Coal mining, investments in palm oil farms, auto and heavy machinery assembly plants and retail trade are the pillars of the Indonesian economy. Indonesia is now producing more millionaires than anywhere else including China, according to the reports of national wealth estimation and management.

The sales of German BMW cars went up by about 45 percent this year. The sales of all cars have gone up by 57 percent during the first half of this year, twofold the sales in China. The waiting list to receive a Lamborghini sport car has reached six months in Jakarta. Streets of the capital city are filled with luxurious German, Italian and American four-wheel drive vehicles.

The Indonesian industrial and agricultural sectors are rapidly expanding. The international auto and heavy machinery manufacturers are racing to set up production plants in Indonesia, and so are the agricultural and medical equipment manufacturers. With the rapid economic growth rate, the absorption of local manpower in a large number of jobs has likewise increased. The rapid growth of the middle class led to a great rise in the demand for housemaids with decent salaries and other rights guaranteed by local rules and regulations.

In order to attract more students, some schools and religious institutes started to introduce vocational training in its syllabuses. Laboratories, mechanical training workshops and computer programs are available at the schools and institutes that graduate the future generations of judges, imams and teachers of religious subjects. The schools started to feel they would become less attractive to students if they did not cope with the modern scientific and technological advancement.

Indonesia has begun to recover from the aftermath of President Suharto’s rule. Suharto ruled the country according to his own future vision, turning it into a haven for financial and administrative corrupts. He has also made his country one of the main exporters of housemaids to neighboring Asian countries and the Arab Gulf states.

Now, the GCC countries, Malaysia and Singapore have no alternative but to import housemaids from the Philippines, which is the remaining source for which the US America, Canada, Australia and Japan compete.

What does this mean for the GCC states? These countries should copy the Indonesian experiment. They should invest in productive education and in building their own technical and administrative manpower from their local resources and give them the salaries they deserve. The GCC countries should change their lifestyle so as to be able to serve themselves by themselves.

They should introduce wielding, mechanics and carpentry at all educational stages, starting from elementary schools and including the religious institutes. The GCC’s administrative and planning mentality should wash its brains with the water and soap of the modern sciences. They should abandon sectarianism, tribalism and all forms of racism. The GCC countries should also give up their arrogance and stop importing housemaids from outside.

Our GCC countries should expedite the administrative, educational and training modernization before they find themselves without any foreign manpower to provide them with water, electricity, medical care, cooking and cleaning services. We shake our heads with idiocy in front of TV channels that are replete with social and ethical poisons.

n Courtesy of Al-Jazirah newspaper