I believe that as citizens of the world and of this diverse nation we share that one common goal which is to bridge the cultural divide and to build upon, and nurture sustainable relations that are mutually beneficial from Economic and Security standpoints. Quality leaders, and their leadership, developed by a quality education, who are able to empathize with their peers across the ocean, and who are able to pragmatically reach consensus through compromise, are the common denominators of this aspiration.


Social and Political Challenges:

For the Developing World, whether the authority is in the hands of one person or an elite group of individuals, the temptations of corruption that come with power are frequently the source of failure. The unjust rewards often feed the intransigence that keep us from changing the easy access to wealth and personal gain that come with political power. Attempts to curb the exploitation of systemic poverty, rent seeking policies and human rights abuses, will all fall on deaf ears unless there is sufficient depth and numbers within the ranks of responsible, smart and knowledgeable leaders firmly entrenched within the communities of these countries. Overcoming corruption, elitism and incompetence can only be accomplished by a depth of leadership equipped with the intellectual and moral strength to confront these conditions and survive the fight.

Televised images and occurrences of disaster and hunger lead donors towards the obligatory programs of disaster relief. Also, the attention to literacy, infant mortality and health, while noble in intent, fail to answer what it is that we have really achieved by having people able to read and live longer if we do not also provide them with the tangible hope that their lot would also be improved during their lifetimes?


Education is the key for strong leadership:

While each of us understands that Education is the single most important component to building vibrant economies and resilient democracies, it is unfortunate that the word “education” as applied to the emerging countries, is translated to include only literacy and support for existing systems of rote learning. What Indonesia lacks today is “analytical, knowledgeable and responsible leadership” rather than simply “education”.

For many reasons, our traditional higher education institutions, especially state-operated, have failed to deliver the needed and consistent supply of enlightened leaders who are intellectually, morally and ethically dedicated to the greater good of our society. Thankfully, several developed countries have provided opportunities for the small cadre of informed leaders and public servants we rely on.


Learning from the United States of America:

Our national journey in Indonesia should look to the experience of the United States. It was education that propelled the U.S. into a more egalitarian and prosperous society. The G.I. Bill most famously opened the path to opportunity for millions of Americans, and their children have risen to the highest points of leadership and productivity for the U.S. The role of grants, loans and scholarships with Federal, State and private support made meritocratic access to education a reality and gave the U.S. the creative and intellectual depth to weather the challenges of the modern world.

President Barack Obama epitomizes that success and methodology. His path to leadership was not through the “ole boy” network or exclusive clubs of America, but through personal desire and his ability to access educational opportunities based on merit. His journey to The White House was not through elite law firms or corporate offices but through working selflessly to improve life among the disadvantaged at the community level.


The Sampoerna Foundation & “leadership”:

Thus, whilst it is morally right to address the education needs of the masses as a whole, I sincerely believe that this country, with its vast population and resources, needs to supplement these efforts with a parallel initiative to produce (based on merit) as many quality leaders as it can – and as quickly as it can – so as to fast-track it towards it reaching its full potential.


It is because of these beliefs that the Foundation’s primary mission is now dedicated to the development of future leaders for Indonesia to meet the challenges of Global participation. We believe that our goal for education is to create thinkers and leaders with the moral integrity to break the cycles of poverty, ignorance and disease that many assistance programs have treated on an ad-hoc basis for the last 50 years. Sustainable solutions, we firmly believe, are only possible with the sustainable supply of altruistic but pragmatic leadership.

Leadership is the central pillar of our programs and the core of our syllabus. We know that leadership cannot be just a semester’s course in theory or techniques; it is a process that requires years of dedication and investment. We need to put a process in place where selected teenagers with potential from the lowest economic quintile are immersed into an environment where value-based learning is part of the curricula and wherein we can tirelessly cultivate and nurture responsible leadership qualities into our scholars. Although an expensive proposition, we strongly believe that the only way to achieve the above is to maintain these students in a boarded environment for their seven years of study – that is, 3 years of high school and 4 years of undergraduate studies. We need to include the Socratic and democratic methods of inquiry, compromise and consensus into our scholars and guide them away from zealotry and extremism without dampening their idealism or desire for a just and prosperous society.

Our goal is to graduate out of our system about 5,000 community leaders per year into all walks of life including private enterprise and public service. Based on our experience and expenditures over the last few years and our on-the-ground experience, we believe this is a reasonable goal. We cannot rely on the few self-paying students and the fortunate children of the economic elite if we hope to achieve the critical mass necessary to “tip” our society into change and transformation.

While on the surface it would seem pragmatic to simply use the existing universities abroad for all our needs, sending 5,000 of the crème-de-la-crème of Indonesia’s high school graduates abroad for undergraduate studies is financially out of the question. Consider the fact that at $50,000 per student per year, it would require $1 billion per year to sustain 20,000 students – that, is the equivalent of 2.5% of our country’s foreign reserves. Logically then, it would be a lot cheaper to bring a “microcosm” of these foreign university systems, protocols and faculty here to Indonesia.



The Foundation’s model:

The Sampoerna Foundation has over the past nine years, built a model based on our research and practical application, that we are confident will produce a level of leadership that has been heretofore unimagined in Indonesia. It is no doubt an ambitious plan but the process has begun successfully and we expect the system to generate a synergy that will produce quantum leaps in Indonesian educational quality and quantity.

The three integral components to our meritocratic model are the Preparatory Academies (advanced placement high schools), the establishment of a World Class University in Indonesia, and the seed capital necessary for the establishment of a Credit Union for our university scholars.

1. The Sampoerna Academies rigorously cull out of the top 5% of academically performing junior high school students those few who display leadership qualities in their disposition. These students will become fluent in the English language and would graduate with the equivalent of an I.B. (International Baccalaureate) or A-level (Cambridge) certification.
   
   
2. The Sampoerna University will be a world class university established to provide our academy scholars an opportunity to attain a four year undergraduate degree as they continue on their path of leadership development.
   
   
3. For our academy students, we are reliant on the private sector operating within the surrounding communities to support their schooling. We believe that all our university scholars should pay for their tertiary education. Cynicism aside, it is our opinion that a Student-Loans-Program provided by a self-revolving Credit Union fund will work for our university scholars because of the following factors:
   
   • The general acceptance of the basic principles of Syariah financing,
   • The value systems drilled into our academy students,
   • The expected low drop-out rate of these students, and,
   • The expected high absorption of our scholars into the job market.

Working our way around the adjacent diagram starting from the West and working around it in an anti-clockwise manner, you will see that our program connects top students from across the archipelago to our system of advanced preparatory academies. The Academy graduates will be a feeder system for the Sampoerna Foundation University. These students will be fluent in English and will be able to meet the standards of admission to any English speaking institution of higher learning in the world. You will note in the schematic that we expect our graduates to “give back” to society by contributing to the perpetuation of the cycle of educational and societal improvement.

Our model depends on interaction and exchange with other universities abroad. We need the teachers and the undergraduate exchange students to make our programs truly successful. It is our intention to reach out to you, and seek your support to help us build the bridges through existing avenues available and/or through any other private and governmental initiatives that may come up.


Conclusion:

We are all familiar with the saying that insanity is marked by repeating the same exercise over and over while expecting a different result. Unfortunately we see the revisions of programs which fail to produce the sustainable results or fundamental change. I believe we are at a remarkable point in the political life of our planet and certainly in the journey of this country. We have the opportunity to learn from and break with the programs of the past and set out on a new course towards the future. I request for your support and welcome you to work together with us in finding that future.


Putera Sampoerna
Jakarta, 5th September 2009