In Reply to: I don't think so posted by Sargent on Wednesday, 10. November 2004 at 14:22 Bali Time:
Ok... so you were only referring to hardline repressive Islamic kingdoms.
Now... bringing this back to increasing education in modern, secular Indonesia... what has one to do with the other?
You may as well argue that increasing the education budget in the US will be pointless because it might go to schools in the biible belt where prayers are read every day and the teachers cannot teach evolution. Or it might go to the county that decided pi should equal exactly three, coz it's easier to do the maths that way.
Yes, if all the money goes to funding dumbasses, it will be wasted. But it has nothing to do with East vs West. It's to do with dumbasses vs intellegent people.
Since Indonesia is perpetually looking for people with specialist skills, such as engineers, and have manpower laws that make it a huge pain for foreigners to seek employment there, do you really think they are going to suppress education so that no Indonesian can develop such skills? When they are importing skilled labour and paying up to 50 times what they would be paying a local with the same skills?
Maybe... if SBY and his cabinet are all dumbasses. Otherwise, I think a 15 million dollar investment in education is a good thing.