Innovative Culture, Cultural Innovation
There are several causes why innovative inventions and innovative culture do not develop well in our country.
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History says that when Sumbawa’s Mount Tambora erupted in April 1815, its ash clouds spread all the way to European skies. In the following months, when it should have been summer, Europe instead experienced a long volcanic winter.
The European people did not know what had happened to change the climate, which was caused by sulphate aerosols from the Tambora eruption, suspended in the atmosphere and preventing the sun’s rays from penetrating to the surface of the earth. Many horses died because of a lack of hay, their main feed, because the grasses couldn’t grow without sunlight. These horses were used to pull carts, the major mode of transportation in Europe at the time.
From disaster to innovation
The Tambora eruption triggered the invention of the bicycle. A German man named Baron Karl von Drais came up with the idea of the bicycle as a replacement for horse-drawn carts. After several modifications, the bicycle was finally realized and was able to facilitate the movement of human beings. It is unbelievable that a volcanic eruption on an island in Nusantara (the archipelago) was the catalyst for a technological invention in the faraway European mainland. Meanwhile, in Nusantara, no technological advancement followed the Tambora eruption, which led to the disappearance of several tribes on Sumbawa and Lombok.
Of course, it is understandable as to why the European people have an innovative culture. They responded to the impact of disaster with an effort to create something new so they could go on with their lives. Without these new technological products, they would face difficulties. Here, in the archipelago, everything is always available: no horse will die, because grass continues to grow. Sunlight is available year-round. Horses and horse-drawn carts can continue to go on. Its natural wealth and favorable climate has made it easy for us to live in convenience, without any challenges.
In the years after that, the European people made a new invention: the telegram. When Mount Krakatau erupted violently in 1883, the news about the eruption was immediately known in the Netherlands, thanks to a telegram sent from Batavia. The European people have been diligent in researching and discovering innovations in science and technology. As a result, masterpieces in algorithms and technological products were born. Newton came out with his theory of gravity and laws of motion, Leibniz invented calculus, and many other inventions emerged in the fields of health and technology, such as vaccines and steam engines.
Meanwhile, our poets here were busy creating innovative works in the form of mocopat songs, gurindam and other literary works, which are more artistic than they are scientific or technological. It is possible that our talents lie more in the arts. It is therefore unsurprising that, in 1992, M Dorigo, a doctorate student from Italy, was inspired to invent his Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm in computer science after observing the behavior of ants, while four years earlier, the Godbless legendary rock group was inspired by ants to create its song, “Semut Hitam”. The same animal inspired the invention of an algorithm to solve combinatorial optimization problems as well as a rock song.
The culture to create innovations or, say, innovative culture, actually exists in our nation. We have a strong innovative culture in medicine. Many herbal remedies inherited from our ancestors originate from plants or animals. We have the expertise in curing muscular injuries or resetting broken bones with our particular massage technique. We have techniques to prevent rain with the power of our shamans. We also have the ketok magic experts who can repair the dents in cars quickly, and with satisfying results.
Unfortunately, these innovative inventions are rarely written down and taught en masse through educational institutions. The technical inheritance from our ancestors are frequently spread only by oral culture, and frequently have the air of being mystical, without any scientific proof that can be accepted rationally. Therefore, great works develop from generation to generation in a minimal and non-open fashion.
By the time President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo recently disclosed his restlessness in Surabaya, East Java, over the poor development of innovative culture, this was already an old story. However, we are grateful to have a leader who pays attention to innovation. In this era, innovation is key to the advancement of a nation. Forget for a moment about abundant natural resources and fertile lands.
Innovation inhibitors
There are several causes why innovative inventions and innovative culture do not develop well in our country.
First, our industry sector generally deals mostly with sales and assembly, not with making products. In an industry that focuses on sales and assembly, innovation is not a central need. Therefore, research and development as the tools of innovation are also unnecessary. Such an industry does not care about the inventions at universities and research institutions that could be developed into end products. It is better for them to open their doors to imports and sell them on a massive scale.
On the other hand, it is difficult for researchers to be concurrent producers and continue to develop their inventions into commercial products. A circle of businesses that focus more on following up on the researchers’ inventions is needed. If our industry is still dominated by this sales-and-assembly type, matching the industry with universities and research institutions will not work well. Their inventions will only end up in libraries or publications.
The government must give incentives to an industry that makes products, so that businesses are interested in cooperating with universities to conduct researches and make products from the resulting inventions. If the incentives do not make much difference, the government needs to issue regulations that force them to contribute to university research. Without this, the industry will not care about the universities’ researches. They prefer to rake in major profits without contributing to universities.
Second, is the marketing barrier. Perhaps researchers or investors in advanced countries are not worried about whether their discoveries can be marketed. In advanced countries, if there are new inventions that are difficult to sell, they can "utilize" world organizations, like the United Nations. For example, they can utilize the World Health Organization (WHO) to sell inventions in the field of health. For agricultural inventions, they can ”utilize” the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to sell; and there are still several more tricks like these. However, in our country, people still have to calculate, for example, if they developed new products, how they would market these. Developing countries are indeed less fortunate if they want to penetrate the foreign market. Marketing difficulties frequently make us afraid to develop new products.
Third, is our own attitude, which frequently underestimates the creations by our nation’s own children. It has to be admitted that this import-minded stance has not been wiped out. Pride in the products we produce remains low. If an invention by the nation’s children of is not perfect, its shortcomings are sought in detail, instead of supporting its pluses. One example is the Esemka vehicle, which did not pass the emission test. If this was true, then it should have been given facilities for improvement, and not hindrances. The same goes for the story of the electric car once driven by Dahlan Iskan.
Hindrances to innovation are usually carried at the regulatory and legal levels. There are still many Indonesian people who work not for the welfare of their nation, but as agents of foreign products instead. They think of profits and losses for themselves and their inner circles. People like this can be found in the House of Representatives or in the executive branch. They will block, as much as they can, those sectors that have the potential for penetration by domestic products. Innovations are frequently hindered by attitudes like this.
Fourth, is the regulation factor. Our regulations still walk slowly, and are sometimes not in line with the current developments of the time. President Jokowi said there were 42,000 such regulations, from state laws to mayoral regulations. These too many regulations also help hinder the birth of new, innovative inventions. When many changes have been made among the public as a result of technological advancement, our regulation is slow to respond. If a regulation is issued later, its contents are not conducive to a climate of innovative invention. This is paralleled with the slow pace of our bureaucracy.
Frequently, the above mentioned stories constitute the causes as to why innovative inventions do not develop here. Our culture tends not to support innovative works, except in the arts and culinary. Even if one emerges outside the arts, it is not scientific and cannot be spread massively and openly. If we want to compete in innovation, we have to choose the sector. If we want to innovate in science and technology, we need work harder, because other countries are also aggressively developing a variety of technological innovations. They realize that innovation constitutes the key to a nation’s development. If they want to win the competition, innovation is the key. Wealth in natural resources and fertile lands will not help much if these are not accompanied with innovative works.
Focus and cultural innovations
We can focus on developing innovative works in the fields where we excel, such as the arts, culinary and herbal medicines; for example, by aggressively promoting tourism based on cultural arts. The richness of our cultural arts supports this. The development of herbal medicines, organic foods, and the culinary industry constitute our other wealth. In this field, if we can make innovations, the potential in the domestic market is wide enough to move the economy. It remains to be seen how regulations would support this.
We also have to innovate in the cultural field, which is expected to produce new and more beneficial works, techniques and attitudes. Culture here does not necessarily deal only with the arts, traditions, age-old buildings, customary attire or cuisines. It is wider than that: that is, culture in governance, laws and politics.
The culture of serving and making something difficult appear easy has to be developed. The culture of “kalau bisa dipersulit kenapa dipermudah” (if it can be complicated, why make it simple) has to be abandoned. On the part of the government, we need to innovate in bureaucracy, licensing and laws. For example, the use of e-budgeting, e-procurement and e-government are of innovations that can speed up processes and, at the same time, eliminate the potential for leaks and corruption.
For other services, an online system needs to be developed to help cut down service times and help facilitate access to services. Innovation in the political field can be realized by innovative campaign methods, and by not making too many promises that do not make sense. Other innovations, for example, can be made in the recruitment of political party members and the House, and in the collection of party funds. Government and political innovations will have a great impact that will enable the birth of innovative works in many other fields.
BUDI SANTOSA
Industrial Engineering Professor and a Member of the Academic Board of ITS
