As a form of cooperation with the Embassy of Norway, Department of Political Sciences and Government, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of UGM held a comparative research activities related to power, democracy and welfare in some countries that last for two weeks. In the program entitled Power and Welfare and Democracy in Indonesia, the Department of Political Sciences and Government researchers visited several Asian countries, such as India, the Philippines and South Korea.
According to Wawan Mas'udi, S.I.P., M.PP., Secretary of the Department, the comparative research beginning May 24, 2010 is aimed to find the real experiences of the countries that are visited related to the management of democracy and welfare. It has become common knowledge that the practices of democracy in Indonesia during the last decade have not been able to bring people to the expected standard of welfare.
"We expect to learn from these countries to find new inspirations in managing a democratic welfare," he said at the UGM campus, Tuesday (8/6), explaining about the visit. He said that during the visit to India, the UGM team was led by Dr. Purwo Santoso M.A., with members Novadona Bayo, Willy Purna Samadhi, A.A.G.N Ari Dwipayana, and Debi Prabawati. In its activities, the team focused the observation on the area which is considered to be an icon of the social movement, namely Kerala. In this area, the team conducted numerous interviews and observations with several social circles. In India, the team managed to find some forms of interesting democratic system. "It's how the participatory process in policy development turns out to be an important element for the formation of a prosperous democracy," he explained.
While in the Philippines, the team learned much about the various cases in the country associated with the institutionalization of social movement that eventually became a political movement. The team was led by Cornelis Lay, and members: Nanang Indra Kurniawan, Bayu Dardias, Eric Hiariej, and Miftah Adhi Ikhsanto. "In Manila, the team managed to meet selected activists from the labor unions, academics, NGOs, cooperatives, and urban poor," he explained.
Their findings were more complete after they conducted research in South Korea. In this Ginseng country, they managed to explore various important aspects related to the industrialization process and the setting of welfare system foundation. In this country, the team, consisting of Prof. Dr. Pratikno, M.Soc.Sc. accompanied by Wawan Mas'udi, A.E. Priyono, Hasrul Hanif and Abdul Gaffar Karim, managed to solicit the opinions from religious leaders, prominent academics at several universities, such as at the Hankuk, Sogang, Yonsei, and Dongguk universities. In addition, the team also managed to solicit the opinions of several leading NGOs which became an important resource in this study. Through a comparative study within the program of Power, Welfare, and Democracy in Indonesia, Wawan Mas'udi hoped to find a variety of problems, inspiration, and the potential development for a prosperous democracy in Indonesia. "In the end, this great project will be able to build a shared awareness among the various political players to encourage change in Indonesia," he concluded.