With an estimated gross domestic product of over
US$11 billion and per capita income of $10,348 (based on purchasing power
parity) and ranked 34th in the Global Competitiveness Report of the World
Economic Forum, Indonesia is one of the most dynamic countries globally. But
Indonesia is facing a number of tough challenges: slow growth in mature
economies and thus important trading partners; pollution and ecological damage
through the fire-clearing of forests; resurgent geopolitical tensions
threatening stability in the South China Sea; the need to defend the country’s peaceful
Muslim tradition against radicalization; and the demand for further developing
its infrastructure to cope with a growing economy. These are structural
challenges that will stay with the country for some time.
As obvious as the challenges are,
the solutions are less clear. In the past you would have looked in the
legislatures, political parties or boardrooms for solutions. But despite a
newly elected president who is setting a positive contrast to Indonesia’s
political past, it will not be up to the government alone to address these
challenges. Instead, the critical resource to find solutions is a new
generation of leaders who have realized that the nature of leadership and power
is changing. This is good news for Indonesia and its booming youth. The new
power is more diverse, more female, more southern and more eastern. It has
shifted from the center to the edges. Social media has strengthened the ability
for diverse voices to be heard and to have impact. The number of Facebook users
in Indonesia is expected to rise above 70 million in 2015, making it the fourth
largest community worldwide on that platform alone.
And the speed with which change
moves from the edge to the center, wherever that may be, is ever-increasing.
According to a recent article in Harvard Business Review: “New power operates
differently, like a current. It is made by many. “It is open, participatory and
peer-driven. It uploads and it distributes. Like water or electricity, it’s
most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to
channel it.”The blindness to the changing character of leadership and power
should not be surprising. Periods of seismic change are always characterized by
volatility and uncertainty: the future has not yet emerged but the past is clearly
losing relevance, strength and power.
In my work with the Forum’s New
Champions Communities, I see the next generation rising to the global
challenges that clearly recognizes this shift in power and, with passionate
intensity, they are disrupting their organizations before the tide of change
washes them away.A wonderful example of this hands-on approach is the work of
Social Entrepreneur Tri Mumpuni in rural Indonesia. She recognized that energy
access is critical for community development. Her organization is partnering
with rural communities that have abundant water resources to construct
micro-hydro plants to produce electricity.
Veronica Colondam, an active
alumnus of our Young Global Leaders community (YGL), works with young people by
promoting a healthy lifestyle, education and economic empowerment. What she
started with her Foundation YCAB (“Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa”) in Indonesia has
since been applied to young people in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar and is
a great example of how our young communities are combining local impact with
global reach.
According to our recent survey of
Global Shapers (our community of leaders under 30 that is now stretching across
400 cities worldwide), the issue of social and economic inequality is seen as
the most important challenge for their generation to solve. While current
leaders may think about reforming education or government initiatives, the more
than 4,500 members of the Global Shapers Community use new-power
entrepreneurial collaboration to achieve momentum quickly and make an impact.
Indonesia is a good example of
how a new generation of young and diverse leaders is surging ahead with fresh
and dynamic solutions to global and regional challenges. As business and
political leaders gather in Jakarta on April 19-21 for the World Economic Forum
on East Asia the new generation of Indonesian leaders are expected to make
themselves heard loud and clear, thereby providing these new-power voices the
influence on the national, regional and global challenges they deserve.
David Aikman, Geneva is managing
director at the World Economic Forum and head of its New Champions Communities.
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