A novel way to reduce govt debt

A novel way to reduce govt debt

From Koran Tempo

Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dorojatun Kuntjoro
hinted on SCTV on Tuesday evening that it would take a long time
for Indonesia to emerge from the economic crisis.

In the dialog, he said Indonesia could not pay the huge debts
in a relatively short time. Unless I am mistaken, Indonesia has
as much as US$237.6 billion in offshore loans and Rp 650 trillion
in domestic loans to pay, a striking amount indeed! But, what
surprises us is that the government and our economists seem to
have differences about how to settle the debts.

After watching the dialog, I suddenly remembered a method
known and adopted by the Minang (West Sumatran) people, the Rp
1,000 drive to settle monetary problems.

To ease the government's and our future generation's burdens
in paying the debts, perhaps we might as well adopt such a
method.

If 200 million people in Indonesia are willing to give Rp 1000
to the country every month, there will be a considerable amount
of money collected.

To make the program a success, the active participation of the
print and mass media is absolutely necessary.

ULFAN RAHMAD, Bekasi, West Java