Asiri charity night

Asiri charity night

From Media Indonesia

I was one of the many present at the Asiri & Indonesian artists charity night held in the grand ballroom of Mulia Hotel, Senayan, Jakarta on March 13, 2000.

The Asiri chairman in his address that night pointed out that the money raised would be used to help refugees in Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara/Timor, as well as any other victims of natural disasters in Indonesia.

The charity night, with Tantowi Yahya and Titik Puspa as master of ceremonies, succeeded in raising quite a lot of disaster relief funds. If I'm not mistaken, approximately Rp 600 million.

Thanks to the skills of Tantowi Yahya and Titik Puspa, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso also gave his support by exempting the committee from paying entertainment tax.

The committee, though, has until now not publicized all the money it collected and how much of it has been channeled to refugees in Maluku, East Timor or Aceh. I need to hear something about the funds raised simply because I was in the audience that night.

I'm worried about the possibility that the charity night was abused in the interests of a group of people and the money raised was never given to those in need who have the right to it. I think the committee should be transparent in this particular case.

Now then that there so many disasters in Indonesia (earthquakes in Bengkulu, floods in Bogor, etc) and regions plagued with conflict and unrest like Aceh, Maluku, East Timor, and Sulawesi, where thousands of refugees are suffering, I'd like to suggest that the committee transfer the funds to the refugees through the office of the State Minister for Social Affairs or any other recommended agencies.

WENDA KURNIAWAN

Jakarta