Bulog distributes cheap rice to poor in West, Central Java

Bulog distributes cheap rice to poor in West, Central Java

Nana Rukmana and Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu/Banyumas

The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) distributed low-cost
Vietnamese rice to more than 550,000 poor families in Indramayu,
West Java, and Banyumas in Central Java, on Tuesday to allay the
burden of skyrocketing prices of rice in the two provinces.

Thousands of local people selected from poor families formed
long lines outside outlets set up by Bulog's offices in the two
provinces.

Each family is permitted to purchase a maximum of 20 kilograms
under the plan.

The imported rice is sold at Rp 1,000 per kilogram.

The crisis in the two regencies over the last two weeks took
place when the price of local rice rose sharply to around Rp
3,000 from between Rp 1,500 and Rp 2,000 in normal times, due to
the widespread hoarding of rice and other basic commodities.

Many traders have suspended sales and left their stocks in
their storage places due to the government's plan to increase
fuel prices sometime this month. Other traders have also hoarded
their fuel stocks, causing a kerosene crisis.

The state-owned oil company Pertamina, in cooperation with
local police and attorney general's office, have confiscated
thousands of tons of hoarded kerosene in its operation in the
provinces' local market.

Itsutri Parwanto, deputy chief of Bulog's local office in
Banyumas, said he has registered a total of 333,500 poor people
in Banyumas, Banjarnegara, Cilacap and Purbalingga as eligible to
purchase the imported rice.

The policy, he said, was devised in part to solve the rice
crisis by forcing speculators to sell their hoarded stocks.

"Local people should not resort to unrest because of the rice
crisis," he said. "Bulog can handle it."

Banyumas Regent Aris Setiono said the local administration
would closely monitor the distribution of the discounted rice and
would take actions against any trader or profiteer discovered
taking advantages of the mass distribution.

"It is very unethical and immoral to take financial advantage
of poor people's suffering," he said.

In Cirebon, hundreds of local people staged a demonstration,
demanding Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim and National Police
Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar step down because of their institutions'
failure to handle the kerosene crisis.

The demonstrators, partly activists of local non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), staged their actions at the regency
legislative council, Cirebon City Police Headquarters and the
local Pertamina office.

The demonstrators also complained that the government's plan
to raise fuel prices has triggered significant jumps in the
prices of other basic commodities in the regency, and called on
President Megawati Soekarnoputri to replace Minister of Energy
and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

"Baihaki, Purnomo and Da'i are three men who must be held
responsible for the kerosene and rice crisis in the regency and
the other parts of the country," said an activist who coordinated
the demonstration.