Crisis ruins poor people's dreams

The crisis has shattered many people's dream, and it seems that there is no sign that it will be over soon. The Jakarta Post visited the home of some of the poorest people in different areas of Indonesia to see their real life situation, and talked with experts on the efforts to cope with the problems.

JAKARTA (JP): Dengsi, 27, healthy and fit, had every reason to dream of a brighter future before Indonesia was beleaguered by serious economic turmoil in the middle of l997.

He worked in a rattan furniture company at Makassar Industrial Estate, Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, the eastern industrial gateway to Indonesia, earning enough money to live with his wife and their two children.

Now, the graduate of a senior economic high school must be satisfied with a low-paying job as a laborer in a chocolate manufacturing factory at the same industrial site. He takes home a daily allowance of between Rp 5,000 (75 U.S. cents) and Rp 7,000, enough to buy one kilogram of rice (Rp 3,000), salted fish and vegetables for his wife and two children.

"I am still lucky to find this job, although I work only four days a week. We have to swallow our pride and tighten our belts," sighed Dengsi, a resident of Tallo, a slum area in Ujungpandang.

Dengsi is one of Indonesia's millions of impoverished citizens who cannot afford to buy adequate rice, cooking oil and other basic necessities, whose prices have gone up threefold since the middle of last year.

Since July l997, Asia's wrenching economic catastrophe has shaken the lives of millions within the region in diverse ways. Indonesia has, so far, been the biggest victim.

The United Nations recently announced that 100 million Indonesians will have trouble affording, or even procuring, food in the foreseeable future.

An estimated 80 percent of the country's private firms are technically bankrupt. The Indonesian government has admitted that the number of unemployed soared to 20 million by the end of l998, compared with 4 million in l997.

Since Indonesia's economy has taken a hard fall, no stratum of society has escaped the pain. The population of more than 200 million has seen its per capita income drop from US$1,200 to $300 almost overnight.

An economic miracle with its sometimes double digit growth, experienced by many Indonesians in the last two decades, has melted into misery for million people across the country, and now they are only able to helplessly watch as things get worse all the time.

If the above statistics are difficult to digest, then consider the sad tales of the poorest communities across the country.

"There is no need to complain. I just accept the situation," said Sarweni, wife of an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, in her tiny and blackened kitchen in a Central Jakarta slum.

Having meals twice a day is a miracle for this family of five. There were times when she and her husband ate just once a day to provide more food for their children.

There is a lot of unhappiness and suffering that may be too much to bear. Hundreds of poor and hungry people have taken over golf courses and are planting crops such as cassava and corn. In many provinces, they have raided shrimp ponds, stealing the catch.

In the Gunungkidul area, one of the poorest places in Central Java, hundreds of families cannot afford to buy anything anymore, including tap water.

Poverty is not new to the Gunungkidul community. "But this time, everything is really out of control," said Sudiyono helplessly.

Most of Gunungkidul's strong adults who left for jobs in the more prospering cities are back now. Unlike previous years, when the homecoming fathers brought delicious food and new clothes and shoes for their families to celebrate the Ramadhan fasting month and Idul Fitri holidays, this year is not a happy one. Many of them are mentally stressed, jobless and penniless.

Each family is now quite happy to eat tiwul, a dried cassava stew, to break their fasts.

Do not ask how many malnourished children and adults there are, or the number of school dropouts in most of these poverty- stricken areas. Why is this thing happening? Why are we seeing these heartbreaking pictures again? Is the government not doing its job?

Government

Of course, the government has tried hard to help its poor citizens. Since Indonesia's economy tumbled, a lot of effort has been made to ease people's hardship and also to prevent any social discontent from exploding fiercely.

During this emergency period, basic commodities like rice, sugar and cooking oil have been sold cheaply or handed out free to the needy people. Cheap lunch boxes were also provided for poor labors and unemployed people.

As recommended by the International Monetary Fund and other international donor agencies, the Indonesian government has set aside about Rp 18 trillion ($2.4 billion) in funds to carry out social safety net program for the l998/l999 fiscal year.

The National Development Planning Board has allocated the fund to create more jobs and to provide adequate food stocks for the nation. The program is intended to provide needy people with easy access to education, medication and other public facilities. It is also aimed at empowering the people's economic system.

Knowing that funds for helping the poor are prone to various depravities, President B.J. Habibie has appointed the respected Mar'ie Muhammad, former minister of finance, to chair the board, in charge of implementing and monitoring the program.

Several figures with high integrity, like Prof. Mubyarto from Yogyakarta's University of Gadjah Mada, and Prof. Sayogyo from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, are also involved in designing the program.

Mubyarto explained that the social safety net would be prioritized to support victims of the current economic crisis, newly unemployed workers, poor communities, students, traders and farmers.

The government has set aside funds to help the agriculture sector to boost the country's food and crop production. It also provides assistance for students who do not have money to continue their studies.

"It is a crash program to help the majority of Indonesians who are in deep trouble," he said.

Many people have lodged cynical views on the program, saying it is just a "stealing start" effort to gain sympathy from the people. Some of them said the program was "money politics" to obtain votes in the coming general election.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare/Poverty Eradication Haryono Suyono denied the accusations, saying "the program is a sincere and pure effort from the government to help the suffering people."

There is no doubt that the government has done a lot of work. But is it effective?

Siti Oemijati Djajanegara, a poverty expert from the University of Indonesia's Demographic Institute, said the program served merely as a "vitamin" rather than the best remedy to cure the deepening poverty problem.

"You can't possibly conclude that the worst is over after implementing this social safety net scheme. The Indonesian crisis is woven by a lot of threads," she said.

There might be a prolonged depression if social, political and economic reforms are not enacted swiftly, firmly and consistently.

It is pathetic that things cannot be improved as quickly as they turned bad. (team)