Decentralization jeopardizes policy

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Everyone is deeply concerned about the poor human development index (HDI), drug abuse and the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS among school-aged children in the country, yet there is no institution tasked to lead a nationwide campaign to defuse the problems.

If the National Family Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN) maintained its former powers, it could coordinate the relevant government agencies and the private sector, including non- governmental organizations, to closely control population growth and help cope with population-related problems.

BKKN Secretary-General Lalu Sudarmadi said in the wake of the decentralization policy, the agency could no longer supervise and monitor how the family planning programs worked while most regional government heads did not pay adequate attention to population issues.

Many BKKBN offices in regencies and municipalities have suspended their services to the public because of the small budget allocation from the administrations while many of their skilled staffers have been moved to other agencies.

"Regional autonomy has cut off the link between BKKBN and its regional offices while the social problems related to population growth, drug abuse, HIV, poverty, youth and fertility are getting worse," Lalu said in a workshop on the decentralization of family planning programs here on Thursday.

He said the BKKBN had no intention of asking the government to reinstate the agency's powers.

"We are just issuing a warning that the family planning programs have been in limbo because of the poor implementation of the regional autonomy," he said.

Rozy Munir, chairman of the Center for Demographic Research at the University of Indonesia, warned of a possible population explosion in 2050 if the government failed to meet its current target of curbing the fertility rate to 2.1 by 2015.

He predicted that the country's population would jump to around 350 million in 2050 from the current 220 million unless poverty alleviation programs succeeded, education improved and the family planning program campaign was intensified.

Currently, Indonesia's annual population growth has reached around four million, the equivalent of Singapore's total population.

Munir also expressed deep concern about the country's poor HDI, which placed Indonesia 111th out of 177 countries surveyed by WHO last year.

Indonesia's infant mortality rate is the highest in ASEAN while 71 percent of its workforce are elementary and high school graduates or are uneducated and the per capita income dropped to US$700 per year from $1,000 because of the prolonged crisis, according to the WHO report.

Lalu and Munir agreed that the high prevalence of drug abuse and HIV among youths was a result of the increasing number of poor people.

According to the latest Central Statistics Bureau data, disadvantaged people made up 38 million of the country's population, but Lalu estimated the number had surpassed 45 million due to increasing number of people unemployed.

Munir suggested that BKKBN focus on programs to curb drug abuse and HIV/AIDS among young people.