Decentralization jeopardizes policy
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.