Expert calls for scrapping of social safety net program

Expert calls for scrapping of social safety net program

JAKARTA (JP): A top official called for the immediate
termination of the government's social safety net program, saying
it was riddled with shortcomings as the result of being drawn up
in a time of panic and pessimism at the onset of the economic
crisis in 1997.

Mubyarto, a professor of economics at Gadjah Mada University
in Yogyakarta and an assistant to Coordinating Minister for
Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita, blasted the
program for failing to reach its intended targets.

"Most of the poverty alleviation projects were designed during
a time of panic and excessive pessimism because the government
thought that the crisis was going to be very bad," he said as
quoted by Antara on the sidelines of a discussion on poverty
alleviation.

"This (haste) led to the creation of mistaken policies,
including the social safety net program," he said.

Earlier, National Development Planning Board regional deputy
head Herman Haeruman said the widely criticized social safety net
program would soon resume. The government has allocated Rp 5.9
trillion for the 1999/2000 fiscal year to finance projects to
alleviate the impacts of the economic crisis.

Mubyarto said the government and international monetary bodies
acted with such haste to implement poverty alleviation programs
on the "mistaken projection" issued by the Central Bureau of
Statistics on the number of people who would fall below the
poverty line because of the economic crisis.

At the time, the bureau predicted the number of poor people in
Indonesia would reach 80 million, or 48 percent of the
population, he said.

"Everyone panicked, including the government, the World Bank
and the IMF," Mubyarto said. "They thought Indonesia was heading
toward doomsday."

He said one of the faults of the social safety net program was
the exclusion of the "old poor".

"The safety net was geared to respond only to those people who
became poor because of the crisis, while previous poverty
alleviation programs such as IDT (least developed villages) and
district expansion projects had not yet helped the poor."

He suggested a review of the safety net, in cooperation with
non-governmental organizations, to allow the program to address
the criticism and better reach its intended targets.

"If this cannot be done, the best alternative would be to
completely cancel the Rp 800 billion allocated for the program."

He said the social safety net program was an emergency measure
which had ceased to be necessary as soon as the economic crisis
eased, adding that in exchange for canceling the safety net,
long-term poverty alleviation projects such as IDT should
recommence.

"The government should by early 2000 resume long-term poverty
alleviation projects which were used in the past," he said.

Some non-governmental organizations, including the Urban Poor
Consortium (UPC), have criticized the social safety net program
not only because of poor planning and irregularities in its
implementation, but also because the program often served as a
mere charity. The UPC specifically called on international donors
not to disburse money for the safety net because the program had
been abused to further the political interests of certain groups.

Meanwhile, in the Central Java regency of Banjarnegara,
hundreds of poor farmers from Binorong village began digging up a
golf course near the Mrica hydropower plant on Tuesday to protest
the allegedly unfair compensation they received when their land
was appropriated for the construction of the plant and the golf
course.

The farmers said they had staged an earlier demonstration over
the 17-year-old land dispute at the local administration office
but were ignored.

One of the protesters, Sukarto, said residents were only given
Rp 2,000 per square meter in compensation for their land. "We
have been suffering because we cannot work any longer." (45/swe)