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)