Food supply for elections 'sufficient'

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Food and Horticulture A.M. Saefuddin said on Wednesday the food supply ahead of and during the upcoming June 7 general election would be adequate to meet demand.

Saefuddin said rice stocks held by the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) were sufficient to meet demand during the campaign and election periods.

"Our rice harvest in the recent harvest season was also very good. I think there won't be any shortage of foodstuffs during the (election) period," he said after meeting with ambassadors and representatives from 18 Middle Eastern countries.

There is concern the country's security situation will worsen ahead of the general election in June, particularly in light of the fact that religious and ethnics conflicts continue to hit a number of areas across the country.

The bomb blast at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on Monday has added to the fear of escalating social and political tension ahead of the general election. Many people have begun to stockpile stocks of rice and other basic commodities in anticipation of unrest, which could disrupt the distribution of basic needs.

Bulog deputy of procurement M. Amin said that aside from rice, the agency was holding stocks of several other commodities which it imported before its monopoly was lifted in September last year.

Amin said Bulog's stock of sugar stood at 693,628 tons, wheat flour at 542,042 tons and soybean at 178,843 tons.

"The stocks will be released gradually onto the market so they won't affect market prices. Once they are sold, we will not buy any more commodities, except for rice," he said.

He said the stocks might be released during the campaign and election period in order to help stabilize prices.

"Even though Bulog is no longer in charge of stabilizing the prices of commodities other than rice, we feel we are still responsible," he said.

During the meeting with the ambassadors and representatives, Saefuddin said the economic crisis which began in August, 1997 had forced the country to become the world's biggest recipient of food aid in 1998.

He said from the beginning of the economic crisis to the end of 1998, Indonesia had secured food aid commitments from donor countries and international institutions in the form of grants and soft loans reaching a total of 1.9 million tons of rice and other foods worth US$168 million.

Saefuddin said food aid was directed to Indonesia because the crisis had forced many Indonesians to live below the poverty line and had created dire food shortages.

He said the impact of the crisis was reflected in the decline in household food consumption in terms of quantity and quality.

"What we fear the most is not the supply but the weakening purchasing power of people, which means they will be unable to consume enough food in terms of quantity and nutritional value.

"This will result in the mental and physical retardation of our younger generation," he said.

Saefuddin said the government, with financial aid from international institutions, including the World Food Program, the Asian Development Bank, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund, was providing food supplements to schoolchildren, pregnant women, new mothers and children under the age of five to improve the nutritional status of these vulnerable groups.

Saefuddin also said the government's program of providing cheap rice to the poor had so far reached 9.8 million families, or around 50 percent of the targeted 17.5 million families. The program is slated to run until April 2000.

In July, the government launched a program to provide the country's poorest families with 20 kilograms of medium-quality rice every month for Rp 1,000 a kilogram (13 US cents) -- compared to the normal price of between Rp 2,000 and Rp 3,000 a kilogram.

Saefuddin denied the meeting with the ambassadors and representatives was aimed at getting more aid from Middle Eastern countries and countering negative reports on the government's inability to distribute food aid smoothly.

The meeting was attended by ambassadors and representatives from Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Syria and Jordan. (gis)