Funds disbursed to empower youth organizations
Funds disbursed to empower youth organizations
Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Samarinda, East Kalimantan
East Kalimantan provincial government will immediately disburse
Rp 50 million (US$6,250) of funds to each youth organization or
department affiliated with political parties here, a councilor
has said.
The disbursement of the funds is aimed at empowering either
the youth organizations or departments (affiliated with political
parties) in the province, Kasyful Anwar As'ad, the deputy speaker
of East Kalimantan provincial council, said on Friday.
"The funds, which are taken from the provincial annual budget,
can help finance their activities," he told The Jakarta Post at
his office.
As the number of political parties in the East Kalimantan
province is huge, the distribution of funds will be limited to
either youth organizations affiliated with, or youth departments
within political parties represented in the council, he said.
The provincial administration has identified three youth
organizations eligible for the funds, namely Golkar Party's Youth
Movement (AMPG), the National Mandate Party's Youth Front (BM
PAN) and the United Development Party's (PPP) Ka'bah Youth
Movement.
A different arrangement has been made for other political
parties, which do not have youth organizations affiliated with
them. For those political parties, the provincial government will
disburse funds for each youth department within the political
parties.
Those political parties are the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), the
Nadhlatul Ulama Party (PNU), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS),
the Justice and Unity Party (PKP) and Krisna Party.
According to Kasyful, the planned disbursement of funds has
been agreed upon by both the East Kalimantan provincial
administration and the legislative council.
Separately, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) activist
lashed out at the planned disbursement of funds, saying that the
plan was squandering and wasteful.
"The staggering funds will merely be used for practical
purposes, such as political campaigns and (ordinary) people will
certainly get no benefit from it," said Hamdani, the executive
director of the political party watch dog in the province, the
Political Watch.