Get serious about poverty, SBY says
Get serious about poverty, SBY says
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told government officials to
leave their comfortable offices and go into the field to see the
real situation the country's poor faced.
"I ask all government officials, including ... the Vice
President, governors, regents and mayors, to frequently visit
remote areas around the country," Susilo said at the State Palace
on Wednesday. The President also promised to personally visit
poor people to listen to their concerns.
Susilo made the appeal during a ceremony where Coordinating
Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab and Bank Indonesia
Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah signed an agreement on poverty
eradication, which would empower medium- and small-scale
enterprises.
The President called on government officials to stay longer
with residents in remote or poverty-stricken areas instead of
only visiting for a couple of hours and flying home.
"Go to the poor areas and feel their suffering," Susilo said,
adding that he was born and raised in a poor village in Pacitan,
East Java.
Susilo said he always stayed for at least one night when he
visited disadvantaged or disaster-stricken regions such as Nabire
in Papua and Aceh.
"I have slept inside tents. I was shaken by and empathized
with the poor conditions people in the area (Nabire) faced,"
Susilo said.
The poor were usually more patient and accepting of their
plight and were not demanding, Susilo said. Such modest behavior
should spur government officials on to find a solution to improve
their welfare, he said.
"I observe that (officials) still lack awareness and a desire
to improve public welfare. Government officials without such a
desire have no idea what they should do for people," he said.
Alwi, meanwhile, said poverty was a collective problem for the
central government and local administrations. It was impossible
for the chief welfare minister alone to be help the country
without inter-government cooperation, he said.
Alwi said he would accompany donor organizations to visit West
and East Nusa Tenggara to examine what caused the recent cases of
child malnutrition there.
The cases showed that malnutrition did not only occur in poor
areas but sometimes in regions where food was abundant, he said.
Alwi also suggested that in some situations, irresponsible
parents, not poverty or local body indifference, were to blame
for child malnutrition.
"It may have been the (local) culture that caused
malnutrition, such as a mother who insists on having gold
bracelets but leaves her children malnourished," Alwi said.