Ginandjar says economic gaps must be corrected

Ginandjar says economic gaps must be corrected

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Development policy makers should reduce
facilities for business groups which are already strong and
should, instead, extend greater assistance to the economically
weak groups, a high-ranking official says.

State Minister for Development Planning/Chairman of the
National Development Planning Board Ginandjar Kartasasmita said
here on Saturday that the government had launched a concerted
campaign to bridge social gaps.

Ginandjar, as well as Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad, was
a addressing the congress of Muhammadiyah, a reformist Moslem
organization.

Presided over by Muhammadiyah Chairman Amien Rais, the session
with the ministers was lively, as participants raised critical
questions about the social and economic gaps in Indonesia and
queried the government's efforts in relation to the situation.

Nadjamuddin, a member from Palu, Central Sulawesi, claimed
that businesses managed by people of Chinese descent, which
constituted only three percent of the Indonesian population,
controlled almost 80 percent of the total assets of the national
economy. "This is a tragic situation...the rich have become
richer, while the poor have become even poorer," he said.

A large layer in society felt the pinch of discrimination when
it came to applying for loans or other financial assistance, he
said. "Banks are reluctant to give loans to small-scale
businesses," he said.

Ginandjar acknowledged that there were social gaps and that
they "created a dichotomy between strong economic forces and the
weak".

"These gaps cause the Indonesian economy to be vulnerable in
the face of external as well as internal shocks," he said. "The
discrepancy may become wider unless we take action to correct
it," he added.

Ginandjar said the government had initiated steps to close the
gap. "The key is to give more trust to our (economically) weak
people...give them greater power," he said, citing as an example
the government's anti-poverty drive, targeting the poor in rural
areas.

He said that the government had been handing over the funds of
the Inpres Desa Tertinggal anti-poverty campaign directly to the
villagers, rather than letting village officials manage them.

"This is a form of the government placing trust in the
people," he said. "The community is thus challenged to manage the
funds by themselves."

Another participant, from Lampung, questioned Mar'ie about
the government's "reluctance to establish anti-monopoly laws in
order to protect small-scale entrepreneurs".

Mar'ie, however, said that not all forms of monopoly were
contrary to the public interest. Several natural resources, such
as oil, were intentionally monopolized by the government, he
said, to ensure smooth distribution and uniform prices throughout
the country.

Other forms of monopoly which the public believed to be
contrary to their interests "will stay under the government's
supervision," he said. "Let's not be preoccupied with the concern
that there aren't any anti-monopoly laws yet," he said.

Mar'ie said the government was currently preparing a set of
laws to protect small-scale businesses and laws against unfair
competition. He said that there were already a number of laws
which were anti-monopoly in nature.

"So, they are not called anti-monopoly laws. But their
objectives are to counter monopolies," he said.

In another part of his speech, Ginandjar said that social gaps
and the phenomenon of giant businesses swallowing up small
businesses were an ongoing social reality.

"That's not a new problem. It's a legacy of our history," he
said. "What we should do now is, not limit the space for the
conglomerates, but to ensure that we can all run as fast as they
are," he said. (swe/Wisnu Pramudya)