Govt aid helpful, but more in need

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seven years ago, Muala, 67, was fired from his job as a driver after losing vision in his left eye because of a cataract. He has been out of work since and his wife, Sumirah, 49, has been the sole source of income for the household.

Muala and Sumirah have eight children. Five of the children are married, have jobs and live with their spouses.

The two youngest children are in elementary school and junior high schools, while another son is still living at home after having to drop out of high school when Muala lost his job.

All of the family's income comes from the cakes that Sumirah makes and sells from a tiny kiosk in front of their 18-square- meter shack in Slipi, West Jakarta.

"Selling the cakes gives us enough money to buy food every day," Sumirah told The Jakarta Post over the weekend, saying her daily earnings ranged between Rp 15,000 (US$1.30) and Rp 20,000. "My children often complain because I cannot buy them books."

Muala and Sumirah are just one of 101,219 poor families, or 444,527 people in total, in the capital who will receive Rp 300,000 in direct cash assistance from the government every three months. The assistance for these poor families will come from the money the government saves by raising fuel prices and slashing the fuel subsidy.

"I thank the government for the money ... now we can afford to send our children to school and also to make more cakes," Sumirah said.

But there are still many low-income families who are not receiving the government assistance. Many of these families have complained that they are not receiving assistance despite being registered for the program by local administrations.

Muala said 10 families were registered for the program by the head of his neighborhood unit, but only two of the families received Fuel Compensation Cards from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Cardholders have been able to collect their money at the nearest post office since Saturday.

Many critics have questioned how the government determined who would receive the assistance, since the determination was made based solely on reports from local administrations.

Slipi subdistrict head Hendra Hidayat said only 140 of over 300 poor families registered in the subdistrict had received the assistance funds.

"I distributed the cards to the recipients on Wednesday after I got their names via phone calls from post offices. I do not have the list from the BPS so I cannot verify whether all of these recipients deserve the assistance funds.

"Moreover, the cardholders must hurry and get their money as soon as possible," Hendra said.