Habibie gives basic needs top priority

Habibie gives basic needs top priority

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie has ordered the country's
27 provincial governors to prioritize the procurement of basic
essentials for the people in their budgetary planning.

The President warned the governors not to squander their
limited budgets on reaching physical development targets, but to
instead use remaining funds to reduce suffering in their
respective provinces.

"Save your budgets, and under no circumstances should budgets
be allocated for building renovations or for constructing new
roads," Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid quoted Habibie as
telling the governors during a two-hour meeting in the Bina Graha
presidential office yesterday.

Yesterday's meeting was attended by 26 of Indonesia's 27
provincial governors, the solitary absentee being East Timor
Governor Jose Abilio Soares. There was no explanation for his
absence.

According to Syarwan, income from local taxes in all the
provinces was likely to drop by at least 50 percent this year,
while on the other hand the central government was also facing
severe budgetary constraints.

The country's economy is expected to contract by 10 percent
this year and the inflation rate could hit 80 percent.

The Ministry of Manpower has announced that unemployment this
year is expected to hit 15.4 million -- 17.1 percent of the
country's 90 million workforce.

Syarwan also said yesterday that Habibie intended to provide a
Rp 1,000 government subsidy for each kilogram of rice bought by a
selected seven million needy people, 70 percent of whom would be
from Central and East Java.

However, the criteria for selecting these people is extremely
vague and there has been no mention of for how long the subsidy
will be kept in place. Syarwan himself did not elaborate on the
plan or how it would be implemented.

Nevertheless, he asked governors to ensure that the subsidized
rice was not misappropriated and that only those who were really
in need benefited from the scheme.

"The government's good intentions are not to be badly
implemented," Syarwan quoted Habibie as saying.

The President also briefed the governors on the new
government's program of reform and told them to conduct their day
to day business in the same spirit.

He asked them to be more sensitive when listening to the
demands of the people and to try to discover the truth behind any
allegations of abuse.

"We cannot close our eyes to their demands, but we also cannot
take arbitrary measures just because of their demands without
first making prior checks," Syarwan noted. (prb)