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)