Help those who are in need
If any certainty existed that the situation would improve soon, the general suffering in our country would not be as great. The problem is that in order to cure our ailing economy, even greater suffering is necessary before the illness can be healed. Among other things, a number of subsidies that are now burdening our state finances must be eliminated. In the terminology used by International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts, this kind of therapy is referred to as a structural adjustment.
The fact that such therapy can aggravate the plight of the poor is much regretted by the IMF. That is why an agreement has been reached with the World Bank and other donors to launch a number of programs aimed especially at helping the poor. Subsidies for basic necessities, such as food and medicine, will still be allowed.
The problem is how to ensure that the subsidies benefit those who actually need them and not those who merely want to fish in murky waters. For instance, more than half of the current sugar subsidies benefit our soft drink industries, and only 30 percent of our subsidized kerosene supplies are used by individuals, while the rest are used by industries. Should we also continue subsidizing state electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negera (PLN), which serves mostly middle and upper class people rather than the poor?
We cannot rely on the government alone to solve this problem. Help from the people's representatives is needed to persuade all those who voted for them to unite and make sure that all the expensive government subsidies actually reach those who need them. This must be done immediately.
Bearing all this in mind, we should not need to question whether the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly would proceed smoothly. Our assumption would be that the time used during the Assembly's sessions in this way would result in a solution to the real hardships the public is facing. After all, is that not the reason why we chose these representatives?
-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta