Housewives terrorized for reporting reduced aid
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Several housewives from Cipinang Besar Selatan subdistrict in East Jakarta said they have been intimidated by two subdistrict officials after they reported a reduction of rice aid for the poor from the Jakarta City Council.
Sumiyati, one of the women, said that Cipinang Besar Selatan subdistrict deputy head Kadarusman, accompanied by a public order officer, visited her house on Friday morning and told her that police officers would soon meet her.
"He (Kadarusman) did not explain why the police officers would come, but the tone of his words indicated that I had made a mistake," Sumiyati told The Jakarta Post.
Fearing that there would be police officers coming to arrest her, Sumiyati telephoned activists from the Jakarta Resident's Forum (Fakta). Some of them immediately came, but no police officer arrived till later that evening.
Sumiyati, who was previously reluctant to mention her real name, visited the council on Friday together with Fakta activists.
She told the councillors that the subdistrict officials had cut the allotment from 20 kilograms per family per month to only 8 kilograms. And the rice was sold at Rp 1,300 per kilogram, instead of Rp 1,000, the price set by the government.
Cipinang Besar Selatan subdistrict head Ari Sonjaya confirmed Sumiyati's report that each poor family in the neighborhood unit (RT) 15 of community unit (RW) 2 in his subdistrict only received 8 kilograms per month.
But he claimed that he knew nothing about the threat by his deputy against the protesting women.
Ari even said that he did not blame the women. "What is regretful is the fact that they reported it to the city council. Why did they do it? The councillors will not give additional rice although they report the case to them," Ari told the Post.
According to Ari, such a practice could happen as the number of poor families in the community unit II is more than the data owned by subdistrict. In the data, there are 26 poor families there, but the real number of poor families was 162, he said.
Based on the subdistrict's data, community unit 2 received the smallest allotment compared with the other nine community units in the subdistrict.
According to the data, the largest number of poor families who deserved the cheap rice was in community unit 6 where 306 poor families lived.
About the price of the rice, Sofianus Harjo, a staff member responsible for distributing the rice in the subdistrict, said the additional price was for transportation from the subdistrict head's office to the people's houses.
The rice for the poor program managed by the National Logistics Agency (Bulog) was launched in January 2002. That year, the agency distributed a total of 2.35 million tons of low-priced rice to 9.79 million poor families.
The rice should be sold at the price of Rp 1,000 compared to the market price which was Rp 3,000. Under the program, each family would receive a total of 20 kilograms per month throughout the year.
This year, Bulog plans to distribute a total of 2.35 million tons of rice to about 9.2 million poor families.