Injustice deepens people's disappointment
Injustice deepens people's disappointment
Bambang Nurbianto and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
Middle-income earners have joined the growing chorus complaining
about the government's unpopular move to simultaneously increase
fuel prices, electricity and telephone rates.
However, the price hikes are not their main concern despite it
meaning a higher cost of living. Many said it was the state
officials' lack of sensitivity toward people's plight that had
hurt their sense of justice.
They blasted the government's insensitivity toward the
people's suffering by issuing a series of controversial policies,
including raising utility prices to cover the budget deficit,
while at the same time releasing a number of big debtors from
criminal charges.
"If they were sensitive to people's feelings, why do they make
regulations that add to people's misery. These state officials
will not be affected by the price hikes because they don't have
to pay them," Monika Irawati, a manager at a private company in
East Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post.
The government increased telephone rates by about 15 percent
and electricity by 6 percent on Jan. 1. A day later, the
government shored up fuel prices by 22 percent.
The increases have sparked demonstrations in major cities
across the country, and some demonstrators are urging President
Megawati Soekarnoputri and Vice President Hamzah Haz to step
down.
Chadijah Mastura, 26, who works at a TV production house in
Jakarta, said he was especially upset over increases in the
electricity and telephone rates as they cover up the
"inefficiencies" at state-owned electricity firm PT Perusahaan
Listrik Negara (PLN) and telecommunications firm PT
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).
"It is not fair to burden those who are already suffering from
the increases in electricity and telephone charges, because of
inefficiencies at these companies."
Apprehension also came from a civil servant, Tusy A. Adibroto,
an official at a government agency on Jl. Thamrin, Central
Jakarta.
Tusy said that although she held a good position, the rate
increases would affect her as her salary had not risen enough to
cover the jump in her expenses.
Supporting those arguments, Centre for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) economist Pande Raja Silalahi said
the government should not have raised telephone rates in the
first place as PT Telkom had been making a profit over the past
few years.
"People know that Telkom pockets its profits, so why has the
government raised its rates?" Pande asked.
Therefore, Pande said it was understandable that the policy
only provoked disappointment and protests from people.
Disappointment on the part of the public is nothing new and it
is especially understandable as the burden of the government's
unpopular policies are not shared equally by the people,
according to sociologist Paulus Agus Wirutomo from the University
of Indonesia (UI).
The sad fact is that the burden is placed on the majority of
people, while incentives are given to the upper echelons of
society or businesses that later share them with unscrupulous
officials, he said.
Those privileged people, especially owners of corporations,
are the ones who have put the government in huge debt, which is
later shifted onto people through various utility price hikes, he
said.
The government will exonerate a number of these tycoons from
criminal charges through the release and discharge policy.
Paulus said the release and discharge policy was one of the
government's policies that offends the people's sense of justice.
"If President Megawati says the rate increases are a bitter
pill which should be swallowed by the people, they will not
contest them. The problem is that national leaders and tycoons
never have to swallow these bitter pills," said Paulus.
He called on leaders to be more sensitive both in policy-
making and their behavior.
"A lack of sensitivity on the part of the leaders will worsen
the feeling of injustice. It will cause people to become more
disappointed," Paulus told the Post.