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.