Kupang's Mayor overseas trip
Kupang's hungry people and priorities of its Mayor in The Jakarta Post of June 14 reported that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was angry about local administration heads' denials of widespread malnutrition in a number of provinces. From the very short rainy season and widespread crop failures in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) it was clear that many would suffer in the months ahead of the long dry-season.
However, the NTT government denied that the rainy season was unusually short and that there was a shortage of rice and corn in many of its drought-stricken regencies. It also tried to hide the fact that many are suffering from malnutrition and several have died because the provincial health services are in a state of neglect due mainly to corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN).
People have no ready access to hospital care without money; the poor have to wait for many days before being attended to, and, as was the case on June 10 they demonstrated. The hospital was quickly closed and further denials of the sorry state of affairs of this city may be forthcoming.
To add insult to injury, Kupang's mayor of 16 years and of the era of the New Order and military rank, plans to pay a visit to Palmerston, Australia with 14 other high-ranking government officials (including the police, judiciary, as well as officials' wives) to attend a trade show from July 12 to July 16. While the vice president's wife, Mufidah Jusuf Kalla, presented Rp 500 million to the governor of NTT on June 13, to help the hungry, Kupang's mayor prefers to go to Australia at an estimated cost of at least Rp 150 million.
When people question the priority of such an expensive overseas trip during an obvious state of provincial distress, they are told by the mayor that they simply do not understand (Pos Kupang, June 14). Such a response reminds me of the time before 1998, and, while other administrations try hard to free themselves of non-democratic vestiges, Kupang still lives on in the dark ages of the New Order. It is high time for democratic change in Kupang.
HENRY MANOE Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara