Kupang's Mayor overseas trip

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