Meeting people's

Meeting people's
basic needs

From Kompas

This newspaper carried a report on June 18, 2003, that
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais had
admitted that the MPR had become a venue for horse-trading. What
Amien said was already public knowledge. What MPR members should
bear in mind is that the public do not want this horse-trading to
ever take place again. This demand is easy to meet, as long as
our state leaders are ready to satisfy the people, so that some,
if not all, of their needs are fulfilled.

What do the people generally need? They simply want to lead
decent lives and enjoy proper education, health and other
facilities. Legislation alone is not enough.

The root cause of social handicap is the poor education of
those on low incomes. As a result, they cannot gain access to
proper information for self-development.

Perhaps the government could consider introducing life skill
education so that people could earn a decent living. The
government, for example, might establish special fishery colleges
in areas where fishing is a dominant feature of the local
economy. In this way, the people in such areas might acquire the
skills necessary to raise their living standards and gain access
to information crucial for their own development.

ARIF BATUBARA
Bekasi, West Java