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