Megawati, Susilo and public concern

Megawati, Susilo and public concern

The two presidential candidates bracing for the Sept. 20 vote -- Megawati Soekarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- and their respective campaign strategists, should be busy with efforts to handle problems stemming from this year's drought.

They, however, prefer political issues to public concern.

Megawati and Susilo, popularly called SBY, have been very busy forming coalitions to win the second round of the presidential election next month.

If ever the candidates speak about the people's interests, they love to talk about such populist issues as unemployment, education, free health care, law enforcement and so on.

The government has not paid serious attention to the drought that has severely hit West Java, Central Java and East Java, as well as other areas outside the island of Java, and this the natural calamity now occurs annually. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of rice fields have not yielded crops at all, and tens of thousands of people in the three provinces are facing a water shortage.

We do not know why members of the political elite lack interest in the water crisis.

They do not visit towns or districts to check on locals suffering from water shortages but merely pursue their own agenda to get political support for their candidate.

The Republika suggests that we share the misery of the people hit by the drought. We should vote for the presidential candidate who has compassion for the drought victims. -- Republika, Jakarta