Ministers of honor and honesty
The hardest and most pressing problems that the new administration must address without delay and with tangible results are the economic recovery and the alleviation of poverty.
With the debt burden heavily resting on its shoulders, mainly as the result of irresponsible conduct and mismanagement of financial affairs of the previous government, the economic planners have practically no resources to start the revitalization process unless embarking on new foreign loans or relying on international state loans (bonds), or helplessly waiting for new grants. Cutting subsidies or introducing new taxes might unleash another social storm.
Creating the resources in the battle against poverty, under the above conditions, is more daunting and challenging. The nation must be grateful that a new minister has been found who is willing to jump on the bandwagon from which Hamzah Haz was forced to leap off.
The new minister in charge of welfare and the eradication of poverty, Basri Hasanuddin, will be blamed for incompetence if he fails to see to it that there will be enough supplies for the coming religious festivities -- Christmas, New Year's and Idul Fitri, although other ministers are equally, directly or indirectly, responsible. That is only a short-term solution. When dealing with long-term solution, he cannot afford to stop setting out (promoting) his welfare programs to the masses. People have high expectations and are more impatient than university students when promises are broken.
It is imperative that after one year, the new minister must demonstrate that the number of people living below the poverty line has gone down and that greater public welfare is not just rhetoric or slogans.
Can we now have Cabinet ministers imbued with the spirit of unselfish sacrifice and dedication to the well-being of the majority of the people, instead of looking for opportunities to fill their bank accounts?
Honor and honesty are not regarded as vital in the character and traits of the elite compared with the time of the struggle of the nationalists.
The common people, who make up about 70 percent of our population, do not demand that they have electricity or gas ovens in their homes. But surely they deserve to have enough food to eat and to be given the opportunity to earn enough so that they can enjoy health care and their children can go to school.
GANDHI SUKARDI
Jakarta