Monetary crisis donation

Monetary crisis donation

From Kompas

We are now in 1998, which is a year of monetary crisis. The crisis, which, in fact, began to be felt in July 1997, has affected not only business sectors financed by U.S. dollar loans but also free-lance workers and the logistics sector of households.

The government is now unusually confused seeing that millions will be jobless as a result of the crisis, private sector and government offshore loans are large and swelling, and small and medium-sized companies are likely to go bankrupt although these companies themselves are financially sound (the multiplier effect or the supplier effect).

"Right or wrong, good or bad, our country." Who else but we, the people, can help this country get out of its crisis? Just forget who, what or which sector contributes considerably to this crisis or who, instead, is fishing in murky waters because strong waves are going to hit this country.

Nationalism is no longer not hunting for U.S. dollars as domestic speculators. At this juncture, nationalism is an earnest and honest intention to do one's best to help this country get out of its crisis.

I have a suggestion. Why don't we start a "Monetary Crisis Fund" so that anybody can voluntarily donate any amount to help the government overcome its trouble in this crisis. Assuming that 100 million people donate Rp 5,000 each, then Rp 500 billion can easily be collected, This can later be used for the establishment of labor-intensive projects to give work to people who have become jobless because of this recession, or to augment the state's foreign exchange reserves and so forth, depending on the government's priority scale.

I am sure that such an effort would show the outside world that in an effort to help the recovery of the country's economy all members of Indonesian society are serious and willing to sacrifice and that the relationship involving the people, the community and the private sector is solid.

A similar thing was once done in Japan when every Japanese family bought shares in state-owned companies to help the country overcome financial difficulties. As for its implementation, the mass media can coordinate this effort, just as they do with donations for victims of natural disasters, and in view of the national scale involved, the ministry of finance can manage this undertaking transparently and report it to the public.

DRG. TA TATAG UTOMO

Jakarta