Political parties & public welfare

Political parties & public welfare

From Suara Karya

Practically all political parties contesting this year's general election are fond of talking about the need to surmount national issues like poverty, unemployment, farmers' living conditions, corruption, collusion and nepotism.

As an Indonesian citizen striving to do something for public welfare promotion, I have addressed requests for agricultural project aid (for organic waste processing into compost) to several political parties, but none of them has responded so far.

Why are the parties talking about poor people without any intention of helping them, while expecting their votes? The culture of mutual assistance and solidarity with weaker groups in society should be inculcated among the parties, before and after the election.

Though some parties, according to media reports, have made contributions to local communities by "distributing money" during the election, such small sums have no significant effect and miss the actual goal of poverty eradication.

Parties wishing to be successful should be willing to make social investments on a continuous basis for the enhancement of public welfare. In this way, they will become independent and win people's confidence in their ability to manage the unitary republic.

DARMADI Sragen, Central Java