Poor Acehnese demand end to corruption

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Thousands of the have-nots staged a peaceful rally in front of the Aceh provincial legislature building on Monday, demanding the administration disburse billions of rupiah of public funds to alleviate poverty in the resources-rich province.

The demonstrators, grouped under the Consortium of the Poor and Economically Powerless People (KOMMEL), consisted of the homeless, jobless, scavengers, street vendors, pedicab drivers, blue collar laborers, home industry owners and conflict victims.

They condemned the corrupt provincial administration, saying many officials, including the governor, had abused the conflict to enrich themselves.

"Governor Abdullah Puteh should have paid more attention to the needy like us, instead of making himself wealthy. We don't want luxury cars because the most important thing is how we can survive the economic hardship and the prolonged conflict," demonstrator Ali Basyah told The Jakarta Post.

He said the central government had disbursed Rp 118 billion (US$13 million) to the province this year to help Acehnese people whose relatives were killed during the conflict, but the families had not received a single rupiah.

"In addition, the government also gave Rp 34 billion to the province last year in a bid to help the poor initiate small business enterprises but the provincial administration disbursed only Rp 7 billion for small and medium enterprises," he said.

Ali said that he had submitted a proposal to establish his own small enterprise but had received nothing from the provincial administration.

"Aceh officials have corrupted the funds to enrich themselves. There are many crippled husbands or children caused by the conflict but nobody cares while actually there is a huge amount of money available for them," conflict victims' representative Nur Bahri said.

Nur's husband died in the civil war and she has to make ends meet by doing odd jobs.

The province set a development budget of Rp 2.2 trillion this year, a significant increase on last year's budget of Rp 540 billion.

The central government gave the province a total of Rp 5.5 trillion last year and Rp 6.6 trillion this year. The funds include the provincial earnings from oil and gas.

The protesters carried banners that read: "Aceh in conflict, the provincial administrations fat, the people crushed" or "Aceh in conflict, Abdulah Puteh skyrocketing, the people are screaming".

They demanded the provincial administration seriously, honestly and impartially tackle poverty.

"If the administration and the council are no longer able to carry out their duties, they'd better step down from their posts. We are ready to stage direct elections to get qualified leaders," Ali said.

Several councillors met the demonstrators after they held a hearing with the governor, and promised to take action.

A heavily guarded Abdullah Puteh, however, left the legislature building through the back door.