Poverty and apathy

Poverty and apathy

We heard resolute words from Vice President Jusuf Kalla on
Wednesday -- that in three years, there should be no more
elementary school buildings on the verge of collapse.

In various areas, he said, many schools are in bad condition
and need urgent attention, so that in a couple of years "we
should no longer see schools without seats, or schools without
walls", he said when opening a national conference on overcoming
poverty here.

In the near future, he added, no more community health centers
should lack medicine either.

The Vice President aptly highlighted a snapshot of what it
means to be poor -- to have your children study at the cheapest
schools, which could mean schools with not much more than poorly
constructed buildings plus a few teachers and books, even in
places not far from the capital; or having to rely on a local
health center which, while cheap, often lacks essential medicine
for the wide community to which it caters.

Reducing poverty is among the top priorities of President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration, and, as we have since
learned, a major area of cooperation planned by over 100 nations
that participated in last week's 50th jubilee of the Asian-
African Conference. The leaders of at least four billion people
in the regions are some of those who committed to the United
Nations "Millennium Development Goals" -- the first being
eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

In Indonesia's case, the task of reducing poverty has become
even harder since the December tsunami, after which an estimated
one million people were added to the figures of the nation's poor
of over 36 million people, or 16.4 percent of the population.

Even before appealing for world solidarity to fight poverty at
last week's Asian-African Summit, President Susilo took measures
to ensure that citizens better off than those who live on US$1 a
day or less help out by making sacrifices. Amid uproar and
skepticism, last month he raised fuel prices through the cutting
of subsidies, for decades enjoyed by the upper and middle
classes, pledging that these funds would instead help pay for the
education and health care of poor families.

But entering the sixth month of the President's tenure, the
questions stemming from decades of mistrust continue: how can a
government hope to help the poor in an even slightly significant
way while money continues to be siphoned off to line the pockets
of those not entitled to it?

One answer coming from another discussion on poverty was: end
public apathy, involve the poor. Corruption continues to occur in
part because of a helpless, compliant society, said Teten
Masduki of the Indonesian Corruption Watch, one of the speakers
at a forum on poverty held by non-governmental organizations
here.

Others, however, cited experiences among the poor that throw
light on the degree of widespread apathy here -- such as years of
fighting for one's land that has yet to bear fruit in the face of
powerful people.

We were reminded in these talks that however dismal the
situation, we are in different era from the days of the New
Order, when it was not surprising for a vocal dissident to
suddenly vanish off the streets. Nowadays a more discriminating,
bold public, with a more vigilant press, should be able to
prevent, for instance, budget designs that allocate
disproportional amounts of cash for a governor's wardrobe
compared to that allocated for schools.

There's no shortcut to reducing the ranks of the poor, or to
end the corrupt practices that steal their money. More
involvement from an informed public is needed, and along with
that, more authorities detached from the former culture of
thinking that common people have no business questioning their
actions.