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.