President complains about too many kids

President complains about too many kids

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri complained about the nation's
seeming lack of awareness about the country's worrisome
population growth in recent years and warned that overpopulation
would reduce people's quality of life.

While pointing out that the population was growing faster than
the supply of basic human needs, the President -- and mother of
three children -- urged the country to work harder to limit
population growth.

"In the last decade we have ignored the family planning
program, which has resulted in worrying population growth,"
Megawati said while opening the 12th national congress of the
Indonesian Family Planning Institute (PKBI).

"The imbalanced growth of population and fulfillment of basic
needs, such as job opportunities, housing, education and health,
will pose major problems in the future," the President said.

The latest census, in 2000, estimated the population growth
rate at 1.49 percent, while the National Family Planning Board
estimated zero growth.

Indonesia's population is estimated at 215 million, making it
the fourth most populous country in the world.

The President said she would like to see greater cooperation
between the public and government in handling the issue.

"The government cannot handle these problems alone, there is
an urgency to create a network between the government, non-
governmental organizations and the general public to deal with
them," she said.

Family planning was once considered to be a success story here
during former president Soeharto's campaign in the '70s and '80s
with its slogan "two children are enough", but then the program
was criticized for its use of force and its top-down policy.

PKBI Chairman Azrul Azwar blamed the poorly coordinated birth
control program at present on the lack of government money
allocated to him for family planning.

"Family planning should have received some 15 percent of the
total development expenditure, but in fact we have only been
given less than 1 percent of the fund," Azrul said.

In the 2003 state budget, the government allocated only 0.69
percent of total development expenditure, while in the 2004
budget draft there is a slight increase to 0.75 percent.

Azrul said fewer people were concerned with promoting family
planning in recent years.