President's dialog with farmers

From Prospek

President Soeharto is fond of talking with farmers and villagers on his visits to rural areas. Usually he also asks them to tell him about their difficulties and needs.

When the President visited Jambi last month, he talked to a farmers' representative. Unfortunately, this farmer who was under pressure from his superiors told the President how good the conditions at the local village cooperative (KUD) are, despite the reality that the situation is entirely different. Although the farmer had sent a letter of apology to the President for his lie, this incident has left us wondering: Has President Soeharto always received wrong information from farmers in his past visits?

A careful review of the President's past media coverage will show that all the information reported to President is about how successful development has been.

The farmers, villagers, the board of cooperatives in villages have always reported how good their life has been, how abundant the last harvest, how well organized their cooperatives and how good the relationship between transmigrants and local villagers. But usually, the facts are far different from what they describe.

One conclusion is that veiled pressure from local officials has been exerted on those farmers in order to give a good impression about their region to the President.

This practice, if prolonged, is counter productive because had they told the truth to the President, he would have asked his assistants to help solve the local problems.

Rumors say those farmers are forced to tell a lie to the President in order to protect the positions of local officials.

Others say that the good-sounding reports are fabricated in order to get the coveted additional development budget from the central government.

Whatever the reasons are, such lies should not occur.

PONCO SUBROTO

Jakarta