President's lifestyle

Garuda, Indonesia's flag carrier had been asked to courier US$300,000 to the presidential secretary when the President and his entourage were in Saudi Arabia.

It took me a moment to figure out how much money the above amount of U.S. dollars would be in rupiah. Then I grabbed a calculator to count that it equates to some Rp 3 billion at the current exchange rate. Perhaps the amount, which was intended to cover a shortage of funds for that trip was too little compared to the Rp 35 billion ($2 million) involved in the Bulog and Brunei scams. Was the money drawn from the state budget (which is public money)? How much would the President's recent trip cost in total for the entire group consisting of officials, their spouses, journalists, friends and relatives?

Would not the money be worth spending on the victims of several natural disasters (floods, landslides, earthquakes) or for the Sampit refugees or for the renovation of public schools?

With the rupiah at its current low, it may be wise for the President to reconsider the frequency of his future overseas trips, the number of people accompanying him, the use of regular commercial planes. It really is not the time to be a big spender particularly when our country is in crisis.

Y. LUCAS

Jakarta