Public become

Public become
cash cows

From Koran Tempo

The almost simultaneous increases in the rates of the state
electricity company PLN, fuel prices and telephone services from
state telecommunications company Telkom in January 2002 have
created the impression that the government does not care about
the dire economic state of most Indonesian people today.

With barely enough income to survive and without any increase
in earnings, they have been treated as cash cows by the
government, which has ignored their fate in striving to reduce
the budget deficit.

I wonder why the government has not learned from previous
experience the impact that those rate hikes can have on the price
of daily necessities.

The government will be unable to stem increases in the price
of essential goods and transport costs following the rise in
electricity rates, fuel prices and telephone rates.

Even in the New Order period, when domestic security was
relatively stable and controlled, the then government was unable
to curb increases in the price of goods.

The present government should direct the impact of the
economic crisis toward the major businesspeople who have failed
to repay trillions of rupiah in debt arising from Bank Indonesia
Liquidity Assistance (BLBI), not on the majority of ordinary
people, who have been most severely hit by the effect of the
price hikes.

IWAN TAURUS

Jakarta