Public become cash cows

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