Public sacrifices must not be squandered

Public sacrifices must not be squandered

Benget Simbolon Tnb., Jakarta

The government has asked the public for its understanding and
readiness to make sacrifices following its decision to raise fuel
prices by an average of 29 percent.

In announcing the decision on Monday evening, Coordinating
Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie said that the government
had to make the decision to cut fuel subsidies, which have
threatened fiscal sustainability.

With oil prices recently reaching US$50 per barrel on the
world market, the subsidies may have shot up as high as Rp 73
trillion ($8.1 billion), he said.

The fuel price hike, he said, will encourage more efficient
fuel usage, prevent fuel smuggling and lead to greater funding
allocations for welfare programs. Poverty alleviation programs
will be financed with the proceeds from the fuel price hike.

Unfortunately, not everybody sees it that way, as evident in
initial opposition to the price hike.

A series of demonstrations across the archipelago have been
staged, mostly by students, to protest the unpopular decision. If
the government makes no effort to calm demonstrators and show its
seriousness about reaching its goals, then the situation could
snowball, causing political and economic instability.

Their real concern, actually, is not about whether the policy
is a good one or not. Like similar protests, the fuel-price-hike
protests are an expression of the demonstrators' concern as to
how the social-safety net programs will be implemented,
considering the country's reputation as one of the world's most
corrupt countries.

Experience has told them that corrupt officials -- from
regental to provincial level up to the central administration --
have derailed past welfare programs.

Take the rice for the poor program, for example. The World
Bank said in its 2004 report that only 18 percent of the rice
distributed under the program had reached the poor people across
the archipelago.

In the eyes of the general public, all governments after the
fall of former president Soeharto have failed to alleviate the
suffering caused by the economic crisis.

They have been seeing "good" decisions taken one after the
other. Every decision has given them reason for optimism, then
dashed their hopes due to the poor implementation of the relevant
programs.

While countries such as South Korea and Thailand recovered
from the crisis, Indonesia has not managed to shake it off.

Indonesia continues to face ethnic conflicts, separatism,
terrorism, corruption and a very poor legal system -- which all
stands in the way of creating the conditions needed to attract
foreign investors.

As a result, its economic growth during the last eight years
moved at a snail's pace, from -13.68 (minus 13.68) percent in
1998 to 0.23 percent in 1999, 4.77 percent in 2000, 3.32 percent
in 2001, 3.66 percent in 2002, 4.10 percent in 2003 and 5.13
percent in 2004. The average of the growth was still far below
seven percent, which economists consider to be the minimum rate
needed for it to absorb the increasing number of unemployed
people into the workforce and thus to reduce the number of people
living in poverty.

While a small number of the rich barely felt the impacts of
the crisis, the vast majority of the population are acutely aware
of its everyday repercussions. For many of them, the suffering
has reached an unbearable level.

Susilo Bambang Yudhyono's election as President last year
rekindled their hope. However, they will likely be disappointed
again, as the President has, thus far, not succeeded in
fulfilling his campaign promises to solve a number of pressing
problems, including corruption cases, during his first 100 days
in office.

Is there any hope left to cling to? Hope is all that could
persuade the people that the sacrifices demanded of them are for
the sake of something precious -- for the future of this nation.
Nobody can answer this clearly, except the President himself.

This time he should strictly control the implementation of the
policy so that his goals are achieved.

It is his job to see to it that the welfare programs that have
been offered as compensation for the fuel price hike actually
improve the lot of ordinary people, for whom "sacrifice" is no
new thing.

The writer is a journalist of The Jakarta Post.