Queuing for cash
Queuing for cash
Although many government officials, especially those from the
Central Statistics Agency (BPS) along with Coordinating Minister
for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab, remain confident that the
government has been thorough in gathering and processing data as
well as distributing assistance to the country's poorest people,
wide-ranging media reports are indicating otherwise.
The government, especially the BPS, has been drawing up a
demographic map of people living under the poverty line
throughout the country since January, and promised that a
comprehensive mapping would be complete as soon as the government
launched its financial assistance for the poor.
However, when the government started distribution of the
assistance early this month, there remained very large numbers of
deserving people who did not any. Their neighborhood unit chiefs
had registered their names with the visiting BPS employees, but
the government excluded them from the recipients list.
On the other hand, there were people who received the
assistance money even though, according to their neighbors, they
had a better standard of living than many others who did not
receive it.
To help poor people endure the impact of the drastically
reduced fuel subsidy, the government has allocated Rp 4.65
trillion (US$450 million) to be distributed to 15.5 million poor
families. The recipients are entitled to receive Rp 300,000 every
three months for a certain period as part of the government's
short-term policy to reduce the impact of fuel price rises.
The government had to drastically raise the fuel prices on
Oct. 1 following escalating oil prices on the world market.
Rationally, the government had to take such a decision, with the
ballooning fuel subsidy increasingly threatening the economic
future of the nation.
Although the amount of the fuel compensation assistance is
relatively small, it can at least help the most needy families to
cope with the more severe economic conditions. With the
government increasing the price of kerosene to Rp 2,000 from the
original Rp 700, it is correct to view the cash assistance as a
subsidy for kerosene consumers, many of whom are poor people.
Of course we fully support the allocation of money for the
poor, no matter how small it is, as it helps them at least
temporarily. They deserve protection because the impact of the
removal of the fuel subsidy is simply too heavy to bear.
Apart from the cash fund, the government has also allocated Rp
6.27 trillion for education, Rp 3.87 trillion for health, and Rp
3.34 trillion to finance labor-intensive projects in the least-
developed villages. The funds for education and health are meant
to prevent even more students dropping out for economic reasons,
and to enable sick people to get cheap or free medical treatment
in state-run hospitals or health centers.
This is not the first time that the government has provided
funds to help the poor. The government has more than enough
experience, and although from time to time there have been
changes in requirements, the basic data and principles are still
there.
When the economic crisis hit in 1997, the government with the
financial backing from international donors, including the World
Bank, provided funds for labor intensive projects, cheap rice and
other subsidies for least-developed villages. Following rampant
corruption, the World Bank was forced to stop its funding for
such projects.
It seems that the government -- i.e. state agencies that are
responsible for providing data about numbers of poor people -- is
still unable or unwilling to learn from previous mistakes.
There is fear that the subsidy for the education and health
sectors, as well as funds for the labor-intensive projects, will
be stolen by government officials and by those who are entrusted by
the state to deliver the funds to schools and hospitals. If this
fear is later proven to be true, it merely shows that our nation
has not changed; we take every possible opportunity to engage in
corruption.