Scavenger irked by broken promise

Wahyuana, The Jakarta Post/Bekasi

With a daily income ranging between Rp 7,000 (US$78 cents) and Rp 12,000, Muhammad Nahlan, 48, a Bantar Gebang scavenger, was ecstatic when told in late March that he had been chosen to receive a free medical card that will allow him and his family members to get free medication in government hospitals.

Wearing his best clothes, Nahlan, who has four children, arrived at the Bantar Gebang district office as ordered on March 28, where he was supposed to receive his free card directly from Health Minister Siti Fadillah.

Upon arrival at the office, however, Nahlan was told that he had another task -- giving press interviews about the program and about his family life.

"Of course, I only said good things about the new program during those first interviews. I also told the press about the poor circumstances of my family, and that I really hoped that the program would help us," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Now, however, Nahlan, who has benefited from the government's standard subsidized rice program over the past two years, feels that he has been cheated.

"The ceremony was a big sham. So far, I have not received my medical card. I really feel I have been cheated," he told the Post.

Royani, a spokesperson for the Sumur Batu subdistrict office, said Nahlan was not on the list of program beneficiaries.

He said that at least 831 of Sumur Batu 5,000 residents were expected to receive medical cards, but until now only seven had received theirs.

Royani said he was still busy collecting data on the poorest residents in the subdistrict. He said he had asked for lists of the poorest families from every community unit head in Sumur Batu. How the office came up with a figure of 831 potential recipients, however, remains unclear.

"Nahlan can contact the head of his community unit if he wants to receive a card," Royani added.

The central government has allocated Rp 3.7 trillion (US$400 million) on the payment of health insurance premiums for 60 million poor people across the country as part of a national medical insurance program.

Under the program, poor people are given a medical card which they can use for obtaining medical treatment in government hospitals. Under the previous health program, recipients would only receive treatment in local health centers.

The government categorizes people as poor if they earn less than $1 or less per day, while the United Nations Development Program sets the benchmark at $2 per day or less.

Nahlan, who is caring for his sick wife, hoped that he would get his medical card soon. His wife, Tamah bin Antar (40), has been sick for the past 18 months. He has twice taken his wife to a shaman in Banten, but she has yet to recover. He does not dare to take his wife to hospital as he does not have enough money.

Also living with him are his four teenage children -- Hamdan 20; Ahmad Depi, 17; Ahmad Darwis, 15; and Pona'ah, 12; and his aging mother, Ocih, who has suffered from a face tumor for the past 10 years.