Seminar on poverty

Seminar on poverty

From Neraca

A seminar dealing with poverty was recently held in one of
Jakarta's star-rated hotels. The seminar was led by the Ministry
of Transmigration, and attended by two hundred and fifty local
and foreign delegates.

The seminar covered matters related to resettlement and
efforts to fight poverty. Several working papers were discussed
and later formulated.

The subject was quite interesting, since it attracted local
and foreign experts, such as ministers from developing nations,
including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Brazil, Myanmar.

The seminar successfully enhanced understanding of mainly
NGOs, who are mostly ignorant about transmigration in Indonesia.
The seminar also parried negative opinions from foreign NGOs.

However, despite the successes the recent seminar made,
dissatisfied voices were heard. Why was a seminar dealing with
poverty held in a luxury hotel? Straight after the seminar,
attendants were led on a tour through the transmigration
location.

Other voices expressed concern about seminar funds. How much
has it all cost? It was discovered that disbursements were, more
or less, Rp. 1 billion. With that money we could do a lot for the
betterment of the people, such as more and better crop seeds can
be bought, more school buildings can be built, etc.

There were others who questioned the on-going transmigration
program dating from colonial days and whose colonial name was
later changed into another with more local flavor. Aside from the
achievements mentioned, the seminar also discussed problems and
failures.

The question here is, why was the transmigration program not
advertised abroad by our embassies? This lack of foresight has
resulted in foreign people ending their contribution of
viewpoints.

MUJIANTO PARTOSENTONO

Jakarta