Shoes project is counterproductive: Haryono Suyono

JAKARTA (JP): Controversy continued yesterday over a private shoe company's plan to sell its products directly to schools, seemingly with the Ministry of Education and Culture's endorsement.

State Minister of Population Haryono Suyono, activist Halimah Bambang Trihatmodjo and Moslem leader Amien Rais separately issued statements yesterday over the reported attempt of PT Nusa Pakarti to monopolize shoe sales targeting some 26.5 million elementary school students.

Haryono warned that the company's project was "counterproductive" to the government program to ensure that all poor children be able to go to school. He said it was also against the national program to alleviate poverty, affecting some 11.5 million families throughout the country.

Haryono, who is also chairman of the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN), described how poor families struggled to buy clothes and eat two meals per day and tried to send their children to school.

"They find it hard to finance their children's education, let alone buy shoes," Haryono told reporters after meeting with President Soeharto at the latter's residence on Jl. Cendana.

The Jakarta-based company, owned by President Soeharto's grandson Ari Sigit, has reportedly launched the first stage of its project, selling its shoes directly to schools in the East and West Java provinces.

The company claimed it had the endorsement of the Ministry of Education and Culture and that it planned to donate some of its profits from the project to various charities, including the Indonesian Foster Parents Movement, whose mission is to help send poor children to school.

Haryono denied endorsing the project, as did the chairwoman of the Indonesian Foster Parents Movement, Halimah Bambang Trihatmodjo.

In a written statement issued Monday, Halimah, who is also Soeharto's second daughter-in-law, denied the movement had any connection with the plan.

"We give free shoes, uniforms and scholarships to poor children ... and we do not have any relationship with the company," Halimah said.

The so-called uniform shoes project, bearing the logo OSIS and costing Rp 21,000 (US$7.50) per pair, sparked protest by parents who said they still felt they had to buy the shoes as the deal was arranged through schools.

Halimah disclosed that her charity organization could provide much cheaper shoes. "The protest over the shoes is very natural because the price is too expensive," she said.

"The price will not be a problem for rich families, but will be for the poor," Haryono noted.

Separately in Yogyakarta, Amien Rais said that Muhammadiyah, the 28-million strong Moslem organization that he chairs, strongly rejected the project, alleging it as tantamount to "collusion".

In a statement titled Jangan Rugikan Rakyat (Don't Inflict People with Losses), Amien said most Indonesians' buying power was too low for the expensive shoes.

"It's two to three times more expensive than the same type of shoes at a marketplace," said Amien, who is also a political science lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

"The monthly elementary school fees in most villages in Indonesia range from only Rp 500 to Rp 1,000, and some 30 percent to 50 percent of students in many villages, let alone in poor villages, have to go to school barefoot," he said.

In Amien's estimation, the shoe company would reap as much as Rp 7.6 trillion if the project proceeded as planned.

"How much of this money will go to the state?" quipped Amien, who was accompanied by his deputy Syafii Maarif.

Amien said the project should be stopped because it would inflict a great loss to most people and that it ran against the spirit of the antimonopoly campaign.

He also called on thousands of schools run by Muhammadiyah across the country to refuse to buy the shoes. (prb/23/aan)