Shoes project is counterproductive: Haryono Suyono

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)