Short-term intervention sought to defuse crisis

JAKARTA (JP): Leading experts from various disciplines proposed a number of short-term government interventions which would help alleviate the suffering of the poor yesterday.

Among initiatives suggested were charity programs, placing controls on the price of essential commodities, establishing a local level information system for food scarcity and availability, and the establishing community employment exchanges.

Charity programs might appear to be unsustainable in the long- term, but everything should be tried, sociology professor Selo Soemardjan said.

The seminar also proposed a number of longer term interventions that could be adopted by the government and the public alike. For instance, the experts suggested that factories use more manual labor and thereby employ more people instead of relying heavily on machines.

Selo and his colleagues, including Mely G. Tan and Irwanto, spoke out about their fears for the country's poor, and called on people to cooperate to solve the situation.

"There are so many hungry and jobless people who should be helped because otherwise they may stoop low enough to steal and commit robbery," Selo told the media. United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) representative Stephen Woodhouse was present at the briefing.

"Government steps to overcome the economic and monetary crisis have yet to have any effect," Selo said. "That is why the wealthy should help the poor. That way people help each other to deal with the situation."

Selo conceded that many people helped in order to gain recognition for their good deeds and for insurance in the case of unrest breaking out, but said this was acceptable provided suffering was appeased.

Selo pointed out that Indonesia had found shaking off the monetary crisis more difficult than other Asian countries because it had been battered by seven different crises simultaneously.

A social crisis, the El Nio-induced drought, forest fires, job losses among migrant workers, the political crisis, and the monetary crisis that turned into the economic crisis have dogged the country since early last year.

The situation was aggravated because the government was slow to react to the difficulties facing the country. He blamed this lethargy on a preoccupation with the general elections in May 1997 and the General Assembly of the People's Consultative Assembly in March 1998.

Some of the darkest moments of the economic crisis fell during a political limbo when the old cabinet had been dissolved and the new cabinet had yet to be sworn in. Ministers were consequently reluctant to take affirmative steps to rectify the crisis, he said.

Woodhouse explained that people in rural areas had borne the brunt of the crisis because the flow of migration reversed when people employed in urban areas began to lose their jobs.

Before the crisis, economic growth in rural areas lagged behind urban rates. This imbalance attracted rural dwellers to cities and depleted the stock of human resources in the country's hinterlands, he said.

When the crisis broke in 1997, urban dwellers were forced to return to their villages, further burdening these impoverished areas.

"The process of returning home is marked by migrant fears that they might not find work, but still have to keep their families alive," Woodhouse said. "Those who still have land can cultivate it, but those who are landless become a burden to their community."

Woodhouse suggested that Indonesian people make the best use of their tradition of cooperation, religious values and the bond of families, to form a social safety net to help those worst affected.

"A social safety net of this type would be characterized by strong religious values and would be strengthened by the involvement of ulemas and religious bodies," he added. (swe)