Social disparity 'blurs development achievement'

Social disparity 'blurs development achievement'

JAKARTA (JP): Debates on the socio-economic disparity problem
should focus on solutions or they will eclipse the economic
performance, Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar
Kartasasmita said yesterday.

Speaking before a seminar held by the Moslem Students
Association, Ginandjar said an excessive expose of social
disparities could easily arouse tempers, eventually damaging
national interests.

"Shop burnings, labor strikes and other forms of violence
inspired by social envy do nothing but sacrifice the poor and
lower class consumers who do not have many choices in this life,"
Ginandjar said.

He said he has always encouraged open discussions in a bid to
find solutions to socio-economic disparities. "Everybody is free
to talk but they must have adequate facts, data and understanding
about the issue," he said.

Ginandjar said that as a scholar he doubted the social gap has
been widening in this country despite more than 25 years of
economic development.

"There is no data available to support that. The only fact is
the numbers of poor people have declined," he said.

President Soeharto said, while delivering the state budget
plan for 1997/1998 fiscal year to the House of Representatives
early this month, that the number of Indonesians living below the
poverty line dropped by four million in 1996 from almost 26
million in 1993.

"I agree there are many things suggested in the 1945
Constitution that have yet to materialize, but only because
development always takes time," Ginandjar said.

He insisted a pragmatic way of coping with socio-economic
disparity was giving top priority to a sustainable poverty
alleviation program.

"The program, however, has been overshadowed by other
disparity issues and looks irrelevant, although it receives
international applause," Ginandjar said.

Launched in April 1994, the poverty alleviation program,
called Presidential Aid for Least-Developed Villages, provides
each poor village Rp 20 million (US$8,390) in financial aid.

It got a boost last December when Soeharto issued a decree
obliging firms and individuals with annual after-tax earnings of
more than Rp 100 million ($42,000) to contribute an extra 2
percent of their incomes to the campaign against poverty.

Democracy

Development programs, which Ginandjar characterized as a
cultural transformation into a new society, suggest a political
development which will lead to democracy.

Ginandjar said it was unnecessary to change the existing
political system to reach this goal.

He said a political system based on the state ideology
Pancasila served public interest the most, with people being free
to express their aspirations and given more access to decision
making process.

"But we need the skills to manage such an openness in order to
prevent social disintegration and all forms of abuse," he said.

Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the 30-million strong Moslem
organization Nahdlatul Ulama, Nurcholish Madjid and Mochtar Naim
also spoke at the seminar.

The three speakers agreed cultural uniformity restricts
people's initiative.

Nurcholish said Indonesians embarked on their new path as a
free nation 51 years ago with poor educational backgrounds and
too many established local cultures.

"That's why we remain in the process of building a national
culture which compromises the various local cultures," he said.

The three speakers agreed that economic development had caused
a domination of one culture (Javanese) over the others. But
Nurcholish praised the Javanese people's allegiance to their
leaders and for playing a key role in the success the development
program. (amd)