Social gap

Social gap

From Surya

All luxurious cars used during the meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Jakarta two years ago were sold out. Now following the end of the APEC meeting in Bogor, the cars for the forum which cost around Rp. 1 billion each also sold like peanuts. This certainly does not come as a surprise to some people because they are used to such transactions.

This means that Indonesia has many super rich people who are capable of buying expensive things. These potential tycoons, (although they are a minority in the population of 185 million) help increase the gross national product (GNP) per capita to the level of 700 U.S. dollars.

Unfortunately, there are still about 27 million poor people who have yet to enjoy the economic growth. These people are only in theory included in the GNP calculation. In reality they are merely hopeless spectators.

SOEROYO

Surakarta, Central Java