Soeharto asks the poor to save for education

Soeharto asks the poor to save for education

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto urged poor families yesterday
to save money to help finance their children's education.

Speaking on National Family Day, Soeharto said the government
was doing everything in its power through the nine-year
compulsory education scheme to ensure that every child would go
to school, but families also had to play their part.

"I appeal to every family to join the Prosperous Family
Savings Scheme to Finance Education," he said, referring to a
savings program administered by state banks.

By joining the scheme, "the future education of your children
will be guaranteed, and this country will have educated people,"
he said. "Children should pick up the habit of saving."

Soeharto was in Binjai, a North Sumatra town famous for
rambutan, to celebrate the National Family Day.

He presented Satya Lencana Wirakarya awards to people for
their contributions to improving family life.

Recipients included Mrs. Yogie S.M., the wife of the Minister
of Home Affairs who heads the nation-wide Family Welfare
Movement, and Mrs. Surjadi Soedirdja, the wife of the Jakarta
governor who heads the movement's Jakarta branch. Tangerang Mayor
Djakaria Mahmud also received an award.

Soeharto said that, despite development, many families were
still trapped by poverty.

The government has launched the National Foster Parents
Program to help children of poor families attend school,
complementing the nine-year compulsory education program.

When the government extended compulsory schooling from six to
nine years in 1994 there were concerns that it would be to
expensive to implement.

Soeharto went on to tell farmers in Binjai that the virtues of
hard work and perseverance were needed to achieve the nation's
goal of a just and prosperous country. "We have to be patient.
Not patience by waiting, but patience by working hard," he said.

Impatience could lead to untoward things, he said. "We could
even suffer a setback."

Soeharto explained the details of several government programs
to alleviate poverty.

They include a program administered by the Yayasan Dana
Sejahtera foundation, which Soeharto chairs in a personal
capacity. Under the program, each poor family may borrow up to Rp
320,000 ($133) as start up capital. "This money is enough to
start a productive activity," he said.

The foundation has collected Rp 1 trillion in donations from
the country's wealthiest individual and corporate taxpayers. A
presidential decree issued last year compelled anyone with after-
tax income of more than Rp 100 million to donate another 2
percent of their income to the fund.

By last March, Rp 239 billion of the fund had been distributed
to nine million poor families.

Officially, 22.5 million people were estimated to be living
below the poverty line at the end of 1996, down from 25.9 million
in 1995. A family is categorized as living below the poverty line
if its monthly income is less than Rp 38,246 ($16) in urban areas
and less than Rp 27,413 in rural areas.

The government aims to completely eradicate poverty by 2004.

North Sumatra deputy governor Pieter Sibarani told the
President that his province had successfully eradicated some
poverty because people were opting for smaller families.

"We used to be believe that a family was prosperous when we
had 17 sons and 18 daughters. But now we just want one genius son
and one pretty daughter," Sibarani said invoking Soeharto's
laughter. (06)