Soeharto warns businesses which fail to donate
SURAKARTA, Central Java (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday big businesses which failed to give 2 percent of their after-tax incomes to the poor would be "morally chastised".
Speaking to residents of Jaten village, Karanganyar, who were celebrating the 68th Women's Day, Soeharto admitted there was no law stipulating that rich people had to donate to the poor.
"This duty is based on the state ideology Pancasila," he said. "In this country, according to the Pancasila, those who are able should be willing to help the weak."
"Just mark those businesspeople who refuse to donate 2 percent of their profit to help the poor," he said. "There's no need to lash out or be upset. Just mark their houses... with flags or whatever, they should be ashamed then."
Soeharto was explaining his recent decree which orders individuals and companies with net annual earnings over Rp 100 million to donate 2 percent of their net incomes. The order is effective for this fiscal year.
More than 25 million people live below the official poverty line.
Eligible taxpayers must transfer their donations directly to Yayasan Dana Sejahtera Mandiri foundation's account at the Harmoni, Jakarta, branch of state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia 1946. Taxpayers will be required to submit a copy of transfer documents to their nearest tax office.
Soeharto said yesterday he made the decree after many businesspeople had ignored the government's call for the donations. In December last year, Soeharto asked the rich to donate 2 percent of their after-tax incomes to help the poor.
In September this year, Soeharto asked why half of those qualifying for donations had ignored his appeal.
"Businesspeople don't need to worry about how the funds will be channeled, because the mechanism to distribute them has been set up," he said.
President Soeharto launched yesterday a nationwide campaign, called Love Motherhood Drive, to curb maternal mortality rates.
"Mothers are the ones who pass on the legacy of humanity, thus the name Love Motherhood Drive," Soeharto said.
Soeharto said the drive aimed to reduce the number of women dying during pregnancy to about 225 for every 100,000 births by the end of the sixth Five Year Development Plan in 1999, and down to 80 deaths for every 100,000 births by the end of the second long term development plan in 2019.
The President said 390 mothers died for every 100,000 births in 1994.
"Reducing the maternal mortality rate will signify the success of national development," Soeharto said.
An official from the office of the State Minister of Women's Roles had said the drive aimed to halve the current rate of 450 deaths for every 100,000 live births by the end of the sixth Five Year Development Program in 1999.
Indonesia's maternal mortality rate is higher than other Southeast Asian countries' rates and the average rate of developing countries, according to United Nations Development Programme data for 1995.
A Unicef study in 1991 said bleeding was the main cause of the soaring maternal deaths, killing 67 percent of the mothers. This was followed by abortion, 10 percent, infection, 8 percent, and contamination, 7 percent.
The State Minister for Women's Roles office will be in charge of the nationwide drive, while provincial responsibility will be delegated to deputy governors.
The 68th Women's Day celebration was held in the town of Karanganyar, about 30 kilometers east of Surakarta, where the late First Lady Mrs. Tien Soeharto is buried at her family mausoleum in Giribangun hamlet.
Mrs. Tien died of a heart attack in April at the age of 72. Soeharto, his family members, Vice President Try Sutrisno and his wife, cabinet ministers and dignitaries attended a ceremony at the late First Lady's grave yesterday.
On Dec. 22, 1928, Indonesian women activists established the Indonesian Congress of Women to foster unity among women's organizations.
State Minister for Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi told The Jakarta Post that women were gaining more prominent positions because many men better understood that the country cannot progress without women.
"This is not the time for women to stay at home and take care of the kids. They must be given the same opportunities as men," Mien said. (06/har/08)
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