'Spinning' care
It all sounds very good, but what does it all mean? The government's recent announcement that it would "allocate" savings from the discontinuation of the fuel subsidy to provide free basic education and health care for the country's poor sounds wonderfully appealing.
Too appealing in fact. After overcoming the initial excitement, the message increasingly resonates more like a rhetorical campaign slogan than a concrete policy.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, chairperson of the National Development Planning Agency, announced that at least Rp 20 trillion, money reallocated from fuel subsidies, would be used to fund welfare programs like free schools under the nine-year mandatory education drive and health care for Indonesia's poorest. The government, she added was also looking at other initiatives to channel the money into, such as the provision of cheap rice.
The government has also identified some 32 million disadvantaged people who are eligible to receive such assistance.
Any initiative, intent or even remark aimed at improving the welfare of millions should be welcomed. But a discerning eye should be directed at whether it was divulged with the objective of truly addressing the pressing problems of the poor, or as window dressing to appease a potentially disgruntled public.
Free education and health care was one of the most common campaign slogans both in the legislative and presidential election. In fact, it was even a standard campaign blurb in the elections of 1999.
Basic education and decent health care should be a right, not a privilege provided by the ruling government of the day. The right to basic education is clearly stipulated in Article 31 of the 1945 Constitution, while the responsibility to provide adequate health care is stated in Article 34.
Furthermore, much of what was announced was really a repetition of programs and initiatives that were in place even during the Soeharto era.
With varying degrees of success, the nine-year education program was in existence long before President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono even entered government. During Indonesia's economic heyday education was officially free, even though unofficial fees were routinely collected by the schools.
Since the 1970s thousands of elementary schools -- commonly referred to as SD Inpres -- were built using special funds accorded from the presidential office.
Similarly, small community health centers were setup to provide health care in villages and remote areas. To this day, even major referral hospitals like Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta charge very little for patients treated in their third-class wing.
A letter from the local subdistrict chief certifying that one is poor often helps to alleviate further basic health care costs in state hospitals.
That certainly does not mean that Indonesians get the optimum available care, but at least there are provisions, albeit less than sufficient, which may help to ease certain burdens.
Hence the government's recent announcement should be seen as nothing more than augmentation, at best, and continuation, at worst, of programs already in place. While it is encouraging, it is not something to boast about yet.
Apart from a larger allocation of funds, the best that can be hoped for is that the system is made more effective and the bureaucracy that complicates things for the uninformed poor is made more efficient.
Cynics may question the timing of the announcement, pointing to the fact that the government will inevitably revoke subsidies and raise fuel prices in the near future. Subsidy reductions are a politically sensitive issue and have produced the most significant street rallies in recent years. In fact president Soeharto resigned in 1998 in the wake of mass rioting in Jakarta triggered by subsidy reductions.
The present administration has always maintained that fuel subsidies are unsustainable and that only a small portion of the public, usually the affluent, enjoy the benefits of such a subsidy. Through various advertisements in the mass media, the government has launched a campaign to sway public opinion on the necessity of reducing the burden of subsidies.
It would be a pity if the declared intent to provide free education and health care was designed more to cushion possible anger at rising fuel prices.
The art of "spinning" is common practice in politics. But what our elected officials should realize is that with or without the "spin", there can be no better investment in their political careers than ensuring the welfare of voters.