The first family starts decadal national census

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) initiated on Thursday the decadal National Census, with President Abdurrahman Wahid, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso as the first three respondents.

President Abdurrahman was the first to be censused at about 10:30 a.m., followed by Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso at 12:30 p.m., and then vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri at about 2 p.m.

The President was accompanied by his wife Sinta Nuriyah and three of his four daughters at the presidential palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta.

"His oldest daughter, Alissa Qotrunnada Munawaroh is on her umroh (minor haj pilgrimage) trip," field officer Dony Gunawan told The Jakarta Post after the counting.

"I only asked the President basic questions like his name, his birthday and birthplace and where he resided over the past five years. For the first lady, I asked how many times she had given birth," he added, while citing that the questionnaire also included household facilities, such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

"The city administration also provided a supplement to the questionnaire on the respondents' economic status. But we didn't ask the economy-related questions to the President, we'll just simply send the auxiliary questionnaire later to the President's adjutant," he said.

Also present at the State Palace were Governor Sutiyoso, the newly-appointed head of the BPS Sudarti Surbakti, head of the bureau's Jakarta office Masni Rani, and Central Jakarta mayor Andi Subur Abdullah.

After taking counts at the presidential palace, the officials then queried Sutiyoso at his residence on Jl. Taman Suropati, also in Central Jakarta.

The governor was accompanied by his wife Setyorini, daughters Yessy Riana Dilliyanti and Renny Yosnita, and son-in-law Yogi Sandi Nugraha. The family data was taken by BPS official Panca Oktaviani.

"I expect all residents to cooperate with the officials by giving correct answers. It's for the benefit of all of us," he told reporters, while indicating that it was difficult to curb the flow of urbanization to the capital.

"It will be difficult to halt urbanization as long as our development program is concentrated in the capital. But as soon as the regional autonomy is in effect, we can expect the migration to reduce automatically," he added.

Separately, Sudarti said the decadal census was taken to acquire the latest population database.

"We expect the Indonesian population to be about 208 million people or some 52 million households. More than 350,000 field officers will be deployed nationwide to take the count," she told reporters at Sutiyoso's residence.

"The overall budget for the national census is some Rp 304.8 billion (US$ 35.8 million). We spent Rp 160.8 billion for preparation activities, such as training and document printing. For the field activities we have budgeted Rp 117.6 billion and another Rp 26.4 billion for data analysis," she said, citing that all people in the country would be counted.

She said the census would also count all foreigners and their family members residing in Indonesia, except those belonging to diplomatic missions.

"All internally displaced people and East Timorese refugees will also be counted. Only simple questions will be asked to the refugees," she said, while ruling out questions on their preference of nationality.

Meanwhile, Masni said her office estimated the city's population to be about 9.6 million people or some 2.3 million households.

"We will also conduct a special session to take the counts of beggars and homeless people on June 30. We will conduct the census in the evening," she said.

Masni revealed that the city received a budget of some Rp 4.7 billion from the proposed Rp 6.4 billion.

"Most of the fund is slated for field operations. All field officials will receive Rp 2,000 per family they count," she said.

Sutiyoso and the BPS officials then censused Megawati Soekarnoputri at her official residence on Jl. Diponegoro, also in Central Jakarta. The official in charge was Tono Hartono Siagian. (nvn)