The indifference hurts deeply

The indifference hurts deeply

At least 42,000 Acehnese have reportedly left their homes following the escalating battle between the Indonesian military (TNI) and Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, the refugees include 1,100 babies, 4,200 children and 1,000 elderly.

Given the large number of refugees, the government and the provincial administration lack medical personnel, including doctors. Clean water and food at the refugee camps are also scarce commodities.

Meanwhile, other reports have said that several members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), together with their families, are now enjoying a trip to Paris. They are staying at a luxury hotel in Paris and reportedly rented a super deluxe limousine at a rate of (the equivalent of) Rp 3 million per 15- minutes.

The MPR members were supposed to go to several cities in Europe for comparative study purposes. They had planned to meet their French counterparts, but they are currently in recess. The MPR members then used the time for leisure, meaning that their journey turned into a junket, instead of an official trip.

If their trip was genuinely intended to enable them to carry out a comparative study in Europe, everything would have been funded by the state.

How can MPR members spend so much money on themselves when thousands of people in Aceh are suffering? Their indifference hurts us all, deeply.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta