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