`The soft loans will motivate vendors'
The government has been providing soft loans to small-scale vendors since 2001 through the Subdistrict Community Empowerment Program (PPMK). The money is meant to help the vendors develop and expand their businesses. However, many people are unaware that the program exists and those that have heard of it doubt its benefits, as The Jakarta Post found out.
Topik, 25, is a native Jakartan who sells candy and facial tissues on public buses. He lives in Kalimalang, East Jakarta with his wife and daughter:
I have heard a little bit about the empowerment program from the subdistrict administration. I don't really know anything about it precisely. But if I'm not mistaken, my father applied for a loan one time to expand his tailor shop and to help him pay my brother's school fees.
Personally, I'm not too interested in taking out a soft loan even if the administration does prioritize people in the lower income brackets.
I kind of agree that soft loans like these will motivate vendors to run their businesses better business. So it is a good idea.
But I wouldn't dare take out a loan because my business is too small. I couldn't guarantee that I would be able to pay the monthly installments. I'd be worried that I wouldn't be able to make the loan payments halfway through.
I have decided to be self-reliant. I am just trying hard to pay for my business myself. My dream is to open my own kiosk. I have started saving about Rp 10,000 a day from my total profits of Rp 25,000.
Fortunately, my wife has also opened a small food stall near our house.
I prefer to be independent like this. I don't want to apply for a loan that will end up being a burden on me and my family.
Heri, 27, sells newspaper on public buses in Cawang, East Jakarta. He lives in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta, with his family:
I didn't really know that every subdistrict administration gets money for the community empowerment program.
If that's true it would really be a welcome policy. At least it would be a concrete program from the government to take care of poor people like me and the other vendors. It implies that the government wants to help the poor improve their lives.
However, I am still skeptical about the program. I mean, the program is dealing with a lot of money that is to be disbursed to the people. I'm just afraid that corrupt officials in the subdistrict administration will abuse the program for their own benefit.
Greed makes people turn a blind eye to the needs of others, and our officials are notoriously corrupt. So I wonder if the money reaches the poor people who are in dire need of financial support.
If the interest rate is low, I'll apply for a soft loan. I'd like to borrow about Rp 2 million. I would use it to get married. I really want to get married but I don't have the money.
Suradi, 33, sells snacks along Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta. He lives in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, with his wife and son:
I didn't know there was a community empowerment program in my subdistrict. I've never heard about it.
Even if it's true, I don't think I would apply for a soft loan to expand my business. I don't have any ideas about how to run any other kind of business or how to sell snacks some other way than I do it now.
Maybe I've just gotten so used to being poor that I can't imagine anything else.
Plus, I don't have the faith that I would be able to make the regular loan repayments. So I would get in trouble with the loan and my business would be finished.
I would rather rely on myself to improve my business even though I know that this kind of program is really good for the poor.
I heard about these kinds of programs from my father, who back in my home village got such a soft loan to help him cultivate his field. The farmers benefited from the program, I reckon.
But here I don't dare to apply for a loan, especially because I guess the procedures take a long time and are complicated.
-- Leo Wahyudi S