`The soft loans will motivate vendors'

`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