Undernourished children

A number of babies and children reported to be critically undernourished are being admitted to public heath centers every day. A leading newspaper has warned if such a trend continues the future of the younger generation may be in danger.

The seriousness of the matter is that these famine-stricken areas are close to the capital city of Jakarta, in many cases just 50 kilometers away from where the country's richest people live.

It is surprising that government officials and the nation's leaders are not alarmed any more by these reports. Economic growth may be slow but the rich should not be allowed to get richer while the poor get poorer.

Concerned citizens are questioning whether the nation's leaders are thinking more of the general elections to be held in two years time rather than why the promise of a prosperous society is drifting further away?

The fact that in Bogor, 317 children under the age of three, were found undernourished, should not be underestimated. According to Kompas, Anisah, a 14-month-old child, was found without any sign of life in her mother's lap.

From the south of another city, Cianjur, where you pass on your way from the tourist resort of Puncak, to Bandung, thousands of people have been complaining for the past several months that they do not have enough to eat. Most are unemployed, and migration to bigger cities has now become impossible due to the frequent raids on hawkers by the police. The Regional Autonomy Law was meant to give the regions a greater chance to boost their economy and provide a better livelihood to the local population.

National development planners should be ashamed that after about sixty years of self-rule the number of undernourished children in many provinces is increasing.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta