Vital statistics count

As Indonesia enters the year 2006 everybody knows that its total population is about 230 million, as per the census held before the 2004 presidential election. However, personally I am more interested in its vital statistics, just as I asked my wife fifty years ago before we married; in private of course.

For instance, I want to know before the sun rises on Jan. 1 2006, how much of 100 percent is President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, I don't care about Vice President Jusuf Kalla (forgive me), still enjoying public trust compared with the figure of 60 percent when he defeated the first woman president of the country, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

At this juncture in history, it is essential that we know how many people are living below the poverty line, since the National Development Planning Agency, has tragically missed the correct data when the poor queued to receive the government cash aid that involved riots and resulted in two deaths.

After the Cabinet reshuffle the right man to give the answer to my above question should be the former coordinating minister for the economy. Alas, he is too new in his post as coordinating minister for people's welfare so I hesitate to inquire. I also have no courage to ask the presidential spokesman with a musical name, Andi Mararangeng, how many young men between the age of seventeen and forty are unemployed. He may answer it is about 10 percent of the population at the most which is already a serious economic and social problem.

I am also eager to know how many children are not attending school and how many school buildings need repair in the whole country.

I wish somebody would come up with the idea of publishing a white book on national vital statistics they usually publish in this country to please the officials.

Next year I must know with certainty how many illegal narcotics factories have been discovered and are still operating and where. On the number of small islands belonging to Indonesia, whether it is 3000 or 7000 in total, one cannot rely on official statistics. Just think: The official inflation rate is seen as having nothing to do with price increases.

I am afraid that to get the correct data on economic growth one may have to consult the IMF or the World Bank.

GANDHI SUKARDI, Jakarta