WB urged to postpone aid package
JAKARTA (JP): About 100 people protested in the lobby of the 31-story Jakarta Stock Exchange (BEJ) tower on Monday, demanding World Bank (WB), whose offices are in the building, postpone the disbursement of its Rp 109.52 billion emergency fund intended for Jakarta's poor.
The protest, organized by the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), a non-governmental organization, was peaceful and did not interrupt business at the BEJ Tower 2 building in the Sudirman central business district in South Jakarta.
Watched by dozens of police officers, the protesters, including pedicab drivers, children, and well dressed young and elderly women, sat calmly and sang protest songs in the lobby while awaiting the arrival of UPC leaders.
A big banner displayed the name of the organizers, and a cardboard box apparently contained about 10,000 signatures of poor people from Greater Jakarta, East Java, Yogyakarta and Medan who were opposed to the current handling of the aid program.
The protesters sang several modified versions of popular songs, such as JPS, siapa yang punya? (Who owns JPS?), to express their criticisms of the aid scheme, locally known by the acronym JPS.
The protesters, some of whom arrived in taxis as early as 9:30 a.m., claimed to be poor people from 25 subdistricts in the capital.
They argued that the funds had not reached the people they were intended for, but instead had been abused by corrupt executives of the Village Resilience Boards (LKMDs), which have been appointed by the government to manage the funds.
Protester Sunaryo, who said he was a poor resident of Gandaria subdistrict, said he rejected the JPS money because he was asked to show his Jakarta resident identification card.
"I'm originally from Tumenggung and have been here since 1982. I tried to register for an ID but my neighborhood chief told me it would cost me Rp 100,000," Sunaryo said.
Officially, the fee for an ID card is just Rp 1,000 for each person.
Wasini, from Kalideres, who said she expected to be fired soon from her job at electronics company PT Tatung Budi Indonesia, in Tangerang, agreed.
"I don't want the JPS money because the LKMD should have let me know of it long ago. I wouldn't have had to work like crazy at such a poor job if I knew of that money before," the 23-year-old girl said.
A similar reason was given by Rus Sulisyano, an employee of a concrete factory in Bogor.
The protesters, some of them neatly dressed and apparently able to read English well, urged WB, which has an office on the 12th floor of the tower, to either cancel the aid scheme or postpone the distribution of the money until after the June elections.
At 11:05 a.m., UPC chairwoman Wardah Hafidz arrived wearing a black top and a colorful body-fitting skirt slit to the knee.
The protesters, who she said had received Rp 5,000 food allowance and "extra money" for their transportation each from her, greeted her with applause.
Wardah and the protesters then held a dialog in the lobby with WB executives, including the bank's outgoing country director Dennis de Tray, his successor Mark Baird, and bank senior economist Ben Fisher.
According to De Tray, the WB was "not involved" in the country's politics.
"We only want JPS to work. If it does not, the Bank will look into the matter personally," De Tray said.
Baird added he would personally visit subdistricts here to discuss the aid problems directly with the people.
Meanwhile, Lant Pritchett, WB task manager for social safety net adjustment operations here, said he had not yet had a "detailed look" into the disbursement of the aid allotted to Jakarta.
"The government gives the WB regular feedback, but I'm still not sure whether ... 70 percent (of the funds have been) withdrawn from the (state bank) BRI account by LKMD executives, or 70 percent has already reached the hands of the people," Lant said. (ylt)