Where is all the money for the poor, the elderly and the ailing?
Where is all the money for the poor, the elderly and the ailing?
Ibu Rini is 68 years old and walks a distance of up to 8
kilometers a day selling roast chicken in neighborhoods and
school complexes in Bekasi, West Java.
A fighter against the Dutch, Rini prefers her independence
than having to live with one of her grown children and begging
for pocket money.
But then her husband died, and she suddenly found herself
living in her old house with her youngest daughter and her
family.
"My son-in-law later lost his job, and wanted to open his own
business. I suggested that we sell roast chicken, with me going
around the neighborhood as the vendor," Rini said. Her son-in-law
and daughter was originally horrified, saying it would be such an
embarrassment.
Rini soon showed them they had no reason to be ashamed, and
now contributes significantly to the family's survival. "Besides,
I like making people happy with my roast chicken, which is
healthy and halal (permitted to Muslims)," she said.
"All I want is to spend my old age earning His blessing, and
hope that if I should die I will die in full acceptance of
Allah's ruling of my life."
Nawawi, also 68, is a garbage man and a grandfather of 10 in
Pondok Gede, East Jakarta. When he first came to the neighborhood
some 50 years ago from Central Java, there was a lot of vacant
land so he was able to start farming.
But then development projects took over, and his family
gradually lost their land to the projects -- the money from
selling the land, however, did not last for long.
For several years he was unemployed ("what work can you get
with no diplomas?") before he became a garbage man. He is
thankful that two of his daughters are now married and living
with their husbands, while his wife has a job in Tanjung Priok.
"Carting garbage is really heavy work, and I have to compete
with garbage truckers around here," he said.
"I have to go on because I still have to feed, clothe and
educate my three other children. I want them to achieve something
better in their lives. I want my children to go on to the
University of Indonesia."
Mas'ud, 70, is known in his neighborhood in Cipayung, East
Jakarta, as McGyver, after the TV character famous in the 1980s,
for his seemingly endless ability to fix things.
Indeed, Mas'ud has for years been working as a repair man for
various electronic appliances -- visitors flock to his house
almost every day carrying broken fans, watches, TVs, radios and
toys to be fixed.
"We are usually satisfied with his work," said one customer
patiently waiting his turn.
Mas'ud is diabetic and has recently been hospitalized, while
his wife Aminah, who is three years younger, has suffered two
strokes. Their three grown children took care of the hospital
bills just as they regularly send money to the elderly couple
every month.
"I don't work because I need the money as our children see to
it that we have enough," Mas'ud said proudly.
Unlike Rini and Nawasi, Mas'ud does not have to work to earn a
living. But like Rini and Nawasi, and millions of other elderly
Indonesians, Mas'ud is vulnerable to sickness and hefty hospital
bills as there is no such thing as health insurance available to
them.
Like many Indonesians, their "insurance" takes the form of
children who care for them in their old age -- not always a
reliable or even viable option.
By 2015, the country will have approximately 24 million people
over the age of 60 who will not be protected by any sort of
social security system.
"This a social time bomb in the making," said Sulastomo, a
member of the government's Social Health Insurance Policy
Development Project, when presenting the results of a study on
the social security systems in Korea, Thailand, Germany and
France during a recent workshop in Jakarta.
Even now, the existing social security schemes cover less than
20 percent of the population. Out of a workforce of approximately
95 million persons, 24 million are employed in the formal sector
-- but not all are covered by social security schemes.
The remaining millions of other workers -- known as "self-
employed" -- have to fend for themselves when illness and other
calamities strike.
"If the government cannot handle this problem (of providing
social security) for its people, it shouldn't be allowed to
continue to govern this country," a participant -- an official
with a state-owned pension fund firm -- said scathingly during
the workshop.
"If the government cannot protect its people, who will? The
U.S. government?" the livid official went on.
"The government has not been fair toward its own people and
civil servants -- it does not honor its responsibility (of paying
for social security) but forces state-owned firms to pay for it."
Speakers during the event, including Sulastomo, conceded that
some social protection had indeed been established. PT Jamsostek,
PT Askes, PT Taspen and PT Asabri collectively manage today some
Rp 65 trillion under various social security schemes for workers
of private firms, civil servants and pensioners, and for police
and military personnel.
There are efforts to being about reform, however. Presidential
Decree No. 20/2002 established the National Social Welfare System
Task Force, which has been entrusted with the task of designing a
social security system for Indonesia.
The members of the task force have gone to Korea, Thailand,
Germany and France to study the systems applied in these
countries, and presented their findings during the workshop.
A cooperative venture was established with the European Union
Delegation in Jakarta -- later giving birth to the Indonesia
Social Health Insurance Policy Development Project. Team leader
Dimitri Biot said the project was designed to assist with the
development of an equitable, viable, effective and efficient
healthcare system.
"In fact, the project covers a broader scope, including social
security issues that go beyond health issues," Biot said.
More importantly, the task force has produced a draft bill on
social security system -- which members hope to soon submit to
the House of Representatives. The document delineates not only
the principles of a good social security system, but also the
necessary preconditions for such a system to be successful.
Political will on the part of the government topped the list
of these preconditions. Achmad Subianto, the director of PT
Taspen, said the current administration had its shortcomings but
at least it had displayed its commitment to bettering the lot of
workers by providing bonuses (THR).
"It took us two years of campaigning to achieve this,"
Subianto said, recounting how in the past the absence of holiday
bonuses often led to corruption as civil servants manipulated
travel expenses to earn additional income.
Sadly, most of the speakers at the workshop had long lists of
factors that they thought might jeopardize the attempt at
reforming the social security system -- with the most notable
factor being poor governance.
Philip Townsend, a representative of the International
Business Chambers, questioned how Indonesia, with poorly
developed human resources and such a great deal of diversity,
could manage a program that would involve huge amounts of money
when it lacked a tradition of transparency and accountability.
Townsend welcomed the new campaign to provide better
healthcare for workers, but questioned where the money would come
from when Indonesia allotted less than 1 percent of its GDP on
this field.
"Why doesn't the government provide the funding itself?" he
asked, before suggesting that the government resort to the so-
called "sin taxes" on the tobacco and alcohol industries to
provide the resources.
A neglected social security system -- which led to even poorer
human resources -- would mean the final nail in the coffin of
foreign investment, which the government was so earnestly
striving to attract, Townsend said.
Legislator Sanusi Tambunan also questioned the government's
ability to properly run a national social security program in a
transparent and accountable manner.
The public, for instance, was never informed about how the
taxes they paid were spent or what the government did with the
money saved from the scrapping of oil and gas subsidies.
"Where does the money go?" Tambunan asked.
A big question, indeed, when most people agree that a strong
social security system for everybody is "mandated by the people,
and the Constitution", and calls for trustworthiness on the part
of the government and the body responsible for running the
system. -- Santi W.E. Soekanto and Maya Dahlan