Who fights for the poor?

Who fights for the poor?

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government's decision to raise fuel prices has sparked public
protests. Most people opposed to the rises, including House of
Representatives legislators, claim to be fighting for the
interests of the poor, who analysts say are the most affected by
the rise. In today's cover story, Jakarta Post's reporters look
at the impact of fuel prices on the less well off and what
measures will be needed to help alleviate their plight.

I did not recognize the poster of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono when I first entered Ita's house.

The place was not only dark, the picture was also mounted
oddly; attached to an instant noodle box on top of a cabinet; and
my eyes were quickly diverted by a nearby tangle of electrical
wiring, which I suspect has not been properly installed.

Ita's "house" is a four by seven square meter box, complete
with a living room, two bedrooms, a tiny kitchen, and a bathroom.
It has no tables and I am invited to sit on the floor in the
lounge.

Susilo's cabinet, however, takes up much of the space in the
room, prompting anyone inside to clamber awkwardly around it to
reach the kitchen or bathroom.

Out back, there is evidence of flood damage from an incident
few months ago and the whole house hangs precariously over a
nearby river. Bags of sand are still piled up on its banks.

Here, Ita, 38, lives with her husband, Dayar, 42, and their
second daughter, Mariana, 12. Their first daughter, Ida, is now
married and lives with her husband.

Ita, who is an indigenous betawi, inherited the house from her
parents, who live next door.

She makes money by working as a domestic helper for two
families, while her husband is a construction worker. Ita says
things were tough for the famliy for a while when Dayar suffered
from a persistent lung ailment and was rarely employed.

She says Dayar almost died from his illness three or four
years ago. Initially she had sought help from a nearby private
medical clinic, but the physicians there had rejected him, saying
the hospital was already full of patients.

With the help of neighbors, she went to a state clinic where
she got medicine for free. Dayar has since recovered and resumed
his work.

Ita and her family are among the poor who have become the
subject of the speeches of the President, his ministers, the
legislators, and the protesting students on the street.

The government stated that its decision to cut the fuel
subsidy was taken for the sake of the people and it has promised
to spend some of the money saved on assistance programs for the
poor.

However, many House legislators oppose the deal and all sides
admit that increased prices for fuel will disproportionately
burden the poor.

Meanwhile, students have been staging rallies on the street,
demanding the government reimpose the subsidies, also for the
sake of the poor.

Despite the fuss, Ita told the Post that life for her and her
family had changed little since the increases.

She still found it difficult to buy basic foods and pay for
transport costs, let along the Rp 45,000 (about US$4.8) she
spends in study fees a month for her daughter's education at the
privately run Kusuma Bangsa junior high school. She also pays
another Rp 40,000 a month on average for electricity bills.

Ita, however, is proud of her television set and refrigerator;
two symbols of prosperous modernity two purchases she pays off
with installments.

The families, to which Ita had been working for almost 10
years, often gave her bonuses, she said.

Which is more than she expects from the state. Ita says she
holds out little hope that her family will see any of
government's assistance for the poor package.

None of the free rice in the rice for the poor programs run
by previous governments had ever reached the families in her
neighborhood, she said. If rice did come their way, residents had
to pay Rp 1,000 a kilogram for low quality produce.

"The President has changed, and so has the government, but the
promises are still the same. Life is getting harder, but I just
have to make adjustments to survive, " she said.