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.