Who is fighting for Indonesia's poor?

Mubyarto, Economics professor Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta

People's attitude towards poverty changes with time. At one time the subject was considered taboo. It was simply culturally incorrect in the early 1970s for any one in this country to admit that he or she was poor. One is "insufficiently" or "inadequately" endowed, but never "poor". Similarly, a person is "sufficiently" or "adequately" endowed, but is never "rich".

This attitude changed in the mid-1970s, thanks in no small measure to World Bank President Robert McNamara. In a famous speech in Nairobi IN 1975, McNamara unveiled a major program to assault global poverty. Poor countries would be aided with soft loans on very concessionary term from the World Bank.

In Indonesia, all of a sudden, it became culturally correct to say that one is poor. Wherever he went, President Soeharto always talked about rampant poverty in Indonesia. And in no time at all, Indonesia became one of the major recipients of World Bank aid.

The theory underpinning the World Bank program is that economic growth is imperative in tackling poverty.

The prevailing attitude in Indonesia then was that there was no need to launch a special poverty alleviation program. The government should only strive to bolster growth and the economy would expand, jobs be created and poverty tackled.

This was the development theory or the theory of economic growth upon which Indonesia's policies were based. Admittedly, the economy grew robustly, averaging seven percent a year between 1966 to 1996. But the majority of the poor people were never really assisted.

The realization that Indonesia needed a special program to tackle poverty came in 1993.

I was invited to work for the National Development Planning Board (BAPPENAS) as deputy for greater income equality and poverty alleviation. That was the first time in our national history that we had a high ranking official dealing specifically with poverty.

We launched the Inpres Desa Tertinggal (IDT), a program to help poor villages using a special presidential fund.

Over the next four years, until 1997, through this conscious effort to attack poverty, the number of Indonesians who lived below the poverty line dropped dramatically.

The philosophy underpinning the program was "trust the poor." Never say the poor are lazy or ignorant. Most are victims of circumstances they could not escape from.

The 1997 crisis brought the IDT program to an abrupt halt, largely because there were too many more people joining the ranks of poor. And with that, gone was the principle of empowering the poor people to help themselves out of their situation.

The government instead focused its attention on providing cheap rice, cheap medicines, and school subsidies. Needless to say, these social safety net (JPS) programs were open to abuse.

With the launching of the JPS, poverty suddenly became a hot commodity. Many people who were not poor claimed they were. Tackling poverty in government circles was treated as a project, with fat commissions, and not a serious problem.

Is anyone fighting for the interests of the poor in Indonesia?

Definitely. Many activists and grassroots organizations have been actively, but quietly, helping the poor to cope with their plight. But their voices are rarely heard today.

Instead, we hear economists loudly defending big companies, calling for their bail out as these corporations default on their massive debts and become a heavy drain on state finances.

Why should we save the big companies? The tycoons have not become poorer, they are still rich. But they use their employees, and the threat of closure and the loss of jobs as a pretext to secure government assistance.

The entire nation seems to have become hostage to these tycoons. We should have let them go out of business. That was what South Korea and Thailand did with their tycoons.

As we are drawn to the plight of the rich tycoons, we seemed to have become insensitive to the plight of the poor.

The problem with poverty in Indonesia is that our government leaders have never really addressed the problem.

The media and various analysts usually only comment on problems that are being talked about by the President or her aides.

So, tackling poverty must first start with a public acknowledgement from the government that this is a big problem.

I am disappointed that President Megawati Soekarnoputri in her independence day speech on August 16 did not touch on this issue.

Our leaders must start to talk about poverty, about the marhaen (little people), and there's no need to be afraid of being labeled a socialist.

(This article was written based on an interview with The Jakarta Post's reporter Israr Ardiansyah in Yogyakarta)