Who is fighting for Indonesia's poor?

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)