PKH PROGRAM EXPECTED TO HELP CUT POVERTY RATE

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 19 (Antara) - The government's Family of Hope Program (PKH), a social protection program that provides cash assistance to the very poor families, is expected to help the government achieve its target of lowering poverty rate by 7-8 percent.         Hence, the government has set a target to cover 10 million beneficiary families under the PKH program in 2018, so that its efforts to cut poverty rate would be successful.         Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa stated that the PKH was found to be the most effective program, compared to other social assistance and subsidies, as it contributed to a reduction of poverty rates by 0.15 percent.         "Of all social and subsidy assistances in Indonesia, PKH is considered to be the most effective in reducing poverty rates," Khofifah pointed out in a press conference to mark three years of the government of President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla in her office in Jakarta on Thursday.         In addition, the effectiveness of the PKH is not different from the roles of guiders and coordinators who assist and guide the PKH beneficiaries (KPM).          According to her, out of all assistances and subsidies, only PKH has guiders recruited specifically by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

INTENSIVE STEPS PLANNED TO OVERRCOME POVERTY

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Sept 17 (Antara) - The Indonesian government is planning to take labor intensive measures to develop retention basins and extend seed assistance as part of short term efforts to deal with increasing poverty rate among farmers.          These measures will be taken through the Ministry of Agriculture. Therefore, the minister will obligate regional governments and the farmers to plant assistance seeds on new land in an effort to increase production.          "We appeal to farmers to plant all seeds provided by the government such as soybean, maize and rice seeds on new fields," Minister Sulaiman said in Padang, West Sumatra, on Thursday. He made the remarks when opening the Archipelago Food Exposition 2015 at Tarandam Square, West Sumatra.          He said there was a region which received maize seed assistance worth Rp300 billion but it could not plant it on new farmlands so that the agriculture ministry asked that the assistance should be returned  to the government.          "Many other regions can plant it on new land. So, if the district head is unable to do it, the assistance should be returned," he said.          He said that the policy is taken to launch intensive agricultural programs as one of the efforts to boost production.

NUMBER OF POOR IN INDONESIA COULD POTENTIALLY INCREASE

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Sept 25 (Antara) - Records of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reveal that Indonesia was home to some 28.28 million poor people last March, higher than the 28.17 million recorded in the same period the year before.          BPS Chief Suryamin said recently that the rise in the number of poor people could be attributed to the losses incurred by those working in the agricultural sector as the harvest season had been delayed due to unfavorable climatic conditions.          A World Bank reported that  the rate of reduction of poverty and inequality in Indonesia had  declined, and was only 0.7 percent in 2012-2013. This was the lowest seen in the last decade.          The World Bank has also reported that around 68 million people in Indonesia almost fell in the "poor" category as their income was marginally higher than that of those in the "poor families" category.          According to Rizal Ramli, who was the Chief Economic Minister during Abdurrahman Wahid's term as president, there could be a further rise in the number of the poor if the incoming government raised the price of subsidized fuel.         Ramli added that in addition to these 28.2 million, another 10 million people nearly fall in the "poor" category.  If the price of subsidized fuel is raised, it would lead to a hike in the cost of transportation and commodities as well as the inflation rate, leading to another rise in the number of poor.      "If the next government raises fuel prices, the number of poor people in Indonesia will most likely rise to 38 million," the former Chief Economic Minister stated.

PASURUAN TRAGEDY NEGATES GOVT CLAIM OF REDUCED POVERTY?

By Andi Abdussalam

     Jakarta, Sept 17 (ANTARA) - The Pasuruan tragedy in East Java in which  21 people were trampled to death on Monday in a rush to receive  tithes  has prompted the opposition party to criticize the government's poverty reduction program.
     The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP)'s faction in the House of Representatives abruptly picked up its gun and used  the incident as a 'bullet' to open fire at the president.
     "This is a real condition that indicates increasing poverty in our society. It contradicts the president's statement in his state-of-the nation address last August that the poverty rate this year is the lowest so far," Hasto Kristanto, PDIP faction member, told a House plenary session on Tuesday.
     President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his state-of-the-nation speech at a House of Representatives (DPR)' plenary session last August 15, 2008 had stated the poverty rate in 2008 was the lowest in the past 10 years.
     The poverty rate had declined from 17.7 percent in 2006 to 15.4 percent in March 2008. The open unemployment rate in 2006 was recorded at 10.5 percent. It dropped to 8.5 percent in February 2008, according to the president.
     Yet, the Pasuran tragedy, Hasto Kristanto said, itself negated the president's claim of reduced poverty rate in the country.
     Twenty-one women were killed and dozens of others injured in a stampede in the remote East Java district of Pasuruan on Monday as crowds rushed to receive a cash tithe of Rp20,000 from philanthropist Syaichon.
     Kristianto noted that the number of people who died so far after they were trampled on in a stampede had reached 24 in the past two years, breaking down the number into 21 deaths at Pasuruan and three others in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta during a tithe distribution last year.
     According to Police General Sutanto, such an incident had taken place  four times since 2003. In 2003, four persons died under other peole's feet in a rush to receive handouts  in Pejaten, also in South Jakarta.
     "In contradiction to the claimed decrease in poverty, we  see factual indicators of increasing poverty, an increase of 11.3 percent in food prices  and of 8.8 percent in the cost of education. So, we are convinced that the president's claim in his August 16, 2008 address has been  denied by realities," Kritianto said.
     The office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) released a report recently that one in two workers in Indonesia was paid US$2 a day, indicating that poverty is still a major problem for Indonesian workers. But the ILO also pointed out that Indonesia's economy within 2000 and 2007 showed healthy indicators.
     Therefore, Kristanto suggested that the government reexamine its data on  the country's poverty rate, instead of unilaterally claiming reduced poverty to complement its eforts to  'charm' the people.
     Kristanto's data might just be valid. But the objectivity of his argument on the death of 21 people in the tragedy is also questionable if he takes it as a means of measuring the extent of poverty in Indonesia, which has a population of about 228 million. After all, he is a politician of an opposition party.
     The Indonesian government doesn't see any correlation between the Pasuruan tragedy with the country's poverty rate. According to Minister/State Secretary Hatta Radjasa, the tragedy has not in any way negated or disproved the government's recent pronouncement that the poverty rate was dropping.
     "It (the tragedy) doesn't show anything. Our poverty rate is declining. The tragedy doesn't negate our data. Therefore, it should not be linked to the number of the country's poor," he said.
     It could be true that Indonesia is today in much better economic conditions  than in previous years. However, it needs to restructure its economic policies to boost the real sector and solve its poverty and unemployment problems.
     Rachmat Gobel of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said  the Indonesian  economy was currently in much better shape  than 10 years ago when the country was hit by a monetary crisis in 1998.
     "According to latest studies by the World Bank in 2008, the commodity price hikes had a positive impact on Indonesia, and on the other hand, it negatively affected China, Thailand, the Philippines, Lao and Cambodia which suffered great losses," Gobel said recently.
     That's why Indonesia was lucky that it was rich in natural resources and had a vast domestic market so it was not so badly affected by the world's oil and food price hikes compared to other developing countries.
     Yet, poverty and unemployment still remain a problem. Therefore, the government has set a poverty reduction target of 12-14 percent in 2009 because the poverty rate had in reality already reached 15.4 percent by March 2008.
     Latif Adam, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said however, that the unemployment rate in Indonesia now stood at 8.5 percent. It was expected to grow by 0.5 percent to 9 percent in 2009 while the government's target was 7-8 percent.
     The government will therefore continue to make efforts to lower the poverty rate. "The poverty graph or trend in Indonesia has steadily decreased. The poverty rate in 2008, both in percentage and absolute numbers, is the lowest in the last 10 years," said presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng.
(T.A014/A/HAJM/A/S012) 17-09-2008 19:44:31