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‘Poor is poor’: Prabowo calls for end to govt euphemisms
"We must dare to look at hardship and try to resolve it,” the president-elect said on Thursday
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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) greets visiting Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto at the Istana Negara Palace in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 7. Prabowo toured five ASEAN countries from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7. (Instagram/@@anwaribrahim_my)
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resident-elect Prabowo Subianto has expressed distaste for euphemistic language in government, saying leaders must dare to face the country’s problems frankly and directly.
He cited the term “pre-prosperous” being used in place of “poor” as a prime example. The former was “more friendly” but masked the reality of the country’s serious poverty situation.
“Poor is poor. It doesn’t sound good. But we, as leaders, must dare to look at it. We must dare to look at hardship and try to resolve it,” he said on Thursday in a speech to members of the National Awakening Party (PKB) that was broadcast online.
The Finance Ministry’s Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), the country’s largest state scholarship manager, has used the term to describe a scholarship program designed for the poor, called the “Pre-Prosperous People Scholarship”.
Prabowo said the term “aspiring middle class” was similarly euphemistic.
The World Bank defines the aspiring middle class as people that are free from poverty but have yet to achieve full economic security. Different multilateral institutions have different definitions for “poor” and “middle-class”.
In August, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) used the term as well, when discussing the state of the country’s middle class.
