Thousands, hundreds of thousands, or maybe millions of people in West Java and Jakarta, might have read the Feb. 5 edition of Pikiran Rakyat, a local newspaper, showing a picture of a young boy being arrested by a mayoralty police unit while crying and struggling to free himself. This “sweeping” was launched by the Bandung mayor for beggars and street children operating at the street’s intersections in the hope that the city would look “cleaner” and more orderly.
It is, in fact, not that uncommon to see such a view in Jakarta, and other big cities in the countr,y as the poverty rate, although it has become one of the government’s priorities in the state development, is still high. The fact that on every street’s intersection, elderly men and women, as well as younger ones are begging, while singing and asking for money.
In the meantime, the idea to increase the income of top-level government and state officials was aired a few days ago, prompting criticism from many circles, along with the earlier controversial luxury vehicles provided to Cabinet ministers and other state officials.
The above-mentioned idea was supported by Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi, who said that the pay rise would also be given to governors, regents and mayors as their basic salary was very low compared to state-owned and private company directors.
The problem is that those two facts are seen differently. On the one hand, to increase the remuneration, as the government said, is easy to do because it has a say, but it is prone to criticism from the general public. On the other hand, the success of the government programs with regard to poverty alleviation, although according to the statistics it is good, is far from being obvious, but, in fact, apppears otherwise with the continual increase in beggars and streetchildren at road intersections.
With these facts in mind, the government needs to set a priority as to which one to settle first. As regards poverty alleviation, the Bandung mayor’s operation of removing street beggars, including children, is to some extent, good, but arresting children forcibly needs to be accounted for, as methods of persuasion are possible.
The most important thing is the aftermath. Should they be returned to their hometowns, or given skills training first, before being sent home and given money to start a small business? What about the elderly and handicapped people? All of these need concerted efforts by government officials at regional level, because they have been allocated sufficient funds in the form of the general allocation fund (DAU). But, in case the financing of the program is not adequate, the government should allocate more, meaning the funds that should have been allocated for the government and state officials, governors, regents and mayors’ pay rise should go first to helping alleviate poverty.
The regional leaders’ income is actually more than sufficient, as they receive more from other sources, including the controversial “fees” from regional government banks, as recently uncovered by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). The latter found the banks had channeled funds between 2002 and 2008 which the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) considered gratuities, and the KPK wants them to return the funds, amounting to some Rp 360 billion (US$38 million), back to the state.
To conclude, there is still time for the government to reconsider the planned pay rise and, if possible, to delay it until the appropriate time has come, meaning when poverty, in the form of beggars and streetchildren, is out of the picture.
M. Rusdi
Jakarta
