Will the poor always be with us?

This month we are both commemorating Indonesia’s declaration of independence and observing the holy month of Ramadan. These events celebrate our struggle to gain recognition as human beings with all rights, and reaffirm our stand against inequality and impoverishment.

Sadly, after 65 years of life as an independent nation, and all the Ramadans in between, half of our brethren are still considered as living in poverty or just below the poverty line.

Although the freedom fighters sacrificed themselves for the independence of our people, and many, many more try to experience some of the deprivations of the marginalized for a limited period every year, the poor seem always to be with us. Does this imply that we have resigned these annual occurrences to mere rituals?

One would think the triple catastrophe — climate change, a sharp escalation of food and energy prices, as well as the financial crises — would be a wake-up call from nature reminding us how mankind has forsaken the essential values that underpin civilization.

However, it appears to be business as usual: 45 percent of our land still belongs to 11 percent of our households and 76 percent of our farmers have yet to complete their primary education.

Even more ominous is how our farmer’s purchasing parity has actually declined over the last decade. It’s such a shame how half of our population as denigrated is seen as a burden while they could actually participate in our quest for quality growth — if only we’d let them.

The government has shown itself to be on the side of the people through its various schemes and poverty alleviation programs, such as the much touted direct cash transfer and triple-track strategy.

The Prophet Muhammad has also bestowed upon us the freedom to choose from a plethora of methods of contributing, but most of us tend to only give the bare minimum.

Direct payments may indeed assuage the suffering of the poor for a time, but these disbursements
pale in comparison to the amount of added-value our capitalistic system is reaping off those in the hinterlands.

This goes to show just how odious our paradigm has been when it comes to growth. We have become slaves to our own country, not due to foreign interests, but because we have fallen prey to the lure of capitalism in its most depraved form.

Now when we look at schemes for poverty alleviation, the term most often used is “trickle-down”, the promise that growth for the upper echelons in a capitalistic society will somehow sliver and find its way to the poor.

Can you imagine just how inhumanely offensive that term is when you can see Maseratis and Lamborghinis parading in the streets of the capital?

Even the revered Prof. Emil Salim has shown how growth does not, in itself, equate to job generation, let alone poverty alleviation. We can no longer afford to daydream that pro-growth strategies will help us achieve pro-job goals. To allow our people to achieve these goals, we need to provide low-income people with assets to work with.

They need land, a conventional asset, as well as information, a contemporary asset, to have a voice in society. By having a voice they can gain access to additional services and acquire other assets. By employing this growth through an equity paradigm we will be able to employ a growth strategy suitable to the needs and the reach of the people.

We need to realize that the poor are the ones who know best their constraints, so we need to conduct an equal discourse and work together with them to build a ladder out of poverty as a proper path for sustainable development. By promoting a planned conception we can manage population growth and properly feed and nourish our people.

Once the proper distribution of food and nutrition is achieved, we can design a health care system that reaches out and is affordable for even the least fortunate. To ensure that they are able to fend for themselves properly, we also need to equip them through an education system that appreciates local genius and addresses local challenges.

Only after they are well-fed, healthy, and knowledgeable can we start talking about infrastructure and institutions which synergize the people and corporate economies.

According to the guru, Professor Widjojo Nitisastro, the most important asset in the fight against poverty is solidarity and steadfast commitment, rare commodities in contemporary society, from all involved regardless of stature or creed.

We need to inculcate this commitment and solidarity for the poor, starting from our own communities. We should be able to put humanity on the forefront of sustainable growth by adopting the people-driven paradigm, wherein policies formulated, institutions built, and technology researched or transferred-in is determined by the needs and capacities of our people.

We have just read how super wealthy Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have dedicated more than Rp 1,380 billion to charity. But they haven’t stopped there, they are now trying to persuade other billionaires to donate half of their wealth. Will the real Pancasila billionaires please stand up to be counted?

The government has shown whose side it is on. It is high time we prove that our sense of humanity does not allow us to enjoy our wealth without sharing with our less fortunate brethren. Let us all contribute toward building a Republic dreamed of by the founders; an Indonesia sans poverty.

The writer is chair of the National Coordinating Agency for Poverty Alleviation, 2001.