[stop-imf] INDONESIA: IMF-imposed price rises make beggars of million

[Robert Weissman]

    http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/647/647p24.htm


Green Left Weekly (Australia)
<>INDONESIA: IMF-imposed price rises make beggars of millions

Max Lane

*It has been almost a month since the Indonesian government increased
the retail price of petrol by 126% and of kerosene by 300%. The
increases are a part of the Jakarta government=92s commitments made to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1997 and 2004. In addition,
public transport fares and food prices have increased, eating into
people=92s meagre incomes in a country where most live on around US$1 a
day or less.*

The IMF policy has been enthusiastically supported by many of the
Australian-trained economists, mostly from the Indonesia Project at the
Australian National University, who advise Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono=92s government.

Not surprisingly, these policies have brought even more hardship to most
Indonesians. Most people use small kerosene stoves for cooking and
boiling drinking water. Following the price hikes, reports have surfaced
in the press of people scrounging for wood to replace kerosene.

These policies are turning millions of Indonesians into beggars. To
supposedly help people deal with what President Yudhoyono has called
=93short-term pain=94 =97 he uses the English phrase =97 the government
announced a scheme to compensate poor people with a Rp300,000 (A$42)
cash handout. In local jargon, this cash will go to /gakin/ to help them
with their /jadip/. Gakin is short for /keluarga miskin /or =93poor
families=94. Jadip is an abbreviation invented after the Aceh tsunami,
short for /jatah hidup /(ration to live). The Central Bureau of
Statistics (BPS) is supposed to help the government determine who should
get compensation, using a monthly income of around Rp100,000 (A$15) as
the cut-off point. The minimum wage in Indonesia is around Rp750,000
(A$105) depending on the region.

The head of the BPS, Choril Maksum, told a parliamentary committee on
October 24 that the BPS has authorised the issuing of 7 million cards
identifying people as /gakin/. However, newspapers report that another 3
million families have registered for the compensation payment. Maksum
told the committee that his staff were afraid to go home at night
because they are being threatened and their houses are being stoned. He
said the BPS would contact the additional 3 million who were trying to
=93coerce=94 the BPS into classifying them as poor.

People who =93qualify=94 as /gakin/ receive a voucher from the local
=93neighbourhood head=94. They then take it to the post office or another
distribution point to cash it in. The houses of neighbourhood heads have
become the sites for demonstrations and occupations by angry poor people
who are unable to receive a payment.

Every day the Indonesian press reports these protests. The poor are
often armed with machetes or scythes as they demand vouchers. There are
many reports of neighbourhood or village heads being beaten. Some
offices have been attacked and wrecked. In many cases, neighbourhood
heads have decided to resign or they have simply run away. In other
cases, groups of neighbourhood heads have gone to the police to ask for
protection. In Sulawesi, even the blind have been demonstrating in
response to being denied the compensation payment.

On October 26, the Jakarta newspaper /Kompas/ reported the first death
of a neighbourhood head, stabbed by a poor person who would not accept
the head=92s explanation that he did not decide who was to get the money.
On the same day, another died of a heart attack after poor people
surrounded his house.

There are also reports of poor people, especially the elderly, dying.
After receiving their voucher, people must take it to a cash
distribution point. Large numbers of people queue for a long time in the
tropical sun. On October 18, /Kompas/ reported the death of Kasipah, an
80-year-old man. He was queuing in the village of Karangsari in East
Java. He collapsed and died on the way to hospital. In the town of
Dempet in Central Java, /Kompas /reported the death of Wadiman, a
70-year-old man. He had been squeezed among a crowded queue waiting for
his compensation and died of suffocation.

Similar tragedies have been reported in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and
Sulawesi. Detailed news articles are appearing in Jakarta and provincial
newspapers. There are pages and pages of reports detailing the suffering
of the people and their desperation to receive the miserly government
handout.

The callousness of the government was underlined by a cavalier statement
by vice-president Jusuf Kalla, who is also a wealthy businessperson and
the chair of the Indonesian parliament=92s largest party, Golkar. He is
reported to have said: =93What are all the complaints about queues, we
queue for cinema tickets don=92t we?=94

The inadequacy of Rp300,000 handouts to deal with the impact of the
IMF-imposed price rises is doing huge damage to social solidarity,
generating tensions between those who receive the payment and those who
don=92t. Newspaper reports describe how in the same queue, there are women
dressed in rags with the minimal documentation to prove their status, as
well as young men with all their documents photocopied and kept neatly
in a nice briefcase. In villages, there are disputes as to who is the
poorer among neighbours.

This exposes the bankruptcy of the so-called economists and their
statistics on minimum wages, average wages and poverty levels. Anybody
with a minimum of direct contact with working people in Indonesia=92s
towns and villages knows that every working person supports five, 10 or
even more family members who are not working. There are tens of millions
of people who have no direct income, or who eke out a living of less
than Rp300,000 a month.

The fuel price rise=92s impact on the general economic climate is not
helping the situation. The Indonesian Textile Association stated on
October 25 that it expected 500,000 workers =97 300,000 in factories and
200,000 home workers =97 to lose their jobs. The association is calling
for tax relief as a means of staving off the dismissals. A report in the
daily /Rakyat Merdeka /quoted the minister of labour saying that he
expected 1 million workers in the timber, textile, footwear and
electronics industries to lose their jobs as a result of the price
increases.

Meanwhile, another controversy rages in the press over the decision of
the parliament this month to increase MPs=92 salaries by 30%, to Rp30
million per month on top of their allowances for hotel accommodation,
transport and the money they receive from lobbyists.

 From /Green Left Weekly,/ November 2, 2005.