HNW Criticizes Social Minister Risma Who Doesn't Want To Extend Cash Social Assistance

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of the MPR Hidayat Nur Wahid (HNW) criticized Social Minister Tri Rismaharini who disagreed with Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendi regarding Cash Social Assistance. The Minister of Social Affairs insisted that the BST program would end in April 2021, while the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture stated that it would continue until June even though it was not discussed with Commission VIII of the DPR.

According to him, the Minister of Social Affairs does not seem to be serious about helping the people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because the Minister of Social Affairs has repeatedly said that he will not extend cash social assistance due to a lack of budget. In fact, the budget is available and reserved by the Ministry of Finance in the Social Protection budget post of Rp. 157.4 trillion.

“The Minister of Social Affairs should be ashamed. Very good populist programs such as cash assistance which he insisted on stopping, were finally extended by the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, even though it was never discussed with Commission VIII of the DPR-RI," said Hidayat, Sunday, May 30.

The member of Commission VIII of the DPR considered it strange that the 2021 BST was only prepared until April with a budget of Rp. 12 trillion by the Ministry of Social Affairs. He also suggested that the program be extended but Social Minister Risma refused.

"It's even weirder, in mid-May suddenly an official statement appeared from the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture which announced that it would extend it until June 2021, with the distribution being carried out for two months," said Hidayat.

According to him, this issue will set a bad precedent in the policy-making process, in which strategic national policies involving trillions of rupiah in APBN are taken and decided without being discussed with the DPR RI. Plus the implementation mechanism is not clear and the problem of data accuracy has not been completed. Because according to the Minister of Social Affairs there were 21 million DTKS that were put to sleep which is still controversial.

"Is the secret extension of the BST an effort by the Ministry of Social Affairs so that there is no supervision from the DPR-RI," said Hidayat.

The Deputy Chairperson of the PKS Syuro Council also urged the Ministry of Social Affairs to be truly trustworthy in implementing BST for the months of May and June, by ensuring the accuracy of the data on BST beneficiaries, because the latest data is still confusing.

Hidayat hopes that the BST will not only be extended until June, but at least until December 2021 considering the socio-economic conditions of the community that have not yet recovered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hidayat detailed that the budget needed for BST distribution until the end of the year is IDR 24 trillion. This amount, he said, is still relatively affordable, which can be taken from the allocation of reserve funds in the National Economic Recovery Program, which until May 2021 has only realized 24 percent of the total budget of Rp 699.43 trillion.

Moreover, based on the release of the Central Statistics Agency in February 2021, there were 19.1 million people affected by COVID-19 and the unemployment rate was still quite high at 6.26 percent. Indonesia's economic growth in the first quarter of 2021 also contracted by 0.74 percent.

Therefore, Hidayat considered, BST is very important to be continued by continuing the distribution performance and its effectiveness is quite good with the realization reaching 98.39 percent.

"I reminded the Minister of Social Affairs that things like this should be discussed with Commission VIII of the DPR as a partner of the Ministry of Social Affairs so that the legal basis is fulfilled," said Hidayat.