Deputy Sri Mulyani Compared How The Government Overcame Poverty During The Soeharto Era And The Reformation Era, Which Is Better?

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA – Deputy Minister of Finance, Suahasil Nazara, stated that poverty is still a problem in Indonesia. According to him, this issue has become a classic thing from the government to government.

Suahasil explained that poverty alleviation has continued to undergo policy evolved over the past 50 years. Sri Mulyani's subordinates then gave an example when the government in the 1970s, which at that time was still led by President Soeharto, made efforts to eradicate poverty through a Presidential Instruction (Inpres).

“Here, the president gives special instructions to provide infrastructure in rural areas, such as schools, health facilities, roads, markets, and so on. It continues to evolve all the time,” he said when speaking in a dialogue-themed Multidimensional Poverty in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Wednesday, July 27.

According to Suahasil, the policy direction then changed in the early 1990s based on the geographic location of the population.

"Then the Presidential Instruction changed to the Inpres Disadvantaged Villages, where the target was based on geographic location and not sector", he said.

Furthermore, Suahasil explained that in its development the government's policy focused on giving money directly to the village, aka the transfer of the central government to the village (village funds).

"This fund is about 2 percent of our budget (APBN/State Budget) and is a direct transfer from the center to 75,000 villages throughout Indonesia. The use of the money is up to the village manager by applicable regulations and local community consultations", he said.

Then, he continued, in the current era, the government then reforms by collecting data per individual. This method is considered the most effective way to ensure that the program can be both effective and on target.

"We use this data to distribute direct cash assistance (BLT). The same data is also used for various similar programs from the government, such as the provision of rice, and health protection. This is the importance of a single data that is used to solve the problem of poverty,” he said.

Citing a report released by the Ministry of Finance, it is known that one of the government's strategic programs to solve poverty is contained in the 2022 National Economic Recovery (PEN) scheme.

In the national PEN policy, the state provides a total budget of IDR 455.62 trillion, of which the realization until the first semester of 2022 for the community protection cluster was recorded at IDR 60.2 trillion.

The money was used by the government to provide conditional cash assistance through the Family Hope Program (PKH), distribution of non-cash food assistance through the Sembako Card program, assistance for training costs and pre-employment incentives, village BLT, assistance for stalls and street vendors, and cooking oil BLT.