Avoid Politization, Social Assistance Supervision Must Be Tightened

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JAKARTA - pair of presidential and vice presidential candidates Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD compactly criticize the distribution of social assistance (bansos) when entering the 2024 election campaign period because they are prone to politicization.

Therefore, a political observer from Al-Azhar University, Ujang Komarudin, emphasized the importance of strict supervision of the distribution of social assistance by the government to prevent this politicization.

"Strict supervision is a solution to prevent the politicization of social assistance without the need to stop the distribution because social assistance is the right of the people," he said, Sunday, January 7.

He stated that all elements of the nation and existing political forces participated in strict supervision to close gaps for any party who intends to politicize social assistance.

On the other hand, the Chairman of the PAN Expert Council, Dradjad Hari Wibowo, revealed that Social Minister Tri Rismaharini who came from the PDI-P could play an active role in supervising the distribution of social assistance to prevent politicization.

He emphasized that social assistance is a state program because it has been included in the state budget and the authority to distribute social assistance is also the domain of the government through existing ministries and institutions, including the Ministry of Social Affairs under Tri Rismaharini.

"Therefore, the problem of how much it is distributed, to whom and when, it is the authority of the government. So we leave it entirely to the government to decide and the relevant ministers can also participate in supervising it," said Dradjad.

Previously, the Anies-Muhaimin National Team Co-Capptain, Sudirman Said, reminded the government not to politicize social assistance for political tools. This is because the politicization of social assistance is in the interest of a group, including in acts of corruption.