The El Nino Phenomenon Until The Global Situation Is The Reason Jokowi Distributes Social Assistance In The Election Year

Presidential Special Staff Coordinator Ari Dwipayana (DOK ANTARA)

Presidential Special Staff Coordinator Ari Dwipayana said the provision of social assistance (bansos) by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to the public amid the momentum of the 2024 election campaign period was the government's affirmative policy to deal with certain situations. "Currently we are dealing with the phenomenon of El Nino. The El Nino phenomenon has an impact where the planting season and harvest season will shift," said Ari Dwipayana when met at the Jakarta State Secretariat (Setneg) Building, Antara, Monday, January 29. He said the situation had an impact on people's difficulties in getting basic materials, especially rice, because of the influence of climate situations that were not possible. Another background related to providing social assistance, continued Ari, is the current global situation faced with an increase in the price of a number of food needs. This situation has caused a burden on the community and one way to respond to the problem is by distributing social assistance," Ari added. "Because indeed the social groups that are in the lower layers must be assisted in dealing with this difficult situation," he said. He added that the affirmative policy implemented by the President was sourced from state budget funds (APBN) which were also from the people. When asked why the social assistance distribution agenda did not involve the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) as the authority in social services, Ari said that the rice assistance provided by Jokowi was part of a program owned by the Logistics Affairs Agency (Bulog). "Because it is related to food reserves. There is Bulog and food agencies. So it is more about that, including checking about the existence of food in each region, so what is invited is of course related to that," he said. As is known, since early January 2024 President Jokowi has made a working visit to a number of regions in Indonesia while distributing social assistance to the local community.

The latest is in the form of distributing social assistance in the form of the government's rice reserve food Program (CBP) to the community at the Tingkir Clumpit Football Field, Salatiga City, Central Java Province, Monday (22/1). Jokowi also directly distributed social assistance during his visit to Banten Province, Papua, to East Kalimantan.