Gerindra Politician Suggests Government Appoint Bulog As Distributor Of Social Assistance

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Gerindra Party politician Arief Poyuono believes that the implementation of the Emergency Community Activity Restriction (PPKM) will create economic problems and fulfill basic needs for people on the islands of Java and Bali.

The reason, according to him, is that although the government has prepared cash assistance, this policy will have an impact on reducing people's purchasing power and consumption. This is because, said Arief, the emergency PPKM will limit the operational activities of community businesses, either in the market or at home.

"So people have very limited cash for shopping," said Arief, Friday, July 2.

As is known, the government will again distribute social assistance in line with the implementation of Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) on the islands of Java and Bali from July 3 to July 20, 2021.

In this regard, the former deputy chairman of the Gerindra Party suggested that the government re-appoint Bulog as a distributor of social assistance. Because, in 2020 Bulog has succeeded in carrying out the task of distributing social assistance by referring to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Bearing in mind, continued Arief, that the provision of assistance from the President is not only in accordance with the purpose of implementing emergency PPKM and reducing fraud, but can also have a good impact on the national economy.

"The provision of rice packages will help absorb the rice in Bulog, thereby reducing the potential for damage to rice in Bulog, which has been stored for too long because it is not absorbed in various activities," said Arief.

In addition, he added, the central government also has experience in maintaining the fulfillment of basic needs for the community and maintaining national economic stability as in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

"With the activity of providing assistance from the President by the Central Government in the form of premium rice packages as much as 25 kg/KPM (beneficiary families), which is carried out by Bulog through the Ministry of Social Affairs as a provider of community data that deserves assistance," said Arief.

On the one hand, coordination with several related ministries/institutions has been carried out by the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK) to accelerate the distribution of social assistance (bansos).

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendi said that coordination was carried out to synchronize so that social assistance could be distributed as quickly as possible and its coverage was truly on target.

"The most important thing is that the people who are most affected, namely those at the lowest level, can be helped by the social assistance which will be rolled out later," he told reporters, Friday, July 2.

Muhadjir targets that in the second week of this month the social assistance can be distributed to all corners of the country, especially to beneficiary families in need.