The Impact Of The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Made The Gap Wider, La Nyalla Calls For This To Conglomerates

Chairman of the DPD RI, AA La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti. (Special)

JAKARTA - The social and economic gap in society has widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under these conditions, the Chairman of the DPD RI, AA La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti, invites conglomerates and rich people to show their concern for the poor.

According to La Nyalla, this concern will greatly help people who are experiencing economic difficulties. In particular, when Emergency PPKM is implemented. "The implementation of the Emergency PPKM has resulted in contradictions in the community. This situation has made the social gap between the rich and the poor wider," he said in a written statement received Thursday, July 15.

The senator from East Java added that currently the poor is screaming due to lack of food. Meanwhile, the Emergency PPKM BST assistance they had hoped for had not yet been disbursed. "The controversial thing that then happened during the pandemic was the increasing number of rich people in Indonesia, such as investment businessmen," he said.

Data and Facts

LaNyalla's statement refers to data released by Forbes, Credit Suisse, and the Financial Times. It is stated that the number of rich people in various countries, including Indonesia, has increased. "Forbes magazine, as well as Credit Suisse and the Financial Times stated that the number of Indonesians who have wealth of more than 1 million US dollars, or if converted to Rp. 14.49 billion, is around 172,000 people. Or, an increase of 62.3 percent compared to the previous year. (year on year/yoy)," he said.

Meanwhile, the number of very rich Indonesians, with a wealth of more than 100 million US dollars in 2020, reached 417 people, an increase of 22.29 percent from the previous year.

This amount of wealth jumped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic to reach more than 50 percent, such as bosses Djarum Budi Hartono and Michael Hartono, Prajogo Pangestu, Sri Prakash Lohia, Chairul Tanjung, and others.

Poverty is inevitable when the economy is getting worse. (Photo by Irfan Medianto VOI)

"This condition is inversely proportional to the screams of the poor who have difficulty finding food during the pandemic, and this emergency PPKM period is no exception. This can be seen from BPS data which states that since September 2020 the poor have reached 27.55 million people, or an increase of 1.12 million," he said.

The former chairman of PSSI considered the government's task to be very heavy. Because, it is feared that this very deep social gap will cause an eruption. "As a result, it can result in an unstable government. This must be considered and anticipated quickly to maintain the stability of the country's security," he said.

For this reason, LaNyalla asked the government to invite the rich to contribute materially to solve economic problems. "And the most important thing is to suppress the potential for other problems to arise that can spread to other social problems," he explained.

AA La Nyalla Mahmud Mattalitti also invites rich people to open up social sensitivity, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and Emergency PPKM. Because the government is currently in trouble. "This is the time for the participation of some groups who are able to provide help and support to other brothers and sisters who are struggling to cover basic needs in the midst of a pandemic," he said.