Vaudine England, Jakarta – Imam Utomo, Governor of densely populated East Java, is concerned about the increasingly crushing burdens of poverty, hunger and unemployment suffered by his people, as local prices of food, fuel and electricity soar.

So he has suggested the poor simply eat less. "Because rice is getting scarce, eat only twice a day," he urged his constituents, according to the Media Indonesia newspaper.

He said if people wanted to eat three times a day, breakfast should be rice-free and they should eat "tomatoes, cucumbers, cassava and dried fish" instead.

His comments appear a throwback to the infamous line reputedly uttered by Marie Antoinette when told the poor had only mouldy bread. "Let them eat cake" was her alleged riposte.

East Java is a long way from pre-revolutionary France, but many of the conditions are similar for the majority of the poor and dispossessed. A venal elite lives lavishly while almost a quarter of the nation's population, 40 million out of about 210 million people, are unemployed.

Thirty per cent of the population falls into the World Bank's definition of below the poverty line and World Bank country director Mark Baird said this week many more millions were verging on becoming destitute.

Activists for the urban poor say the Government could help a lot if it left the poor alone to make a living as vendors or becak (rickshaw) drivers, instead of pursuing its eviction and arrest policies. Most economists agree major changes in distribution of wealth are needed if feudalism is to be lessened in the economy.

Rice is the staple food. Even Mr Utomo acknowledges: "We feel we have not yet eaten if we have not eaten rice." But the days of national self-sufficiency in rice production are long past, with Indonesia importing basic needs from Thailand and Vietnam. The national state logistics agency Bulog, which is entangled in almost every current corruption case, is now distributing subsided but poorer quality local rice. Activists say distribution will be as corrupt as usual.

Domestic and industrial fuel prices were raised on Wednesday night, adding to financial pressure, and electricity and phone charges are also rising. Although the legal minimum wage was raised slightly late last year, many employers ignore the rule.

But more outrageous to many Indonesians is the ignorance displayed not only by Mr Utomo but by other leaders. "Don't they know we're already eating only twice a day?" asked Dewi, a domestic servant from East Java.