Slamet Susanto and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Yogyakarta/Surakarta – At least two regions, one in Yogyakarta and the other in Central Java, have rejected the government's plan to distribute direct cash assistance (BLT) to economically poor families in compensation for the fuel-price hikes expected to be implemented next month.
The government's plan is to allocate Rp 150,000 (US$16.50) to each low-income household for nine months after the fuel-price hike is implemented.
The regency administration of Bantul in Yogyakarta said it would file a memorandum of objection to the central government, arguing that the planned measure would only encourage dependency and consumerism.
"It [the BLT] will create a beggar mentality and that is why we are filing an objection to the central government," Bantul Regent Sri Surya Widati said on Wednesday.
She added that the distribution of BLT would also create social conflict in communities as the data on which the distribution was based came from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), which did not tally with the regency data on economically poor families in the region.
"The number of economically poor people in Bantul is greater than that recorded in the BPS data," she said, adding that she preferred to have the BLT turned into a people-empowerment capital fund to improve economic life.
Chairman of the association of Bantul village heads (Pandu), Sulistyo Admojo, said that if the BLT was distributed as it had been previously, it would only cause trouble.
"Everyone will demand the BLT and heads of villages will be at the sharp end," Sulistyo said. He also said that the BLT would do no good as the cash would be spent almost at once on consumer items, leaving the poor just as poor.
In Surakarta, Central Java, the municipal administration believes that cash assistance is of no long-term benefit to the community. "BLT is not the right solution to deal with the impact of the planned fuel-price hike or for alleviating poverty," Surakarta Deputy Regent FX Hadi Rudyatmo said.
He also expressed concerns that the BLT distribution would create new problems with regard to the direct distribution mechanism through chairpersons of neighborhood units in their respective areas.
This, he said, excluded the possible conflicts arising from the data on which the distribution would be based. The data to be used is 2008 data that the BPS has yet to update and therefore might not be in accordance with the current reality. "Those who were categorized as economically poor back then are not necessarily still poor and vice versa," he said.
Surakarta Mayor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that it would be better if the BLT was distributed as business capital assistance to encourage people's entrepreneurship. That way the fund would create long-term benefits and the cash would not be spent on purchasing unnecessary consumer items such as electronic goods.
BPS Surakarta office head, Toto Desanto, said that the BLT distribution would probably not rely on BPS data but rather data used by the municipal administration to deal with poverty.