Jakarta – While management of foreign debt is considered as one of the most crucial problems for most people, it has been a non-issue during the election.

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono's rivals are challenged to capitalize on the foreign debt issue against the incumbent as experts and activists have been divided on whether the current administration failed or succeeded in managing the debts, according to experts.

Researcher Andi Syafrani from the Charta Politika, a political think-tank, said the institution's observation during the presidential election campaign had shown that the foreign debt did not attract much media attention. "It becomes a non-issue as the media fails to cover it."

Yogyakarta's Gajah Mada University economist Sri Adiningsih, for instance, said despite the fact Yudhoyono has managed to improve the country's foreign debt in terms of its Gross Domestic Products (GDP) ratio, some of his policy on the debt management were improper.

"The amount of foreign debt is definitely increasing, but that does not necessarily mean a bad thing. As we can see, the ratio of foreign debt to the GDP has been decreasing."

Public debt has reportedly increased by an average of Rp 80 trillion (US$7.94 billion) per year during Yudhoyono's presidency. As of January 2009, it stands at Rp 1,667 trillion. Around Rp 747 trillion of that debt was in foreign loans and around Rp 920 trillion was in bonds.

The ratio of foreign debt to GDP declined to 32 percent during SBY's presidency from 54 percent during the presidency of Megawati Soekarnoputri, one of the incumbent's presidential contenders in the July 8 election.

"However, the government had also mismanaged the debt allocation in certain policies. For example, the direct cash subsidy [BLT] is also funded by foreign debt."

Meanwhile, chairman of the Anti Debt Coalition (KAU) Dani Setyawan said SBY's presidency showed a severe mismanagement of foreign debt.

"During SBY's presidency, the debt was paid using another loan from abroad. The country is pretty much trapped in a circle of unresolved and accumulated foreign debt."

A report provided by the KAU revealed that the country received around Rp 48 trillion in foreign loans during 2008, but paid around Rp 90 trillion of foreign debt in the same period.

Sri said all in all foreign debt could be good or evil as it all depended on the government's debt management.

A sociologist from Surabaya's Airlangga University, Daniel Sparingga, said GDP growth did not directly correlate with social welfare in the country.

"I seriously doubt the country will be able to attain overall social welfare for its citizens, if the future government's policies remain the same as the one of the last 10 years." (hdt)