Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Four welfare ministers have been slammed for their failure to improve the quality of life of Indonesians over the past five years despite increases in budget.
A coalition of NGOs calling itself the Coalition for a Pro-Democracy Cabinet said National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno and State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta did not deserve a second term in the Cabinet for their below-par performance.
"Indonesia ranks 107th out of 179 countries in terms of the human development index, and the index [0.682] is among the lowest in Southeast Asia.
"Meanwhile, its gender development index [0.677] still shows disparity between men and women in terms of education, health and salaries," Ida Ruwaida, a coalition member from University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences, said, citing a 2007 UN report.
"From these parameters, it is evident that over the last five years people's needs for prosperity have not been satisfactorily fulfilled; and this is connected to the performance of the ministries," she added.
The Ministry of Education, Ida said, had failed to positively correlate the increase of the education budget with improvements in the quality of education.
The ministry, now a government department receiving the largest proportion of state expenditure, had enjoyed a considerable increase in its budget from Rp 25.2 trillion (approximately US$2.5 billion) in 2005 to Rp 61.5 trillion in 2009, but there had been no significant improvements in a number of education parameters, including school dropout rates and the condition of school buildings and facilities, she said.
Febri Hendri from the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), another coalition member, highlighted Bambang's failure to eradicate rampant corruption in the education sector.
"Not to mention the policies that cannot solve existing problems, such as the final school exam and school textbook policies," he said, adding that he gave Bambang a score of 4 out of 10 for his performance over the 2004-2009 period, the same score he gave for Siti Fadillah.
"Siti failed to prevent graft in her department, such as the alleged graft in the procurement of the Rontgen machines for community health centers in 2005, and in the procurement of health equipment for bird flu-related programs," Febri said.
Wahyu Susilo of the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development said the ministry had failed to suppress Indonesia's maternal mortality rate.
Wahyu said, quoting a recently published report from the Asian Development Bank, that the maternal mortality rate in Indonesia had increased from 307 deaths per 100,000 births in the early 2000s to 420 deaths per 100,000 in 2009.
The Manpower and Transmigration Ministry was also consideredbelieved to have performed poorly with its failure to produce any policies that could protect Indonesian migrant workers overseas and domestic workers.
The Office of the State Minister for Women's Empowerment was deemed as having had no clear understanding of its role to mainstream gender issues in every sector.
The NGO coalition urged Yudhoyono to appoint welfare ministers who were professional in their respective fields for the next Cabinet.