Nearly 100 Million Indonesians Now Below Poverty Line

by Andreas Harsono

"They say I'm too old," the 43-year-old widow says, referring to a South Korean factory and a German business center not far from her house where she recently applied for a job.

Her effort to find work actually began after she lost her job of 24 years in October 1998. Since 1974, Hadijah worked as a tea lady in a Jakarta spare parts manufacturer.

But she was forced to take separation pay amounting to 10 times her monthly wages after the Asian crisis seriously hurt her company. Eighty of 150 employees there were dismissed, and she was let go with about 4.6 million rupiah, or $575.

Unemployed now, Hadijah has to spend more money than before the crisis hit to buy food and to keep her only daughter in school. Prices of basic commodities such as rice, sugar, cooking oil and kerosene have increased from three to five times inmost cases.

"I used to spend 5,000 rupiah to prepare for a one-day meal. But now 10,000 rupiah is not enough," said Saripah, Hadijah's sister, who lives next door and shares the kitchen.

"Some times we have to eat only with salt," said Saripah, adding that they give priority to the children when the family eats. Saripah's husband also lost his job in an auto repair shop.

They join the growing number of poor people who are being hit hardest in the crisis as demand for their labor falls, prices for basic foodstuffs rise and social services --their ragged, gaping "safety net" -- are cut.

According to Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of people living below the poverty line -- those who consume a minimum 2,100 calories a day -- has soared to 95.8 million or about 48 percent of Indonesia's total population of 202 million by the end of 1998.

In 1976 Indonesia recorded 54.2 million poor people or 40.1 percent of the whole population. But by 1996, after two decades of rapid economic growth, this nation, the world's fourth most populous country, had reduced the number of the poor down to 22.5 million or 11.3 percent of the population.

"Some time ago we were told by experts that we were a candidate to become an Asian tiger, like Thailand and Malaysia. Now we are not even a cat," said statistician Suwito Sugito.

It began with the fall of the Thai baht in July 1997. But the baht contagion has infected the lives of millions in southeast Asia in diverse ways. Indonesia has so far been the greatest victim. The value of its rupiah has decreased from 2,300 to the American dollar in July 1997 to around 7,500 in December 1998. It closed at 8,025 on Jan. 11.

The Jakarta Post, the nation's most respected daily newspaper, estimated that 80 percent of Indonesia's private firms are technically bankrupt. The Indonesian government has admitted that the number of unemployed soared to 20 million by the end of 1998, compared with four million in 1997.

As Indonesia's economy has taken this hard fall, no stratum of society has escaped the pain. The population of more than 200 million people has seen its per capita income drop from US$1,200 to about $300 almost overnight.

With economic growth sometimes in the double digits in the past two decades, what was an economic miracle experienced by many Indonesians has melted into misery for millions of people across the archipelago, and now they are only able to helplessly watch as things get worse all the time.

Most Indonesians have no access to formal mechanisms to protect them from risks associated with job losses, disabilities, and aging. Instead, most rely primarily on personal savings and informal family and community links.

Hadijah spent 1.5 million of her separation pay to build a small food vending stand in front of her house in December. A niece contributed 0.5 million to buy basic commodities. And they jointly run the small food stall to serve noodle soup, coffee and milk.

"It's not much. My niece serve the customers and I help her to prepare the cooking and to clean dishes," said Hadijah, adding that at the end of the month each of them got 150,000 rupiah, a little under $20 at today's rates.

"It's not a lot. But it's needed to survive," she said.

A security guard look on. "It's alright with children, but not with adults -- who are easily tempted to steal," he says, observing that the crime rate in his Bumi Serpong Damai housing complex has increased tremendously in recent months, including two armed robberies in December and January.

What might be termed "collective crimes" might be interpreted here as rioting and looting. Indonesian media reported that in recent months, truck drivers have face increased danger along some parts of the vital northern Java highway.

Villagers simply stop them and take over the trucks loaded with food commodities. Riots also take place frequently in Indonesian towns. It Those encourage common people to loot deparment stores or markets selling rice, cooking oil and other basic commodities.

Sociologist Loekman Soetrisno of the Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta said that police officers face difficulties in taking firm measures against such crimes.

"The driving force behind this crime is hunger. The hungry and angry people is the good place for the devil," said Soetrisno, adding that the international community has to consider Indonesia as the scene of an emergency and give grants, not loans, to the poor.

Indeed, the Indonesian government has been trying hard to help the poor. Since the economy tumbled, a lot of efforts has been made to ease people's hardship and also to prevent social discontent from taking the form of a fierce explosion.

During the emergency, basic commodities like rice, sugar and cooking oil have been sold cheaply or handed out free to the needy. Cheap lunch boxes were also provided for poor workers and unemployed people.

But many analysts say that the effort is not enough. The scale of the crisis in this country of more than 200 million people is so tremendous that such a charity is like putting a drop of water in a frying pan.

"You can't possibly conclude that the worst is over after implementing this social safety net scheme. The Indonesian crisis is woven by a lot of threads," says poverty expert Siti Oemijati Djajanegara of the University of Indonesia's Demographic Institute.

There might be a prolonged depression if social, political and economic reforms are not enacted swiftly, firmly and consistently to overcome the corrupt government of former President Suharto.

As recommended by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the Indonesian government has set aside about $2.4 billion in funds to carry out a social safety net program for the 1998/1999 fiscal year.

Several noted figures, like former Finance Minister Mar'ie Muhammad, have been assigned to implement and monitor the program to guarantee that the program goes to the victims of the economic crisis -- people who have lost their jobs, students who cannot continue their schooling, farmers who cannot buy pertilizer, and workers like Hadijah.

Ironically, Hadijah herself admits that she has never heard of anything like that program. "I just do hope that our leaders could speed up the recovery process. It is a sin if leaders cannot help their people to eat," she said.