The government has prepared social compensation for Indonesians due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The aid distributed in the form of money and food packages. Those all have spread to all remote areas of Indonesia, especially in the Covid-19 epicenter area, Jabodetabek.
However, the distribution of social aid does not all run smoothly. Some people from various areas complained that they did not get the aid even though they were also affected by the impact.
Many critics have been submitted to the government regarding the distribution of this social aid. Dr. Hempri Suyatna, S. Sos., M.Sc., a lecturer in Social Development and Welfare at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, said that the root of the problem lies in data validation. Based on his observations, most of the data collection was still unsettled.
“At the regional level, the data collection process is still not valid. Many of them are misplaced. For instance, many people who died still registered on the data. On the other hand, some legal and active residents have identity numbers that are somehow not registered, and so on. It is no wonder that many residents protest because they did not receive the aid even though it is in a severe condition,” he explained on Friday (5/15).
Besides, Hempri said that the bureaucratic process is also another problem in the distribution of this social aid. According to him, synchronization between stakeholders is still weak. “Several ministries move individually in this situation. Different line ministries bear some assistance programs provided by the government, such as the Pre-Work Card, BLT, life insurance, and village allocation programs. Moreover, there is direct food aid from the President. This support is only from the government. Those are not including aid from other stakeholders, such as communities, political parties, religious, social organizations, and companies,” he explained.
As a result, it begins to appear many overlap cases caused one person receiving almost all the assistance, while others did not even receive it at all. Even more ironic in some areas, there was even politicization of this social aids.
“Emerging economic and political actors who want to benefit from these programs. A lot of social assistance is sourced from the government budget but attached to the jargon of regional heads,” he said.
Hempri conveyed his input related to its matters that needed to be corrected regarding this social compensation problem. First, concerning data collection, he suggested that validation and data updating be checked out again by considering indicators of citizens who were affected by Covid-19.
Second, Hempri hopes for enhanced governance and oversight of the government’s programs. If there are programs that are not effective, then it is better to allocate funds to others. For instance, he refers to pre-employment cards for which some training programs are ineffective, such as fishing training and training to become a new YouTuber. “Funds of Rp5.6 trillion from the program should be channeled to the Social Aid program to see many affected residents who have not received aid,” he said.
Finally, Hempri invited the community to supervise the implementation of social aid distribution jointly. This initiation aims to avoid the politicization of social assistance and cases of misdirection, as explained earlier. “Some positive examples show residents who consciously returned BLT funds because they felt it was inappropriate to receive them. Such awareness should be appreciated and emulated by us under these conditions,” he concluded.
Author: Hakam
Photo: Tirto.id
Translator: Natasa A