Government Yet To Make Successful Achievement

 Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko Widodo, in the first year of his administration, has not yet successfully overcome the problems being faced by Indonesia and even its setbacks compared to the previous government, an observer stated.

"Indonesia has been developed not only in a year but during the past 70 years. The previous governments had laid down the foundation for development, so why has the present government faced setbacks," Director of the Nusantara Madani Institute Prof. Nanat Fatah noted here on Wednesday.

Fatah, who is also a former rector of the Bandung-based State Islamic University (UIN), remarked that several indicators revealed the setbacks compared to the previous governments.

One of the indicators is that about 50 percent of the population only spent US$2 per day, which based on the World Bank, were sensitive to poverty.

"Based on the Indonesian Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the number of Indonesian poor in March 2015 was recorded at 28.59 million, or 11.22 percent of the population. Thus, the number of poor has increased by 0.86 percent as compared to 27.73 million, or 10.96 percent of the population recorded in September 2014," Fatah pointed out.

Cases of worker layoffs also increased to 43 thousand people, up 62 percent from the layoff cases recorded at the end of August 2015 at 26,506 workers, he noted.

The value of the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar also continued to weaken. It is true that there has been a rebound over the past few days, yet it could not yet be ascertained whether the increase had been fundamental, or just sentimental.

Fatah said the economic policy implemented by the government also appeared to be biased towards foreign investors and was not pro-people.

As a result, the gap between the rich and poor is increasingly widening. Its indication is apparent in the Indonesian GINI ratio, which now has been recorded at 0.43 percent.

"The president's Nawacita (national development priority) program has not yet been implemented at the grassroot level. We hope the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla government will improve in the future," he added. (WDY)