TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A coordinator of the presidential expert staff, Ari Dwipayana, said that social assistance rolled out by President Joko Widodo or Jokowi’s government, which has recently been questioned by many parties, is one of the strategies to eradicate poverty.

Ari explained that social aid is an affirmative program for the poor, financed by the state budget and was approved by both the government and the House of Representatives (DPR). “So it has nothing to do with the election,” he told Tempo via a text on Thursday, January 4.

The aid, he added, was aimed to serve as a cushion or social protection for the poor, who are facing rising food prices due to El Niño and disruptions in supply chains.

Recently, the National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Zulkifli Hasan’s statement in Kendal, Central Java, on December 26, that the government’s food and cash aid was provided by President Jokowi. The trade Minister also campaigned for Gibran Rakabuming, who is the President’s eldest son, in the February election while distributing social assistance.

The statement has been questioned by many parties, including Guntur Romli, a politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), who accused the Prabowo-Gibran camp of repeatedly politicizing the government's social assistance.

To avoid suspicion and prejudice, Todung Mulya Lubis, a deputy of the legal team of the Ganjar-Mahfud camp, suggested on December 29 that government officials refrain from handing over social assistance until after the election.

The government provided cash assistance of Rp400,000 to the poor in November and December 2023 and rice assistance from September 2023 to June 2024.

On January 3, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko confirmed that social assistance programs would be resumed ahead of the 2024 presidential election, despite criticism from many parties. The former military commander stressed that the program had been implemented long before Gibran Rakabuming entered the vice presidential race.

“If it (social assistance) is linked to the election, it could be stopped after February. But it will continue [until June],” Moeldoko said at the Palace Complex in Jakarta on Wednesday.

DANIEL A. FAJRI

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