DPR Warns Regional Heads not to Politicize Social AId

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chief of Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR) Ahmad Doli Kurnia admitted that he has asked the government through the Ministry of Domestic Affairs to monitor regional heads in relation to disbursement of social aid for people who are severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The disbursement of social aid has received major spotlight after being considered as a method of image building by regional heads who aspired to compete in the 2020 Regional Heads Election.

"Since the beginning, we asked the government to monitor or at least gave warnings to regional heads in disbursing social aid," Doli said in an online discussion on Thursday, May 7, 2020.

Suspicions on the politicization of social aid disbursement was raised after Klaten Regent Sri Mulyani was found giving out hand sanitizers with pictures of herself. Doli said that such action reflects a lack of confidence.

"It is a crime we cannot tolerate," Doli stated.

Doli also asserted that it is such a ridiculous action if a regional head decided to politicize social aid for people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Doli said that in today's age of information transparency, such action would be immediately caught attention.

"In today's era there is nothing to hide, the people will know, and I think such practices are absurd, naive, and [will] backfire," Doli said.

Doli added that such action can be counter-productive for the regional head that did it. He said that people nowadays can immediately measure the quality of a leader or future leader.

"We must monitor this together, I am confident that with information transparency and political education for the people, they will see such action as something that must be rejected," Doli concluded.

BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI