Minister Blames Papuan Officials for Lack of Progress in Poverty Eradication

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy has spoken out about the poverty rate in Papua which has not been declining. He attributed this to the lack of direct monitoring of the affected region by policymakers.

“This is our shortcoming, that a lot of officials create policies with a helicopter view. They observe [the problem] from afar,” Muhadjir said at the national seminar on resilient coasts for Indonesia Onward, on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. 

He stressed that dealing with a thousand poor people in Papua is more difficult than dealing with 10,000 poor people in Jakarta. The cost is also higher. This is because the cost of logistics distribution to the country’s easternmost province is more pricey. For example, the price of rice in Papua reaches Rp60,000 per kg.

This means that the cost of eradicating poverty in Papua is greater than in Java. Therefore, Muhadjir said, if the social assistance provided by the government to the people of Papua is of the same value as that provided to the people of Java, the results will not be optimal.

“And that is one of the reasons why the poverty rate [in Papua] has not decreased,” Muhadjir remarked.

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded that in March 2023, Papua had the highest poverty rate at 26.80 percent. Meanwhile, Bali had the lowest rate of 4.25 percent. The number of poor people in Indonesia reached 25.89 million or 9.36 percent.

RIRI RAHAYU

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