Prabowo Goes Against BPS, Claims Poverty Increased by 50 Percent
29 July 2018 16:30 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Gerindra Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto recently said that Indonesia’s poverty rate within the last five years has gone from bad to worse and claims that half of the country’s wealth is only felt by a small group of people.
“In average, 50 percent have been more impoverished,” said Prabowo during an event at the Peninsula Tower in West Jakarta on Friday, July 27.
Prabowo's statement created quite the controversy since the data provided by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) suggest that Indonesia’s poverty rate has dropped in the past five years.
Earlier this year on January 2nd, BPS issued its data on Indonesia’s poverty as of September 2017 that shows there are 26.58 million out of the country’s 268 million people (10.12 percent) live under the poverty line.
Compared to BPS’ data from five years prior, September 2012 saw 28.71 million (11.66 percent) people were considered to be poor. This means that people living under poverty has actually been reduced 2.13 million or 7.4 percent.
Furthermore, Prabowo said that the inequality between the rich and the poor are becoming more apparent which is acknowledged by the data provided by Oxfam that focuses on the alleviation of global poverty and INFID that focuses on the advocacy and research of Indonesia’s development policy.
Indonesia is ranked sixth in the world’s worst wealth distribution inequality as of in 2016, the country’s one percent wealthiest is in control of 49 percent total wealth, which corresponds to Prabowo Subianto’s statement.
FAJAR PEBRIANTO | HENDARTYO HANGGI