The Many Faces Poverty in Indonesia
Summary from an article “The many faces of poverty in Indonesia”:
Indonesia is a country that has much diversity of religion, ethnic, language, and culture. For religion, Indonesia has Islam, Catholic, Protestant, Buddha, Hindu, and Konghucu. For ethnic, Indonesia has Jawa, Sasak, Asmat, Tengger, Bugis, Dayak, and many others. For language, Indonesia has Javanese, Sundanese, Batak language, etc. For culture, Indonesia has many local songs, traditional dances, traditional ceremonies, etc. But many Indonesians fear about this diversity because it can make disintegration in Indonesia. There are some violence that caused by the diversity for example in Poso, Aceh, Ambon, and Papua. The implementation of “syariah law” in Aceh makes non-Muslims uncomfortable with the situation. That is the important problem for Indonesia’s democracy, but there is the more important problem that caused by government policy: structural poverty in Indonesia.
The economic fact: 100 million Indonesians have to live on Rp 20,000 (about US$2) a day and 10 million of them on less than Rp 10,000 per day (these numbers are from the World Bank; see www.worldbank.org/id). That fact becomes the big problem in Indonesia because it makes the gap between the poor and the rich people. In our life, it is possible to spend Rp 20,000 a day for some foods, but living is more just eating. We need more money to live in the feasible house, we need clothes, and we also need money for education and health. Public education is very expensive so it is very hard for poor people to educate their children. There are still many illegal settlements in Indonesia. Poor people build the house in the slum area and forbidden area. They can’t get the land document for legal house because it is expensive and the bureaucracy is difficult. But the government may don’t care about this situation. The government would allow the development of malls and the luxury apartment buildings. There is so ironic situation in Indonesia.
You will have a chance to succeed if you use your talents and work hard. That statement is called Meritocracy. Meritocracy is a society where socio-economic status is derived from one’s own efforts and capabilities. In such a society one should not get rich because of one’s family name, or skin color, or religion, or place of birth or party membership. But in the real world, meritocracy is very hard to be reached for poor people. It makes a widening gap between the poor and the rich. The fact is many poor people are unemployment and that is the reason why poor people are very hard to get the better life and wealth.
My opinion:
It is true that poverty becomes the big and serious problem in Indonesia. There is a gap between poor people and rich people that sometimes make the disintegration in this country. The government just has a little response for poor people, for example about education and housing. It makes sense that structural poverty in Indonesia caused by the policy by government that is not good enough for the society.
I disagree with Meritocracy in Indonesia. I think meritocracy will have big affect for the rich people but not for the poor. To be the meritocracy, the government or private should build many employment opportunities so the chance will be bigger. The rich will be easier to access this opportunity because maybe their education is higher and they have many channels to access transportation and accommodations.
My improvisation:
Poverty is a serious problem in each country. There are many causes of poverty. The population growth can increase the poverty. Indonesia is the country that has 237,641,326 of population (Census population 2010 by BPS) and the population’s distribution is not prevailing. The densest place in Indonesia is Java; about 60% of them are living in Java. So the comparison between the population and the space is not balanced. This situation makes some people build their house in the forbidden place or slum area. The big population also make the unemployment because in this country doesn’t supply many job opportunities. That condition makes some idlers do the criminality to get the many to sufficient their basic needs. They may force to do criminality but it because they don’t have money or chance to get money to buy all they needed. There will be the scary if in this country filled by many criminalities. It is good that Indonesia has a big population, but in this case we should create also the best quality for them. For example infrastructure, education, and health must be reached for them.
The affect of the article “The many faces of poverty in Indonesia”:
After reading the popular article “The Many Faces of Poverty in Indonesia”, I got the additional knowledge, for examples about the type of poverty, the meaning of meritocracy, and the poverty’s condition in Indonesia. The article does not change my mind set about poverty because overall I have the same point of view with the writer. The content in this popular article is mostly appropriate with the many literatures and the global condition. I chose the topic about poverty because it’s very interested for me. I study at Faculty of Geography with the concentrated: Human Geography. So, I want to improve my knowledge about human geography with the topic poverty in Indonesia.
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