Yudhoyono’s popularity drops over Century case

In an alarming sign for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, two recent surveys have just confirmed his declining popularity.

The surveys suggest the causes include the alleged framing of two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, and, most recently, the Bank Century bailout case.

Although there is no proof the President’s is involved in either case, widespread rumors to the contrary have reduced his popularity, the surveys said.

Officials from polling body Indobarometer said in a press conference over the weekend that public satisfaction over Yudhoyono’s performance in the first 100 days of his second term declined by 15 percent compared to when he had just won re-election.

Indobarometer executive director Muhammad Qodari said the result of the body’s recent survey, conducted between Jan. 8 and 18 and involving 1,200 respondents, showed the President’s public approval rating had dropped from 90 percent in August 2009 to the current 75 percent.

“The 15 percent decrease means there are public needs that the government is not addressing. This is an early indicator for the President to improve the government’s future performance,” Qodari said.

He further elaborated that the declining approval level was strongly related to ongoing legal and political issues.

Qodari said most of the respondents followed the cases of Bibit and Chandra, the alleged murder of the director of a state-owned firm by former KPK chief Antasari Azhar, and the Bank Century bailout case.

He said 69 percent, 79 percent, and 77 percent of the respondents knew about the three cases, respectively.

Another survey, conducted by Kompas daily and published in its Saturday edition, showed a similar trend.

Dividing the President’s public approval rating into four major sectors, Kompas said only 45 percent of the 1,249 respondents felt satisfied with Yudhoyono’s economic performance compared with 63 percent three months earlier.

Only 43 percent expressed satisfaction with his performance on law enforcement issues, 58 percent for his handling of political and security affairs, and 47 percent for welfare matters.

All the figures are a decrease from three months ago, and a larger drop from the President’s rating at the start of his first term in January 2005.

Kompas also found that the public’s confidence in the President’s performance in the four sectors experienced a declining trend compared with the figures three months ago and in early 2005.

The President’s drop in popularity, however, is mild compared with that of his subordinates, Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

The two have been under intense public scrutiny since the emergence of the Bank Century bailout case, which is centered on the ballooning of bailout funds, totaling Rp 6.76 trillion (US$730 million).

Many see Boediono, then the central bank governor, and Mulyani as responsible for approving the issuing of the funds, some of which are suspected to have been channeled to certain political parties, including Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party.

Qodari said only 18 percent expressed approval for Boediono, but did not mention Mulyani’s rating.

Public policy analyst Agus Pambagyo was quoted as saying by news portal tempointeraktif.com that to restore public trust, it was important for the President to evaluate the implementation of his first 100-days programs.

Source :

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/25/yudhoyono’s-popularity-drops-over-century-case.html

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Minister: 100-day program almost completely ready

The government`s first 100-day program in the economic field is running smoothly and almost 100 percent accomplished, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said here on Tuesday.

"No hindrances at all in the process of the program and therefore it is almost 100 percent realized," Hatta Rajasa said after a coordination meeting at his office.

But according to Hatta, the problem was that a lot of infrastructure programs were not in accordance with the site plans and forestry regulations.

Therefore, he said, the government would try to complete the revision of two presidential decrees to overcome the problem, namely the presidential decrees on government partnership with private parties, on land provision.

"With those two decrees, development will be managed in ways that accord with the site plans and do not damage forests," Hatta said, adding that if a forest area had to be developed, there would be a good way out.

He said that based on the revised Presidential Decree on land provision, a forest area could be converted into land for other purposes if the compensation was twice as much as the amount of the forest area concerned.


source :
http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1263290112/minister-100-day-program-almost-completely-ready
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President asks govt agencies to implement budgets promptly

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reminded all administrative authorities to implement their work programs in 2010 and not to postpone implementation of their budgets.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the statement here on Tuesday when handing over a List of Approved Projects (DIPA) 2010 to ministries and departments as well as regional administrations.

All regulations on budget disbursement and policies on goods and services procurement were available, the head of state said.

Therefore, there was no excuse for postponing the implementation of budgets, he said.

The head of state presented the DIPAs from the 2010 State Budget at the State Palace at a ceremony attended by Vice President Boediono, all cabinet ministers and 33 provincial governors from across the country.

The government is expected to allocate funds from the 2010 State Budget amounting to Rp1,047.7 trillion or 15.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

The allocation of state budget funds for the central government is estimated at Rp725.2 trillion or 12.1 percent from the state budget, or up Rp79.8 trillion or 12.4 percent from Rp645.4 trillion in the 2009 state budget.

"The larger state budget should be spent as best as possible for the improvement of the people`s welfare," the president said.

Among government institutions and ministries receiving the largest amounts of DIPA funds totaling Rp340.1 trillion were the defense ministry (Rp42.3 trillion), the national education ministry (Rp55.2 trillion), the public works ministry (Rp34.8 trillion) , the religious affairs ministry (Rp27.2 trillion), the national police (Rp27.2 trillion) and the health ministry (Rp21.4 trillion). The transportation ministry (Rp15.8 trillion).

The president on the occasion presented DIPA funds to National Education Minister M Nuh for the 2010 budget for national education, and to Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as the state`s general treasurer.

The 33 governors would also receive DIPA funds from President Yudhoyono for their 2010 regional budgets.(*)


Source :
http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1262733478/president-asks-govt-agencies-to-implement-budgets-promptly
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SBY eyes 6.6% average annual growth rate

Indonesia’s economy may grow by an average annual rate of 6.6 percent over the next five years and reach 7 percent by the end of 2014, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the opening of the first trading day in 2010 of the Indonesia Stock Exchange.
In his second five-year term Yudhoyono plans by 2014 to have the unemployment rate fall to between 5 and 6 percent from 8 percent currently, and to reduce the poverty rate to between 8 and 10 percent from 14.2 percent.
Yudhoyono said the Indonesian economy showed all the favorable conditions required to attain 7 percent growth by 2014 as long as there was economic and political stability.
A key contributing factor to  economic stability, he said, was to have strong foreign currency reserves.
“We now have only US$65 billion [in foreign currency reserves]. This must be increased in line with our volume of trading,” Yudhoyono said, announcing a target of US$100 billion for currency reserves by 2014.
Yudhoyono also lauded the performance of the IDX in 2009, which had emerged as the second best performer in Asia with a growth of 86.98 percent.
“I really thank and appreciate all the parties who have been working hard last year,” Yudhoyono said, following  which he pressed the button to start this year’s  trading.
The IDX is expected to be among the markets that will remain bullish this year due to the country’s strong economic fundamentals at a time when many economies are still suffering from recession.
The IDX closed the day with a rise of 41.06 points or 1.6 percent to stand at 2,575.41, the steepest increase since Nov.16, Bloomberg reported.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that stock market positive performance was achieved due to the government’s responsive actions to cushion the impacts of the global economic downturn.
Mulyani said the government’s measures in handling the crisis last year had succeeded in maintaining market confidence.
“As a result, we experienced a stable economy in 2009 which placed Indonesia as one of the very few countries in the world which were able to post positive growth despite the [global] crisis,” she said.
Indonesian economic conditions are stabilizing after the market collapse and turbulence as a result of the global financial crisis, which reached its peak by the end of 2008. The inflation rate in 2009 reached 2.78 percent year-on-year in December, the lowest inflation rate in a decade, while the rupiah remained stable at between Rp 9,400 and Rp 9,600 to the US dollar.
Low inflation may give the BI room to keep its benchmark interest rate at a record-low 6.5 percent when policy makers meet on Wednesday.
Chatib Basri, an adviser to the finance minister said the inflation rate was likely to reach 6 to 7 percent in 2010 assuming the rupiah remained stable at 9,800 to the dollar.
The economy would receive a boost from the expected rebound in exports which were expected to recover from a 15 percent fall in 2009 by the middle of the year, he said.
“Exports have begun to recover but still at a slow pace. The global economic crisis has eased but it will take time to impact on investment and export rates,” Chatib said.
Unlike exports, the investment rate has already regained ground and demonstrated positive growth.
“Investment is already going up, albeit slowly,” he said.

Source : 
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/05/sby-eyes-66-average-annual-growth-rate.html

Inadequate Hospital Services To The Poor

Prism of the cases experienced by the complaining Prita Mulyasari hospital service level OMNI International, we consider the following a report released by the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW). Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said, some hospitals, both government and private sector are still not being friendly to people and the poor patients.

ICW concluded that based on ICW survey conducted in November 2009, which took a sample of 738 poor patients. Samples taken from the patients who holds the Community Health Insurance card (Jamkesmas), Family Poverty (Gakin), and Letter Description Not Able (SKTM). The patient was treated in 23 hospitals scattered and located in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.

The patients complained of bad service is a nurse, doctor visits at least in-patients, and duration of the services performed by health personnel (pharmacists and laboratory personnel). patients also complained about the poor quality of toilets, beds, food and the complexity of patient administration and management of high drug prices.

The survey shows, among others as much as 65.4 percent of female patients who undergo inpatient nurses complained of being less friendly and sympathetic to them.patients also complained about the management of complex valued administration (28.4 percent) and has a long queue (46.9 percent). On average, the time management of the administration for one patient could spend as much time as 1 hour 45 minutes.

Hospitals should improve the quality of services to poor patients by increasing the doctor's visit, friendly nurses, health service speed, and increasing the quality of infrastructure facilities and hospitals. In addition, hospitals also must communicate information about patient rights standards related to hospital services, and complaints mechanisms open / complaints and follow up on these complaints in a transparent and accountable according to article 36 and 37 of Law No. 25/2009 on Public Service.