Op-eds by Shantanu

Those politicians may never know that for Indonesia's poorest population, social assistance is neither a seasonal fun nor an electoral booster. To them, certainty about when they will get the money and when they won't is a matter of hope. It’s a matter of getting out of bed in the morning, eyes filled with sparks ready to pick up the social assistance cash as scheduled. In particular months approaching an election once every 5 year, they will get many, they will have to pick them up more frequently. So as expected, their eyes are filled with hope more often. But some other months, for another four years, they would wonder why their lives had to go back to normal. And if you whispered silently, “but shouldn’t they know that every five year we have a celebration for democracy?! It’s not news! Nothing new here,” it is perhaps because you haven’t really met, or talked, to Indonesia’s poorest society. Most of the Program Keluarga Harapan beneficiaries that I had met and interviewed back in 2019-20 could not even understand the word “government,” let alone “election” (Nabila, 2023). The bottom of the pyramid’s problem-solving is very modest, if not weak. They are unable to plan & imagine beyond today, the day after, weekly-monthly timelines, let alone execute them. So, yes, playing with bansos might be fun for some politicians, handing the cash over to them with a bit of Melayu music played in the background as they all dance to it while converting the poorest’s laughs & smiles to votes.


Money politics is an easy win here in Indonesia, but then leaving them with confusion as incontinuity and uncertainty strike in post-election has rarely entered the equation for most candidates. Without further accountability, wouldn’t you think it’s an act of playing with the poorest’s hearts? One thing I know for sure, they are all Indonesian citizens with a voice as priceless as ours, absolutely not an object, totally not an electability booster.

Ahead of the 2024 elections, President Jokowi has been distributing various social assistance with a total of almost 500 trillion rupiah, the targets of which are not all based on poverty data at the rural level. As recorded in October 2023, Jokowi asked the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani to prepare El Niño assistance of IDR 500 thousand per month for every farmer in need. However, Sri Mulyani did not agree to the plan because it would burden state finances. Finally, it was agreed that the amount of assistance was IDR 200 thousand per month. Tempo also noted criticism from the professor of agriculture from the Bogor Agricultural Institute, Dwi Andreas Santosa, who said that El Niño's cash assistance was not required to be distributed during this campaign period as El Niño, which extended the dry season, has ended. Indonesia has now entered the rainy season (Tempo, 2024). These are non-negotiable data that show a mismatch between the actual needs of the people and the social assistance distributed, further proving that the assistance was disbursed for the interest of the people in power, not the marginalized. 

There are also a lot of irregularities such as the use of other state facilities outside of social assistance by President Jokowi and various Ministers who have shown partiality with a certain candidate pair. Starting from our first lady who raised her 02 fingered hand while riding in the presidential car, the use of the official account of the Ministry of Defense in campaigning for Prabowo (02 candidate), to the use of state-owned helicopter by Prabowo to reach a campaign location, all to prove that Indonesia’s 2024 election is far from a fair game.

As an aspiring expert in the field of social policy, I believe social policy is one of the strongest instruments we have in modern society to balance capitalism with equitable development. Good social policy, namely effective and well-targeted social security, must be upheld so that the accumulation of wealth that we gain from economic development is not concentrated in one point or elite circle. For this, I objectively acknowledge President Jokowi's achievements in his innovations in building various social policies over the last 10 years—I will not by any means deny that fact. It is wise to associate his name with the success of our social policy, while at the same time, criticizing the regression in Indonesia’s democracy under his second term. Indonesia currently is indeed one of the biggest evolving welfare states worldwide, leading its social welfare ecosystem is not an easy task. Building BPJS Health and Employment, reducing stunting rates & rate of informal employment is an achievement worth remembering for President Jokowi. Our Universal Health Coverage (UHC) mission, with all its shortcomings, has almost reached 100% today thanks to the leadership of the Jokowi administration. However, Jokowi's success in building a better social welfare system should not be used as a branding instrument for a presidential candidate, especially when President Jokowi still effectively holds power as a president. Gibran, the vice presidential candidate from 02 as well as Jokowi's first child, is the candidate who clearly did not start the race from zero in this case as he constantly uses his father’s identity and his as one.

Apart from that, our homework regarding social policy also does not stop at just fulfilling "the matter of the belly”. The core essence of developing social welfare is to ensure that individuals, families, groups and communities ultimately have dignity, where everyone is able to take a role and carry out their functions in society. The politicization of social assistance during the election period is far from the essence of dignity (Theis et al., 2020). The politicization of social assistance is the duping of the poor, maintaining the continuation of poverty who will then become loyal and automatic voters in the future.

As a researcher who had back and forth interviewed the 10 million of Indonesia’s poorest population for the effectiveness of our conditional cash transfer program—Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH)—for one year, I am disappointed by the fact that not only bansos is politicized on a deeply superficial level by a particular candidate, but also by the fact that to the best of my knowledge (please, correct me if I’m wrong), I haven’t found any presidential candidate’s statement that tackles the urgency to reform our Ministry of Social Affairs’ educational class for PKH beneficiaries (the 10 million poorest women) that clearly has been delivering extremely trivial cognitive progress among the poorest (Theis et al., 2020). All the three candidates have mentioned their intention to create capacity building classes for the poorest alongside the social assistance disbursement, but one thing they never mentioned is that we already had one, it’s called Family Development Session (FDS) by Ministry of Social Affairs and that we are in dire need of reform as it’s been failing over and over again. Why did no one talk about a serious reform?

Why do we let the poor receive cash–the instant booster–while staying confused, even after those classes they have for the past decade?
Why do we let them go through this circular cycle?
Why do we let them stay close, here, but also astray?
If Matthew Desmond could say “Poverty, by America”,
I would also ask to all of you here:
is this poverty, by Indonesia?