Trim the Budget and Tighten Your Belt (Again)
Many praise the Draft State Budget 2002. They think it can strike a balance between efforts to reduce deficits and to encourage economic recovery. But, caught between the two efforts are the ordinary people who are becoming increasingly miserable.
September 11, 2001
It seems that the government is telling the people that it will get worse first before it will get better. The figures in the Draft State Budget (RAPBN) for the year 2002 justify this gloomy prognosis. The RAPBN that President Megawati Sukarnoputri proposed to the House of Representatives (DPR) last Friday does show an increase in total revenues—from Rp286 trillion (year 2001) to Rp289.4 trillion (2002). However, if the percentage is comp
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