Jakarta – The Chief of Staff to the President, General TNI (ret.) Dr. Moeldoko confirmed that the Government will continue the social assistance program (Bansos), even though several parties asked to stop the program during the election period, given that some issue and perception in the society arise that the social assistance could be beneficial for certain Presidential candidates.
Moeldoko also emphasized that the social assistance program is one of the social security programs that has been long initiated by the government. Also, it was very beneficial to millions of Indonesians, especially for the mid-down sector. He gave the examples of 10 kilograms of rice which has been distributed by the government since April 2023. Whereas the distribution in the first and second quarter, and in addition the social assistance program has been able to control inflation.
“Public finally reduced their expenses with the availability of social assistance programs. So, there are no any tendencies, it’s indeed a social security program that has been initiated by the government for such a long time,” said Moeldoko to the media, in Bina Graha, Jakarta, Wednesday (3/1).
“The program is to provide 10 kilograms of rice to the society, long before Gibran declared as a vice presidential candidate. The President identifies that the price of this rice is very high, so there is an assistance program for those who need it,” Moeldoko added.
Moeldoko conveyed that the social assistance is not related to the election. Therefore, the program will continue to be provided until March 2024.
“So if there is any relation with the election, perhaps it will stop by February. But we can see that it is still going on,” he said.
Moeldoko also dismissed the notion that the provision of the social assistance no longer refers to the Ministry of Social Affairs’s Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS). He said in order to provide the assistance program, the Government needed to synergize three basic data, Social Welfare Data, Social-Economic Registration data from the Ministry of Finance, and data from the Coordinating Ministry of Human Development and Culture.
“All of that is part of improving our data, so the data could be on track, there is no other purpose,” he concluded.
