Former top leaders urge govt to cancel plan to raise fuel prices

Former government leaders including former presidents Megawati Soekarnoputri, and Abdurrachman Wahid, and the former speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tanjung have asked the government to reconsider the plan to increase fuel prices, Kompas reported Friday.

The call was made following their meeting at Akbar's residence in Jakarta on Thursday. The group of the former leaders who also included former vice president Try Sutrisno agreed that the increase in the fuel prices would further worsen the social problem in the county.

According to them, the government's plan to provide compensation to the poor people to cope with the impact of the fuel prices increase would not be effective. The meeting was the fourth to be held by the former leaders, mostly discussing the critical issues being faced by the country.

Meanwhile Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla said that the government would make any efforts to ensure that the compensation payment would reach the poor people so that the increase in the fuel prices would not really affect their lives.

He promised to take a strict action against those who abused the compensation funds which would be given to about 15.5 million poor families in the country. The cash would be channeled through the state owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia in order to eliminate the possible deviation of the money. (*)