The Peoples Global Conference (PGC) Against International Monetary Fund - World Bank (IMF-WB) slams the shameless display of “subservience” to the US-led IMF-WB and insensitivity to the peoples’ demands of President’s Joko Widodo with its multi-million-dollar spending for the preparations and hosting of IMF-WB Annual Meetings 2018 amid the havoc brought by the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia that took thousand of lives and millions of properties.
The Jokowi government has allotted at least USD 53 million for hosting the IMF-WB Annual Meetings. PGC notes that these “grandiosities” are just at the heels of the strong earthquakes which struck Lombok and Sulawesi just months apart.
The August earthquakes that mainly hit Lombok resulted to at least 560 casualties and at least a thousand injured. Meanwhile, latest government data points to more than 1,700 killed and at least 5,000 missing since the Central Sulawesi quake and tsunami.
Indonesian government estimated the cost of damage at Lombok at almost half a billion USD, and 658 million USD damage costs in Central Sulawesi.
“It is deplorable that IMF meeting will push through despite the urgent and enormous need for calamity response and reconstruction. It is a travesty that Jokowi chose to fund infrastructure beautification projects over the needs of us Indonesians,” said Rahmat, AGRA Chairperson and Secretary General of Asian Peasant Coalition.
Around USD 14 million was taken from government’s budget to build a new underpass while airport renovation is estimated at USD 163.5 million, not including a luxury cruise ship port and an enormous sculpture tower -- all in anticipation of the IMF-WB annual meeting.
“What’s more disturbing is the fact that these funds benefit IMF and WB - the very institutions that amplified the Indonesian peoples’ vulnerability to climate shocks such as the recent tragedies. IMF-WB have long been investing in businesses that have burned down forests for oil palm plantations, set up coal powered power plants, and impoverished the rural peoples of Indonesia,” said Ivan Phel Enrile of People Over Profit.
Since 2015, more than 100,000 thousand premature deaths in south-east Asia are linked to the “killer haze” pollution common across Indonesia due to huge deforestation fires linked to palm oil and huge agribusiness -- including Lombok and Sulawesi. The removal of all barriers in palm oil investment have been aggressively pushed by IMF-WB.
Indonesia receives a lion’s share of IMF-WB “green funds” investments in coal power plants, estimated at 90% and rising each year, amidst alarming international alarm on its devastating effects to the people and the environment.
“We hold the IMF-WB and Jokowi government responsible for the demise of the peoples of Lombok and Sulawesi. All these IMF-WB and government’s talk about development, in reality, is charting plans on endangering people's lives, impoverishing and curtailing their rights to favor the private businesses it serves,” said Rahmat.
With over 50 local, national and international organizations from almost 20 countries participating, the PGC, an initiative by Indonesian and international civil society organizations and peoples’ movements, aims to put the people’s experiences and their demands above the “lavish” IMF-WB Annual Meetings.
“This is not the future we want. With IMF-WB and its neoliberal agenda at the helm, the same profit-driven, anti-people development will continue to prioritize corporate profit over lives, and trample people’s rights over Lastly, the PGC demands to shut down the World Bank and let the peoples of the world forge a pro-people and socially just development,” Jaz Lumang of the Asia-Pacific Research Network said. Reference: PGC Secretariat, [email protected] Ali +62-821-2013-5553 Rahmat +62-821-1134-1420