Poverty has actually increased in the last three years, Indonesia is the worst country in Southeast Asia in fighting poverty. The gap in inequality is also widening, the concentration of wealth and the economy is now increasingly focused on a few people. Socioeconomic justice must be included in development targets to prevent social explosions and keep development sustainable.
The Indonesian government sets the poverty line slightly below the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Last year, the poverty line was set at IDR 212 thousand per month or IDR 7.060/day (BPS, 1 July 2011). This amount is equivalent to US$1,13 PPP .1 Meanwhile, ADB uses US$1,25 PPP (or 7.800 rupiah per day) to determine the poverty line.2 The difference is about 10% or 12 US cents (less than 750 rupiah) it turned out to make a tremendous difference.
The number of poor people in Indonesia is calculated to have jumped by more than 12 million people or an increase of about 40% to 43,1 million people.
Many countries have now used US$ 2 PPP which is equivalent to around Rp 12 thousand as a poverty threshold. This measure actually only raises about 5.000 rupiah from the national poverty line.