Preferential Option For The Poor

Preferential Option for the Poor
By. Herri Kiswanto Sitohang*

Poverty is a part of human life. It has become a complex reality problem in the world, including in our beloved country, Indonesia. Absolutely, poverty means a reality of social life or a part of social life in which the members only can or barely can fulfill the primary needs of life such as food, housing, clothing.
There are many reasons which cause poverty, for example the lack of physical and mental abilities, gender, social status, age, political issues, and low education. Considering that reality of life, it is high time that the government paid close and maximum attention to the poor. Further more, the government must be able to show and express their preferential option for them (the poor) through all of the policies, laws, and the other decisions. Actually, the government has the duties obligations to maintain the unity and justice in the nation, and also to cope with egoism and abuse of power which often become the sources of poverty in our country.
In dealing with those situations, the government should strive to achieve a deeper understanding, namely, the struggle of the government is not just to fight against hunger, unknown, injustice, and human right violation, but the most important is to fight against depravity in the hearts of people which are actually the real sources and roots of much of the structure and system of oppression that cause poverty. All of them can be carried out through developing the structure where the poor are not just as passive observers but also active actors in the society and the government as well.
The government should also be responsive when, together with social institutions, struggle to empower the poor, so that the poor can grow to reach a decent prosperity and a full human dignity. By doing so, the government can clearly show to the Indonesian people their preferential option for the poor. And it also means that their efforts are not theoretical, but that government really do something about it.

The Government Efforts Dealing with the Preferential Option for the Poor
Preferential option for the poor fight orientation of the government and society tasks. Preferential option for the poor is the government’s and society’s choice to show their empathy to the poor. Preferential option for the poor means giving them attention, carrying out necessary actions,
showing solidarity, appreciating their existence as fellow human beings and loving them. Loving them is a way to struggle against injustice and to open the door to economic improvement and humanity. Charity for the poor must not be accompanied by any vested-interest. Giving donations for the poor also is a part of the main charity too. Preferential option for the poor means taking sides to build fraternity through hard struggle.
Actually, the government and the society have the duties and obligations to cope with poverty. As a part of the society, all of us of course feel apprehensive about the poverty reality in our country and especially with that around us. In this case, we need to give attention and to engage ourselves in improving the unity and justice among us as our solidarity attitude towards them. On the other hand, we can see that poverty also causes a decrease of reasoning and an increase of emotion in finding the solutions to the social problems. It means that if someone is prosperous, he can treat others well. For example, he can be patient in his relations with others. On the political side, the better prosperity will make the government grow and society the more mature and independent. This is influential for the political stability.
Dealing with the efforts of the government for preferential option for the poor in order to make them able to achieve a descent prosperity and full human dignity, there are some opinions. First, the government should enhance solidarity attitude towards the poor and strive to work together with them in defending their rights in the social life. Second, the government should struggle so that the poor’s dignity and human values are acknowledged and appreciated. That is so because it is the most important for them, it is more valuable than the other help in the form of materials. Third, the government should try to fight against depravity in the hearts of all people, because that is the main source and root of many structures and oppression system which cause poverty. Fourth, the government should help the poor by giving them material help and support them, so that they can create something valuable in their lives with all of their own abilities


Relevancies of the Preferential Option for the Poor
As a real relevance attitude for the poor, the government and also we as society members need to show a different way of life to others, especially the poor. Trying to have a prosperous life can be done through the readiness to say enough for money or others things (not greedy).Trying to get rid of an attitude which make inclined to want to have more and more can be done by using all of facilities wisely, and not trying to take away those of others, because that often happens in the government body in our country.
The point of view of Pancasila, especially the fifth “order” (in Indonesian: “sila”): “Keadilan sosial bagi seluruh rakyat Indonesia,” expresses the meaning of preferential option for the poor, that is, we must approach them (the poor) sincerely and straight forward in brotherly and always ready to help them. We must always exacerbate our awareness of our solidarity obligation towards the poor. That solidarity means that their problems and struggles must become ours too.
Solidarity for the poor can be expressed by criticizing injustice, trying to change poverty situation, by working together with the government to evenly distribute the country income. When we draw near to the poor in order to accompany them and serve them, we are doing what Pancasila wants us to do when it becomes our ideology. Hence service to the poor is a privilege.
In this case, preferential option for the poor must become a real sign of our daily life. Dialogue of life must become a basic sign of our real action. Dialogue of life means sharing our daily life experiences with others. In the dialogue, we have time to express our personal ideas; admitting the rights and need of others. With the dialogue of life, we will be able to solve many problems together in our daily life, including poverty. Dialogue of life also must become a Transformative movement that can change poverty into a better situation. Poverty will be changed if the suffer of the poor is eliminated or at least decreased, if peace is struggled, if the land for living together is more humane. There is a wise quotation about an attitude of preferential option for the poor, namely: “If we give the poor something which they really need, actually we do not give it to them voluntarily as our personal gift but we return to them what has become their right.” By doing something for them, actually we do more to fulfill our obligations as human towards them.
Because the poor are a part of our life, so the government with us as society members should show our preferential option for them as well as we can, not just a half, but totally. As a step of success in order that we can give our attention and preferential for the poor is firstly we should not consider them as a burden that has to be eliminated, but we must consider them as the wealth of our country. Wealth of country means something or someone that must be protected and improved, so that they can naturally grow as human beings.


*The writer is a student of theology philosophy college
(STFT Widya Sasana-Malang)
At Jln. Terusan Rajabasa 6
Malang-East Java