Poor game on poverty statistics

Government, as stated by president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the State of The Nation speech before parliament, claimed the number of people living under the poverty line has been decreased. Some economists, echoed by politicians, rejected the claim arguing the statistic quoted was not correct. Former assembly speaker Amien Rais, key patron of National Mandate Party (PAN) blamed the speech writer.

This group blamed government for using out of date statistics and asked the president to fire his economic ministers or even accused the president of telling public lies, so he could be impeached.
Annoyed with those statements, minister for state secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra warned those economists of a possible criminal rosecution for stealing the poverty statistics right before Central Burea of Statistics (BPS) announced the data.
"It's a crime to get the data from BPS before the agency announce it to public. They (who got the data) could be investigated," he said as quoted by Detik.com.
Poor game! And I still believe both government and its critics have missed the point on poverty eradication.

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