Legal Literacy - Every government policy should be based on the mandate of the constitution, not just short-term budget calculations. However, in practice, the pretext of "efficiency" is used as a tool to cut budgets in essential sectors such as education and health. As a result, the fundamental rights of the people guaranteed in Article 31 and Article 34 of the 1945 Constitution are violated by the state itself. The state, which should be responsible for educating the nation and caring for the poor, is instead destroying the main foundations of people's welfare.
More ironically, these cuts occur amidst increasing state spending on other interests that often do not directly impact public welfare. When education and health—two main pillars of nation-building—are seen as a budget burden that must be reduced, the state is essentially digging its own grave.
Efficiency Policies That Contradict the Constitution
The state is not only negligent in carrying out its obligations but is actively making decisions that undermine the rights of the people. Article 31 Paragraph (4) of the 1945 Constitution explicitly states that the education budget must be allocated at least 20% of the State Budget (APBN) and Regional Budget (APBD), while Article 34 Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution affirms that the state is responsible for providing health facilities for the people.
However, when the budget for these two sectors is reduced, the question is: does the government really want to build this nation, or does it want to leave its people in ignorance and health deterioration? Logically, how can we talk about national progress if the people are unhealthy and uneducated?
The Impact of Budget Cuts: The State Fails to Protect Its Citizens
1. Deteriorating Education, a Dark Future
Cutting education funds is not just a technical issue, but a form of systematic neglect of the nation's decline. Schools lack facilities, the quality of teaching decreases, and more and more children cannot access quality education. This cut not only closes the door to the future for the younger generation but also reinforces the social inequalities that are already entrenched.
2. Health Sacrificed, People Suffer
When healthcare budgets are cut, who is most affected? Not those who can afford expensive healthcare services, but the impoverished who should be protected by the state. Article 34 Paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution clearly states that the state is obligated to care for the impoverished, but in reality, they find it increasingly difficult to access decent healthcare services.
Ironically, the state is instead worsening the situation by limiting BPJS services, raising drug prices, and reducing health subsidies. This is not merely negligence, but an action that directly plunges the people into suffering.
3. Teachers and Medical Personnel: Pillars of the Nation Being Sidelined
Teachers and healthcare workers are the backbone of the nation. However, budget cut policies are only making them more depressed. Low salaries, minimal facilities, and a lack of support from the state are causing many teachers and medical personnel to lose their spirit. How can we possibly expect to have a superior generation and a healthy society if those tasked with educating and caring for the people are not valued?
Manipulation of the Efficiency Narrative: The State Chooses Other Interests Over the Rights of the People
What is more painful is that these cuts to education and healthcare budgets are happening at a time when budgets for flagship projects, official expenditures, and bureaucratic spending continue to increase. When the state sacrifices the basic rights of the people under the guise of efficiency, but on the other hand continues to allocate large funds for other interests that do not directly touch the people, then this is no longer a technical budgetary issue—it is a betrayal of the constitution.
If efficiency is truly necessary, why are the education and health sectors being cut? Why not the budget for bureaucracy, which is often ineffective? Why not the budget for projects that are more symbolic than functional? This policy is not about efficiency, but about the state's failure to determine priorities.
Conclusion: The State Is Failing, and the People Bear the Consequences
Cutting education and healthcare budgets is not only a misguided policy, but clear evidence that the state has failed to carry out the mandate of the constitution. The state, which should be educating the nation, is instead allowing the people to remain in ignorance. The state, which should be caring for the impoverished, is instead further restricting their access to decent healthcare services.
If the government continues to argue that these cuts are being made for the sake of fiscal sustainability, then we must ask: sustainability for whom? If efficiency is achieved by sacrificing the basic rights of the people, then it is not efficiency, but a systematic neglect of the rights of the people.
A developed nation is one that places education and health as top priorities, not as budget burdens that can be sacrificed. If the government truly wants to build the future of the nation, then there is no other way but to allocate a decent budget for these two sectors. If not, then the government has not only failed, but has also betrayed the mandate of the constitution and the ideals of the nation's founders.
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