Abstract This paper explain about hunger, hunger in general,what causes hunger, how to overcome hunger, hunger situation in Indonesia andhunger from Pancasila point of view. Pancasila as Indonesia’s ideology has fiveprinciples that have a lot of values.
Hunger in general explain about thedefinition of hunger it self and how hunger seen by people by people all aroundthe world. What causes hunger explain about causes and reason that make peoplesuffer hunger and why hunger exist. How to overcome hunger explain about thingsthat we can do to prevent and overcome hunger. Hunger situation in Indonesiaexplain about the current hunger situation that’s in Indonesia right now andwhat the people and the government know about the hunger in Indonesia. Hungerfrom Pancasila point of view explain about how Pancasila sees the hungerproblem based on their five principle, and how to uses the Pancasila values toovercome and prevent hunger in Indonesia. All of the data in this paper isbased on the information and references from the news and article in theInternet.
Keywords : Hunger, Indonesia, Pancasila. CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of ProblemThere’s still a lot of people in this world who sufferhunger, including in Indonesia. Hunger is one of the major problem in Indonesiaand yet a lot of people in Indonesia doesn’t know about this problem. While thepeople who knows and aware about this problem doesn’t know how to overcomehunger because they didn’t know the causes of hunger in Indonesia. A lot of people doesn’t take this problem seriouslybecause it doesn’t affect their lives. The government has the solution for thisproblem by having programs that helps people who suffer hunger.
But thisprograms doesn’t run very affectively because of the injustice from thegovernment, such as corruption that’s being done by the government itself.Those who do corruption in the government only think about themselves anddoesn’t think about the impacts that they caused. The injustice bring thebiggest impact to those people who have low income. Those people who have low income, usually have noopportunities because of the injustice that the government brings.
Many peoplecan’t afford to buy food for themselves and their families. Many childrensuffers hunger and malnutrition. In their early age, they should have enoughnutrition because they need all of the nutrition for their growth. 1.2 The Problems1. What is thedefinition of hunger?2. What is the causesof hunger?3. How is the hungersituation in Indonesia?4.
What can thegovernment do to reduce hunger in Indonesia?5. How is hunger seenfrom Pancasila perspective?1.3 The Purpose of This Paper1. To know the definition of hunger.
2. To know the reasons that cause hunger.3. To understand hunger situation in Indonesia.
4. To know what we and government can do to reduce hungerin Indonesia.5. To understand hunger in Pancasila perspective.CHAPTER IIDISCUSSION 2.1 TheDefinition of HungerBasedon Cambridge Dictionary, hunger means in need for food, the feeling you havewhen you need to eat or a situation in which the body does not have enoughfood. But hunger is not just a stomach problem, it usually refer to thedistress associated with lack of food.
Lack of food leads to undernourishmentand malnutrition.Underourishmenthappen when inadequate intake of food (quantity or quality), poor utilizarionof nutrients due to infections or other illness, or a combination of thesefactors. While malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition andovernutrition, problems of unbalanced diets.2.
2 The Causes of HungerThe world produces enough foodto feed the entire global population of 7 billion people. But still, there’s alot of people on this planet who goes tobed hungry every night. Here’s the biggest question of all, why does hungerexist when there’s enough food to feed the entire global population?According to World FoodProgramme, there are some basic reasons that causes hunger:1. Poverty trapPeople who live in poverty can’t afford to buy nutritiousfood which makes them weaker, physically and mentally. Therefore they can’tearn enough money to help them escape from poverty and hunger.
Children thatare malnourished or stunted, often grow up to be adults with low incomes. Theyare trapped to a life of poverty and hunger.2.
Lack of invesmentin agricultureThere are a lot of developing countries lack theroads, warehouses and irrigation systems that would help overcome hunger.Without this infrastructure, communities are facing high transport costs, andunreliable water supplies which conspire to limit farmers’ yields and families’access to food.3. Climate andweatherFloods, tropical storms and long periods of droughtare some examples of natural disasters that causes hunger. Drought is one ofthe most common causes of food shortages in the world.4. War anddisplacementConflicts consistently disrupt farming and foodproduction.
Fights also forces millions of people to leave their homes, leadingto hunger emergencies. Sometimes food becomes a weapon in a war. Soldiers willstarve opponents into submission by seizing or destroying food and livestockand systematically demolitioning local markets. 5. Unstable marketsUnstable food prices make it difficult for poor peopleto get nutritious food. When prices rise, those who have low incomes oftenshift to cheaper, less nutritious foods that leads to malnutrition.
6. Food wastageOne third of all food produced is never consumed which represents amissed opportunity to improve global food security in a world where one in eightis hungry.The world is moving forward,yet there’s still a lot of people who suffer hunger. Those who suffer hungerare trapped in poverty.
Poverty is the main reason for hunger. Those who sufferpoverty can’t afford to fulfill their daily needs, such as nutritious food,clean water and education. 2.
3 Hunger Situation in IndonesiaAccording to the latest FAO’s research, there arestill 19,4 million people suffering hunger in Indonesia. Even though Indonesia isdeveloping, there still a lot of people in Indonesia who can’t afford tofulfill their basic needs, especially in eastern Indonesia, such as Papua, NTTand Maluku. The main reason for this problem is poverty.In 2016, according to BBC Indonesia, those who livesin NTT are threatened to hunger. NNT is located on the east side of Indonesiawhich has a dry climate. This dry climate somehow leads to drought in NTT.Drought makes it hard for people in NTT to have a clean water access. In accordance with GlobalHunger Index (GHI) in 2016, the level of hunger in Indonesia is still at aserious level, undernourishment reach 7,6%, child wasting reach 13,55 and childstunting reach 36,4%.
Despite the GHI is still relatively high, it reach alower level than in 2008.Based on the news above, we can see that hunger inIndonesia is still at a serious level even though it’s decreasing year by year.The main reason for hunger is poverty. There’s still a lot of people whosuffers poverty which makes them can’t afford to fulfill their basic needs,such as clean water, nutritious food and education. 2.
4 The Government Roles in Reducing Hunger Hunger is one of the biggest concern in Indonesia.Even though hunger is a huge problem, it can be overcome little by little.Hunger is a solvable problem, the key to overcome this problem is a goodcoordination between the government and the people itself.Government has the biggest role in reducing hunger.There’s a lot of effort that can be done to reduce hunger, such as givingsubsidy to farmers so that they can produce high quality food in largequantities. It is expected to increase food production and also farmers’income. If the farmers’ income are increasing, they can afford to fulfill theirdaily needs. Subsidy is important since Indonesian’s farmers are known to livebelow the line, which means a lot of them are suffering from poverty.
With thissubsidy, the farmers can produce high quality food that can be high valued solater they can afford nutritious food for their families.Other than subsidy for farmers, government can alsotake action in education sector. There’s still a lot of people in Indonesia whodoesn’t have an access to education. Lack of education makes people can’t havea decent job to support their lives. With a world that’s always moving forward,education become the most important thing. Those who are educated can have ajob that can support their lives. In improving education sector, the governmentcan start from village to village.
Villages have a huge role in food productionand livestocks. The education that’s given to the villagers doesn’t have to aformal one, it can be farming education or livestock education. About improving education sector, the governmentalready have a program called BantuanOperasional Sekolah (BOS). BOS is a government program that provide schoolfunds for elementary school and junior high school as a accomplishment of 9-year compulsoryeducation. This program should be expended and optimalized to improve theeducation in Indonesia. Other than subsidy for farmers and improving educationsector, the government should stabilize the markets using a price ceilingscheme. A price ceiling is a government imposed price control or limit on howhigh a price is charged for a product or in this case for a food.
If the priceon the markets are too high, the middle to lower class cannot afford to buynutritious food. This situation force them to lower the standard of their food,lower the qualities and quantities which leads them to buy less nutritious foodon the market. For example, when the chicken’s price is atRp50.000,00 to Rp60.000,00, not everyone can afford it so they choose to boughta cheaper one which has a lower quality compared to the normal chicken on themarket. This low quality chicken may not have the same nutrition as the normalchicken and may cause several disease for those who consumed this chicken. Basedon this example, we know that it’s very important for the government to controlthe price on the market so that everyone can afford to buy a nutritious food.
. 2.5 Hunger in Pancasila Point of View Pancasila is Indonesia’s ideology which concists oftwo Sanskrit words, the first one is “panca” means five and the second one is”sila” means principles. Pancasila has five principles that was taken from thecultural values of Indonesia’s ancestors. The five principles of Pancasila are:1. Belief in the oneand only God.2.
Just and civilizedhumanity.3. The unity ofIndonesia.4. Democracy guidedby the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongstrepresentatives.5.
Social justice forthe whole of the people of Indonesia.Based on those principles, it can be inferred thatfrom the very start, people of Indonesia uphold the values of divine, humanity, unity, democracy and socialjustice. Even though there’s Pancasila with its five principles, it doesn’tchange the fact that there’s a lot of injustice happening in Indonesia. Corruptionis one of the example of injustice.
The injustice that’s happening in Indonesia,especially corruption have a big impact on those who are not wealthy enough.There’s a lot of problem that’s being caused by injustice, such as hunger.Hunger is a violent for human rights. As a humanbeing, people have the right to fulfill their needs. In this case, human needfood in order to survive. It is very unfair that while some people aresuffering hunger, a lot food is being wasted by those who are wealthy. We cantake a lot from the values of Pancasila to overcome this problem, such as fromthe third principle “the unity of Indonesia.” The people of Indonesia have tounite in order to help those in need without looking at their social class orrace.
To help those in need, we can start from ourneighbourhood. According to Pikiran Rakyat, the people in Karyamekar Village, Purwakartahas been doing social work called ‘beras perelek’ for the past years. Everyhousehold in this village hang bamboo on the outside wall of their houses as acontainer for rice. The villagers filled the bamboo with rice everyday and inthe nighttime the rice is taken by the patrol officer so he can give the riceto the people that cannot afford to buy rices. The example above shows us that we can do little thingto help people starting from our own neighbourhood.
Every action that we maketo help people, even if we’re just doing little things, it did matters and canbring big impact to the people that we help. CHAPTER IIICLOSING Based on the analysis above, we know that hunger is aserious problem that needs to be taken care of. Hunger is more than just astomach problem, it usually refer to malnutrition and undernourishment. Themain cause of hunger is poverty because those who suffer poverty cannot affordto buy nutritious food, which is what we need on a daily basis.There’s a lot of thing we can do to overcome hunger,such as give to those in need.
But giving free food won’t reduce hunger, itsimply just making a person’s life better for one day. It doesn’t do anythingfor long term need. We cannot overcome hunger by ourselves, but the governmentwith our help can. The government has the biggest role in overcoming hunger.The government can stabilize the market by controlling the price ceiling. Witha stable market, it is possible to overcome hunger. Other than stabilize themarket, the government can also give subsidy for the farmers and last but notleast is to improve the education sector.
From Pancasila point of view, as a writer I canconclude that the injustice that’s happening in Indonesia is one of the mainreason for hunger. To overcome hunger, we must implement the values of Pancasilain our daily live and not take the values of Pancasila lightly.