Regulate meat distribution: Minister

As has occurred in previous years, unorganized meat distribution has once again tainted Idul Adha (Islamic Day of Sacrifice) festivities celebrated Friday by the majority of Muslims in Indonesia.

Expressing his concerns about the situation, Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono called for the distributions to be regulated.

He called on those organizing the animal slaughter and the meat distribution to coordinate with local administrations and security officers.

“I noticed the lack of organization did not limit itself to events in Jakarta, and this is a cause for concern,” Agung told news portal detik.com over the weekend.

“Next time, the organizing committees should coordinate with the local administration in their respective areas, as the latter have better knowledge of poor people in the area [who should receive the meat].

“[They should also coordinate] with security officers to help distribute the meat,” he said.

Agung added that the committees should also be proactive in reaching out to the needy instead of letting them gather at fixed locations in order to be able to obtain portions
of meat.

“There is always the potential for chaos when thousands of people gather in one spot,” he said, adding that the committees could either distribute the meat by visiting poor people’s houses or by limiting the number of recipients in any one location to 100 people.

“The current system, in which the recipients are packed into one place, is a circus,” Agung said, adding that these incidents could taint the country’s image by creating the impression that the poverty rate in Indonesia was increasing.

“This is actually nothing more than gross mismanagement,” he said.

The Betawi Consultative Body (Bamus Betawi), for example, used its network across Jakarta to distribute the meat so there were no people queueing, but only a handful of children watching the slaughter.

“We use our network and cooperate with neighborhood unit (RT) heads to distribute the meat,” Bamus Betawi chairman Nachrowi Ramli told detik.com.

Antara news agency reported that large crowds of hundreds of people queuing for meat descended into havoc in a number of regions during this year’s Idul Adha celebrations.

In Semarang, Central Java, a middle-aged woman fainted when the crowd she was in suddenly started to scramble for the meat as soon as the local committee started the distribution.

In a mosque in Cirebon, West Java, an 11-year-old boy was rescued from the crowd by a security officer after he experienced breathing difficulties.

Similar scenes were also spotted during meat distribution at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta, as well as in South Tangerang in Banten, Indramayu in West Java and Probolinggo in East Java, among others.

Despite having to wait for hours and being squeezed by impatient crowds, many of the people queueing were forced to go home empty-handed because of the inadequate amount of meat distributed in some locations.

In other areas, meanwhile, the available meat exceeded the number of recipients and ended up being distributed to middle-income people.

Idul Adha is the second-largest festival in the Islamic calendar and commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to God, although a sheep died instead of Ismail at the time of the sacrifice.

Muslims who are able to afford it usually buy sheep, goats, cows or camels, have them slaughtered and distribute the meat to the poor. They are also allowed to consume small portions of the meat.
Idul Adha coincides with the peak of the haj pilgrimage held annually in Saudi Arabia.