Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – His happiness radiated is clear from the face of Marine Captain Suseno (50) at the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security (Menkopolkam) Building, Tuesday 7 May 1991. On that day, he was summoned by the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Sudomo, to be given a prize of IDR 1 billion.
This prize was given to Suseno not because of his achievements as a soldier in the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), but because he managed to win the lottery Social Philanthropic Contribution Prize (SDSB).
Newspaper Update Sound (8 May 1991) wrote, Suseno received IDR 1 billion from the SDSB lottery for the 14th period. Initially he bought a coupon for IDR 5,000 and unexpectedly managed to win and get IDR 1 billion. Due to this success he was immediately dubbed a “billionaire soldier”.
Of course, Rp. 1 billion at that time was extremely large.
For comparison, the price of premium gasoline at that time was only IDR 550/liter. Then, the price of 5 grams of gold is only IDR 25 thousand. Houses in Pondok Indah alone only cost IDR 10-40 million. Meanwhile, the salary as a mid-ranking ABRI soldier is only around tens to tens of thousands per month.
This means that with IDR 1 billion in 1991, Suseno could buy thousands of liters of petrol, tens of kilograms of gold and dozens of houses in Pondok Indah. In fact, Suseno was able to enjoy life until the end of his life without working.
Please note, SDSB is a lottery program officially run by the Ministry of Social Affairs during the Soeharto Government era and has been in effect since January 1 1989. This program aims to attract money from the community which will later be diverted for development. So, in return the community gets a prize from the government with a maximum nominal value of up to IDR 1 billion.
To take part in this program, people only need to buy a coupon and wait for notification of the winner. Usually the winner is announced on Wednesday evening.
If the guess is successful, then the person gets the prize money, but with extremely small odds. Because, out of millions of participants, only 1-2 people managed to win. So, someone who wins this lottery actually gets a “Durian collapse”.
It is not surprising that many people are willing to take part in this lottery, even going into debt, because they see SDSB as a way to get out of poverty. Even so, many parties say this program is the same as legalizing gambling.
Activist Sri Bintang Pamungkas in Change Regime Change System (2014) call SDSB the same as gambling games that are legalized by the government. In the end, the Indonesian Ulema Council also issued a haram fatwa on SDSB because they considered it gambling and causing misery to the people.
In the end, the SDSB program was stopped by the government in 1993 after continuous pressure from various elements of society.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
Next Article
Logical Reasons Why Keeping Satan Doesn't Make People Rich
(mfa/mfa)