Makassar – Presidential Election, which will be held in 9 July 2014, caused some community a hope for a change. South Sulawesi ‘Aisyiyah, as an element of civilians, hoped that the next President will pay more attention to health issues, especially Tuberculosis (TB) prevention. TB is urgent matter that should be solved immediately; recently, Indonesia ranked four for death caused by TB in the world, after India, China, and South Africa. Statistically, 67000 people died every year for TB.

This was as stated by the Chairman of Aisyiyah Provincial Executive of South Sulawesi, Nurhayati Azis, in Gedung Serbaguna Aisyiyah, Jl. Bulusaraung, Makassar, South Sulawesi (6/24). Nurhayati added, if it was calculated, every hour there are 52 people died because of it, “Therefore, Aisyiyah hoped that whoever Presidential Candidate get elected, he will be committed to prevent and solve TB disease,” she pleaded.

Furthermore, Nurhayati explained, the government’s attention toward health is still lacking. National Budget for Health is still far from the appointed number by WHO, which is at least 15% of the total National Budget. “Law on Health of 2009 only appointed minimum 5% of National Budget and 10% of Regional Budget, in practice, it was still far from what we hoped,” she added.

“In 2014 National Budget, the central government allocated 13.1 trillion or 1% of central government expense for health. This number decreased from 2013, which reached 17.5 trillion or 1.5% of the expense. This is irony, if it was compared to other countries, even three countries in Africa, which were considered low-income country such as Tanzania, Rwanda, and Liberia, they allocated almost 15% for health,” she concluded. (tim ‘aisyiyah) (mac)