Longky Open House di Palu

Posted on Selasa, 16 Oktober 2007 by Longky Djanggola

Setelah menggelar open house selama dua hari di Parigi Moutong (13-14/10), Longky Djanggola kembali menggelar open house di Palu pada Senin 15/10 lalu. Keluarga, kerabat, kolega dan kawan-kawannnya bejubel di rumahanya di Jalan Kesehatan Palu Timur itu, untuk bersilaturahmi dengan tokoh yang dikenal low profile ini.

Bahkan, mereka menunggu sejak pukul 10.00 wita, tapi Longky Djanggola bersama Ny. Zalzulmida Aladin, baru bisa datang pukul 13.25 Wita. Richard Djanggola, putera tertua Longky Djanggola, menyatakan permohonan maaf atas keterlambatan itu. "Papa dan mama masih silaturahmi dengan Gubernur dan lain-lain. Makanya agak terlambat," kata Ichad--panggilan akrabnya.

Begitu mobil Terrano yang ditumpangi Longky Djanggola bersama Ny Zalzulmida Aladin tiba di depan rumahnya, warga yang tumplek di halaman depan rumahnya langsung berebut berjabat tangan dengan Bupati Parigi Moutong bersama istrinya itu.

Sedangkan di dalam rumah, sudah penuh sesak keluarga, sanak famili dan rekan-rekannya. Keluarga besar Pemuda Pancasila (PP) Sulawesi Tengah juga sudah menunggu Wakil Ketua MPW PP Sulteng itu. Setelah berjabatan tangan, Bupati Parigi Moutong tampak akrab ngobrol dengan tamu-tamunya. Open House itu berlangsung hingga pukul 15.00 Wita. ***

PPP Calonkan Longky untuk Cabup Parmout

Posted on by Longky Djanggola

Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP) Parigi Moutong nampaknya tidak mau menyia-nyiakan kemampuan Longky Djanggola. Lantaran itu, partai berlambang Ka'bah ini, kembali mencalonkan Bupati Parigi Moutong itu untuk ikut bertarung pada pertengahan tahun 2008 mendatang.

Pencalonan Longky Djanggola itu dilaksanakan dalam deklarasi yang dilaksanakan pada Selasa (16/10) siang. Deklarasi itu sendiri, tanpa kehadiran Longky Djanggola. Ia baru tau kalau namanya diusung, setelah ditelepon oleh salah seorang pengurus PPP dari Parigi.

PPP Kabupaten Parigi Moutong, saat ini memiliki dua orang wakil di DPRD setempat. Artinya, Longky Djanggola masih harus mendapat dukungan dari minimal dua partai lagi untuk dapat memenuhi syarat sebagai calon Bupati.

Informasi yang dihimpun menyebutkan, Partai Demokrat juga akan mencalonkan Longky Djanggola sebagai calon Bupati Parigi Moutong. Hanya saja, sampai sekarang belum ada kepastian dari partai yang didirikan Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ini.

Longky Djanggola yang dikonfirmasi mengatakan, ia bersedia dicalonkan oleh partai mana pun juga, sepanjang itu memenuhi syarat yang diminta oleh undang-undang yang berlaku. "Saya siap dicalonkan," kata Longky Djangola.

Asgar Ali Djuhaepa, sekretaris Umum DPW PPP Sulawesi Tengah, mengatakan, pencalonan Longky Djanggola itu bukan tanpa alasan. Yang bersangkutan dinilai memiliki kemampuan yang lebih dibanding tokoh lainnya di Parigi Moutong saat ini.

Longky Djanggola, kata Asgar Djuhaepa, tidak hanya memiliki kemampuan manajerial sebagai pemimpin, tapi juga memiliki visi memajukan Parigi Moutong yang sangat handal, dan memiliki kemampuan loby di tingkat pusat yang sangat baik. "Beliau juga sangat peduli dengan rakyat apalagi rakyat miskin," kata Asgar Djuhaepa.***

Thousands in C. Sulawesi take refuge from floods

Posted on Selasa, 09 Oktober 2007 by Longky Djanggola

The Jakarta Post, May 08, 2007

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu

A flash flood that struck Parigi Moutong regency in Central Sulawesi (not South Sulawesi as mentioned earlier) on Sunday has dumped up to a meter of mud in residential areas, preventing people from returning to their homes.

The Parigi Moutong regency administration reported that at least 1,096 people were taking refuge and more than 30 homes were badly damaged, with 100 more lightly damaged.

Regent Longky Djanggola said evacuees had taken shelter at SMP 6 high school and Petapa Inpres elementary school in Parigi district.

Two residents who were earlier reported missing and believed to have drowned, were found alive and in stable condition. One is still being treated at Parigi Moutong General Hospital.

Two people killed in the flood, Juluhi, 50, and Zulkifli, 45, were buried Monday.

Meanwhile, 10 villages in three districts in Donggala regency, Central Sulawesi, have reportedly been flooded for the past three days. There are no reports of casualties, but hundreds of residents have been forced to evacuate to safer areas because their homes and surrounding agricultural areas are flooded.

The villages, located in Dolo, Sigi Biromaru and Kulawi districts, are still submerged in up to a meter of water.

The worst-hit areas are Kaleke and Sidindo villages in Dolo district, and Bangga and Saluki villages in Kulawi district. Land communication has been totally cut and residents are forced to travel in carts pulled by oxen.

A Kaleke villager, Muhammad Syamsi, 55, said the current floods are worse than in previous years. His house was inundated by up to one meter of water, forcing him and his family to evacuate to higher ground.

"It flooded last year also, but we didn't have to evacuate because the water was only ankle-deep. But the flooding is quite bad this time," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Floods also hit Palu city, with the subdistricts of Maesa in East Palu district and Lere and Juna in West Palu suffering the worst of the damage.

The Palu River burst its banks, but flooding in the city did not force people to evacuate. There have been no reported casualties.

Parigi Moutong regency, young but determined

Posted on by Longky Djanggola

National News - March 05, 2007

Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Parigi Moutong

Once part of Donggala regency in Central Sulawesi, Parigi Moutong regency will mark its fifth anniversary as an autonomous province on April 10 with a pledge to make the region the most developed in the province by 2020.

Considering its abundant resources, the regency, which surrounds Tomini Bay, will not find it hard to reach the goal, but problems posed by poverty might get in the way. From the regency's 371,204 residents, 27,000 families still lived under the poverty line.

According to the Marine and Fishery Office the regency stretched along 472 kilometers of coastline, from Sausu district in the south to Moutong district in the north.

With a fishing area that spanned 28,208 square km, the regency has the potential to harvest 587,250 tons of fish annually, excluding those caught from its 4,000 hectares of ponds, which were managed by both tradition and modern-day means.

With economic growth recorded at 5,98 percent, the regency also boasts various agricultural products, including chocolate, with 54,345 tones produced annually from plantations spanning 45,120 ha, coconuts, of which 40,757 tones was produced annually on some 24,500 ha of land and cloves, of which 421,751 tons were produced annually from plantations spanning 2,166 ha.

With its rich resources, poverty should be non-existent in the regency, especially considering that the marine and agriculture sectors were managed by residents and not by outside investors.

Parigi Moutong Regent Longky Djanggola said the marine sector was mostly managed by the natives of Bugis in South Sulawesi and Chinese Indonesians, while plantations were predominantly owned by Balinese and Javanese natives.

"The Balinese and Javanese previously arrived in the regency under transmigration programs, but now they have made their roots here," Longky said.

He said a majority of the regency's poor were natives, who have been lulled by the area's rich resources.

But Longky said he refused to let the economic gap remain, believing it could trigger social jealousy and fresh problems. "The poor residents should be empowered," he said.

Utilizing this spirit, the regency administration joined hands with the offices of the Coordinating Ministry for the People's Welfare and the United Nations Development Program in 2005 to implement the Millennium Development Goals program for the region by preparing plans to reduce poverty there.

Longky believed that in order to alleviate poverty, the poor would have to be involved in the programs so they could learn the true nature of the problems at hand. "It turned out that the poor residents actively involved themselves with us to find programs that they thought were of the utmost priority to them," he said.

Following discussions and meetings with the poor residents, it was discovered that one of the real problems they faced was a lack of capital to initiate potential money-making activities.

To remedy this, the administration placed a Rp 2.5 billion (US$271,739) guarantee in a bank for the poor. "The money is intended to allow poor residents to obtain interest-free loans," Longky said.

Since the loan scheme was launched, 1,180 people have applied for financing from the bank, borrowing between Rp 2.5 million and Rp 3.5 million each.

Head of Central Sulawesi Bank in Parigi Moutong, Wahidudin, said loan approvals were based on a proposal submitted by the applicant. The bank then records the debtor's loan repayments, which were anywhere between Rp 250,000 and Rp 500,000 each month.

Longky said that following good reports from the bank, the regency's legislative council agreed to place another Rp 2.5 billion in the bank this year for similar purposes. "The council has agreed and during the upcoming discussion on the regency's budget, the money will be included in the budget," he said.

Apart from providing interest-free loans, the regency administration has launched other poverty reduction programs, including a scheme to provide free medication to the poor and another to arrange the distribution of identification cards free of charge.

The regency earned the praise of the deputy Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare, Sujana Royat, who said its programs were the most effective of the five provinces made to pilot projects under the Millennium Development Goals program. The other four provinces involved were Aceh, Maluku, North Maluku and Papua.

As part of its vision to make the regency the most developed in the province, the administration has also insisted on implementing clean governance and boosting revenues, while increasing the people's participation in development with the goal of improving welfare, the economy and the environment.

With its strategic location and adequate infrastructure, and thanks to the presence of the Trans-Sulawesi highway passing through its six districts, the regency has a chance to develop at a greater pace. The highway has allowed the administration to focus on providing a means of transportation to its more remote areas in order to open up isolated locations and provide easy economic access.

Longky said that the administration had also launched a program to provide better housing for the poor. Last year, 300 houses were built for villagers living in mountain ranges.

"In the 2007 budget we will propose to implement a housing program for the poor in the city, as well as construct roads to production sites."