A Letter to the President

My name is Iqbal

I'm now aged 25

My father is a peasant

He worked on land which belongs to the head of our village

My mother stays at home

I have 8 brothers

After I graduated from junior high school, I dropped out

Because I have to help my mother and father with work on the farm

to be able to support my 8 other brothers

I come from a small village

(The lights went off again!)

It needs more attention from the president

Our village is so poor

Even the electricity often goes out of service

Presidential candidates, I can only see you from a TV in my neighbour's house

And in an old newspaper which was used to wrap rice

I really hope that someday, I can meet Mr. President

So I can tell him about everything we are going though in our village

This letter is one of the many letters that I have sent to the candidates

Well actually I don't know about all of those other letters, whether they reached them or not

Because I only gave them to my friends

Maybe they lost them, or maybe they already reached Mr. President

But I don't know, up until now I've never seen or met Mr. President in real life

To the next elected president, this letter represents our voices

We do hope that the next president-to-be will pay more attention to the voices of the farmers and peasants, of the fishermen

And others who have the same fate as us

I hope that the next president can come down and visit us, can feel what we've been feeling

And can listen to our misery and problems

Thank you

Regards, Iqbal