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January
Indonesian Ministry of Trade simplifies the regulation and supervision of the import trade system. Director General of Foreign Trade, Oke Nurwan said, this simplification aims to improve the ease of business or ease of doing business. After the event "Socialization of Regulatory Simplification and Monitoring of Import Import in Post Border" held in Jakarta, on Thursday, January 25th, he explained, there are five thousand two hundred goods prohibited or limited imports from total 10 thousand of goods. During this time, goods restricted imports, or called Lartas, are supervised by customs or in the Border. Customs controls the completeness of Lartas import permit documents which are publicized by various Ministries. Now, through the new policy, about two thousand two hundred kinds of Lartas are no longer checked in at Customs. The Lartas will be supervised by Indonesian Ministry of Trade and other Ministries or called the Post Border.
Mr. Oke further said: "The impact is the flow of goods will become more smoothly. Because our goal is facilitating the flow of goods in order to make lower figure of ease of doing business. The ranking also rises".
Oke also explained, the goods are still checked in Post Border including pearl products, toys, horticultural products, ceramics, and so forth. Safety, health and safety related items will be kept under surveillance in the Border or at the Customs. With the new policy, the importer only needs to make an online statement or self-declaration online that the completeness of the product is complete. Accordingly, the Customs no longer supervises the completeness of the Lartas document. (Sekar/trs Rezha)
January
Breakthrough of KPK early 2018
On January 23rd, 2018, the Corruption Eradication Commission -KPK again made a surprise by deciding the status of a suspect to a regional head. The official is suspected of accepting bribes and gratuities related to the implementation of projects within his government. On the one hand, people see clearly how the capacity of the anti-corruption institution shows. The KPK is so smart, with the support of all parties, crack down those who abuse their authority. On the other hand, the question arises, why there are still those who commit corruption (?). In fact, the data of Ministry of Home Affairs shows that there have been hundreds of corruptions cases by regional heads charged by the KPK from 2004 to 2017. This should be enough to remind anyone not to take consequence.
Over the first few years of regional autonomy applied, the call of little kings for regional heads occurred. It was only natural remembering that their authority was powerful. The positive impact of the democratic spirit in the reformation era is aimed at accelerating development in each region. Each region is authorized to accelerate development in accordance with its potential. Unfortunately, temptations arise for individual or group interests. Unsurprisingly, the KPK's action to eradicate the abuse of authority by these little kings is greatly appreciated by the people of Indonesia.
Now, corruption eradication efforts do not encounter significant obstacles, as supported by all stakeholders in addition to the strength of the underlying legal basis. KPK seems to keep make breakthrough without fear in a bid to eradicate corruption. Now, the problem is that how the KPK takes preventive efforts, such as by maximizing the presence of internal monitoring units to be involved in the execution of each project.
In addition, it may be necessary to review the democratic system in the election of regional heads, especially in terms of huge costs that contestants and supporters must spend. Consequently, this brings about impact on corruption by some regional heads, both incumbent and newly elected ones.
Indeed, every country has its own uniqueness in democracy. So, the model of democracy in one country cannot be applied absolutely. But democracy should not be secretly-packed image of something bad. If this is the case, KPK's work will be endless, and this is not good news. Corruption will continue to recur if the root cause of the problem is not well identified. That’s why, this must be immediately resolved.
January
National Food Policy and Data Accuracy
Food, especially rice has remained the main need of Indonesian people up to now. Thus, food sovereignty becomes one of the agendas in the National Medium Term Development Plan for 2015-2019.
At the Opening of the National Congress of HIPMI XV in Bandung, West Java on January 12, 2015, President Joko Widodo urged Minister of Agriculture to be self-sufficient in food within the next three years, which means this year 2018. Self-sufficiency starts from rice, and then the next one is other foods. On that occasion, President Joko Widodo believed there would be no rice import after three years.
In fact, price hike of rice has risen significantly since December 2017. Ministry of Trade decided to import rice of 500 thousand tons targeted to arrive in Indonesia by the end of January 2018. Later, the government's plan to import rice by the end of January is considered too close with a harvest that will fall in March 2017. There is a possibility that the distribution of imported rice will actually make the rice farmers disadvantaged.
Quoting the report of liputan6.com on January 16, 2018, rice import is conducted to ensure the availability of rice supply across Indonesia and reduce the price of rice in the market. The price of rice has risen because of inaccurate rice production data. An agricultural observer of the Faculty of Agriculture at Bogor Agricultural Institute, Prof. Dwi Andreas Santosa views that the price hike of rice can be overcome if the available data is accurate. So far, the rice prices have often risen because production data and consumption are not correct.
Meanwhile, member of Indonesian Ombudsman, Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih stated that the Ministry of Agriculture stated that so far the production of rice is surplus and stock is enough. However, the statement is based only on estimates of harvested area and grain production, without concrete amount and distribution of rice stocks.
Actually, the data believed to be accurate, especially related to the availability of rice, can be seen from price movements. The basic principle taken is a balance between demand and supply, which is generally applied. The more rice stock is, the lower the rice price is, and vice versa. Inaccurate data related to national rice stocks needs to be fixed immediately, because this has the potential to make the government take wrong policies. In regard to this, the Ombudsman advised the government to provide strong support for the Central Bureau of Statistics -BPS in a bid to issue more accurate data on rice production and stock.
It is time for the government, mainly the Ministry of Agriculture, to evaluate the data sources used as the basis of national food policies. The policies should be based on research results according to the facts on the field instead of estimate only. So, there will be no more policies that may make the farmers disadvantaged.
January
Indonesian Creativity: Custom Chopper
President Joko Widodo receives a Custom Chopper in Bogor. He bought this chopper and He wants to push Indonesian youth to be creative.