HEADLINE

Inflection point. That is perhaps the apt phrase to describe the current state of the ongoing corruption eradication drive in Indonesia. Not only because the government’s anticorruption performance is increasingly sluggish, but because the boundaries between public and private affairs are becoming blurrier. In the fields of administration, politics and law, the government is under greater pressure, especially after Reformasi, where an array of conflicts of interest in decision-making take place in plain view. Holding concurrent positions, public officials running private businesses, bribing judges to resolve court cases, to high-ranking police officer selling seized drugs to dealers are just some examples. This phenomenon signals that the democratic accountability of power is being severely disrupted. 

Good news for the people came at the start of the fasting month. The Government plans to distribute food assistance worth Rp 8.26 trillion over the next three months, aimed at suppressing inflation. There are at least three staple commodities that constitute the social aid program __ rice, eggs and chicken meat.

The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVC) has captured the world’s attention, especially economic players in financial, banking and digital sectors. The bank, which served as a source of funding for start-ups and technology companies, was finally shut down after a bank run, when a large group of its panicked depositors withdrew their money at the same time. SVB had grown rapidly in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, but failed to quickly adapt to post-pandemic economic reality, marked by the Fed’s rapid, successive benchmark interest rate (Fed Fund Rate/FFR) hikes.

The Central Jakarta District Court ruling on Thursday (2/3) ordering the General Elections Commission (KPU) to postpone the 2024 General Election (GE2024) promptly sent a shockwave through the Indonesian political scene – and the public as well. The decision was issued in connection with a lawsuit filed on December 8, 2022 by a small and relatively unknown political player called “Prima Party”, challenging the KPU decision to disqualify it from contesting GE2024, as it did not pass the administrative verification stage. 

The national rice policy has recently become a widely-discussed topic, as the price of rice fluctuates unpredictably and the Government’s rice import plan sparks controversy. This is understandable, as rice has become a strategic commodity. From the early days after Indonesia gained its independence, through the regimes of Sukarno and Suharto and up until the Reformasi era, national rice policy has been continuously changing. Some viewed it as a less important policy while others made it a top priority. Whatever the policy direction is, rice remains influential, both politically and economically. Politically, it relates to the legitimacy of the Government. Economically, it is a key component which affects price stability and inflation, which ultimately will impact the performance of the national economy. In this article, we will examine the consequences of this issue, whether it is being neglected or if it is designated a focal issue by the Government.

The “cop murder” saga was finally concluded, with the disgraced former Chief of the Internal Affairs Division of the Indonesian National Police (Div Propam), Ferdy Sambo, sentenced to death over the premeditated homicide of his aide-de-camp Yosua Hutabarat (popularly known as “Brigadier J”). This entire drama must be accorded an appreciation.

Post-World War II, the philosophy of economic development leaned toward economic growth, as classical economists viewed that high-quality economic development was also associated with high economic expansion. Thus, during that period, economic development efforts were geared towards stimulating higher growth.

Despite numerous difficulties, such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the global economic downturn, Indonesia, which will host the G20 in 2022, was successful in getting the high-level conference held in Bali on November 15– 16 to result in a joint declaration, known as the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration. This demonstrates how Indonesia has aimed to be a uniting force amid global unrest under President Joko Widodo. 

The global economy is currently mired in uncertainty, with a number of countries experiencing extraordinarily strong inflationary pressures. In the US and UK, inflation rates hit 9.1 percent and 11.1 percent in 2022. In Indonesia, inflation touched 5.95 percent last year. 

The European Union (EU) is one of Indonesia’s third largest export destination for palm oil after India and China. Historically, a European country even played a key role in the development of Indonesia’s palm oil industry in its infancy. The first oil palm plantation in Indonesia was established by a Belgian company Socfin Group in North Sumatra over a hundred years ago, and is still in business today. Because of this special historical relationship, it isn’t surprising that EU is one of the largest consumers of palm oil.

The government, since Megawati administration in 2001, has pledged to achieve sugar self-sufficiency but after two presidents (and four administrations) it appears that this remains a distant dream. In the intervening years, annual domestic sugar production has been stuck at between 2.1 to 2.4 million tons while the demand for both consumption and industrial sugar has hit 7 million tons.