Not Inviting The Minister Of Agriculture To Work On A Food Barn In Central Kalimantan, Jokowi Shows A Signal Of Disappointment

President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. (Photo: Twitter @jokowi)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) plan to maintain food security and send his ranks of ministers to make Central Kalimantan a food estate area or alternative food barn outside Java has raised question marks. The absence of the Minister of Agriculture in the ranks of the group's ministers, whose main task is to maintain food security through agricultural production, is considered to show President Jokowi's disappointment with the Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo.

This is because the ranks of the ministers sent are Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Basuki Hadimuljono, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir, to Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto.

Ono Surono, a member of Commission IV DPR from the PDI-P faction, confirmed that he felt the oddity when Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo was not involved. According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture should have been involved.

Ono assessed that the Ministry of Agriculture has an analysis related to swamp or peatland in Kalimantan, whether it can be planted with rice or other food crops. He suspects that the president has also considered the new rice field printing program to be less than optimal even though this is the main function of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Ono also did not deny the possibility that Syahrul Yasin Limpo was not involved because of his underperformance.

"Yes, it could be like that, it could also be because yesterday was not successful in printing new rice fields. Second, maybe there is no budget in the Ministry of Agriculture. Third, it could be because the Ministry of Agriculture's own less than optimal capacity is related to agricultural infrastructure. So that might be the President's consideration, "Ono said in his statement quoted on Friday, July 3.

According to him, President Jokowi must also have an assessment of the performance of his ministers. He hopes that there will be significant changes in the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to Ono, from year to year, period to period of changing ministers, there is still no significant change in the Ministry of Agriculture. Regarding the role of the Minister of Defense, he asked all parties to think positively.

"Well, what about Mr Prabowo? Yes, we are just positive. Perhaps the involvement of elements of the TNI in clearing land. It's not easy to clear land. In the TNI there are special forces to clear land. The three ministers must communicate with the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the carrying capacity of their land, ”said Ono.

On a separate occasion, the Executive Director of the Center for Budget Analysis (CBA) Uchok Sky Khadafi assessed that it was very strange if Jokowi did not involve the Minister of Agriculture on matters that should have been his 'core business'.

On the other hand, the President has instead involved Ministers who are not primarily concerned with food. He sees this as the aftermath of President Jokowi's disappointment with the performance of the Minister of Agriculture.

"This is a strong signal that the Minister of Agriculture is not in a safe position. The Minister of Agriculture needs to be evaluated or even reshuffled," he said.

There is no breakthrough from the Minister of Agriculture

Uchok suspected that the communication between Jokowi and the Minister of Agriculture was not going well. Especially when the pandemic hit, there was no significant breakthrough from the Minister of Agriculture regarding food security.

"Jokowi needs a breakthrough, he needs a big idea of how this food security can work during a pandemic. But it is precisely the efforts of the Minister of Agriculture that are invisible. Should the pandemic start, the Minister of Agriculture already has a strong concept for food security, not disappearing," he said.

Regarding rice stocks, for example, said Uchok, the Minister of Agriculture should have thought carefully if the pandemic continues and stocks run low, what to do if production cannot cover it.

"He must know, during the pandemic, Thailand and Vietnam no longer export rice for their own food security," said Uchok.

In other words, he continued, in addition to dealing with production issues which may not yet be resolved, the Minister of Agriculture must also be able to maintain food security by looking for other sources to prevent shortages and increases in food prices.

"During a pandemic, imports are not illegal goods for food security. It would be good if he could import them. In fact, it is difficult to find imported food during a pandemic," he added.

Regarding the paddy field printing program, Uchok himself reminded the government to learn from the previous failures of a similar program.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Syahrul Limpo said he would speed up the harvest season. He wants to make rice production surplus. The Ministry of Agriculture will prepare 7.4 million hectares of available rice fields to support the acceleration of the harvest season.

"We want to produce 15 million tons of rice," said Syahrul in Jakarta, Thursday 2 July.

He continued, currently the domestic rice stock that is still available as of June 2020 is 7.49 million tons. With the prediction of the MT II harvest, Syahrul predicts the stock until the end of December 2020 will reach 22 million tons.