An Outburst Of Anger From The Meranti Regent Regarding Oil Revenue Sharing Funds According To Netray Monitoring

Meranti Islands Regency, Riau is an area that has abundant natural resources. From the oil and gas sector alone, Meranti is one of the largest oil producing regions in Indonesia. In fact, according to Meranti Regent Muhammad Adil, production reaches more than 8,000 barrels per day today.

Likewise, from the fisheries sector, the catch reaches more than 2 thousand tons per year. Not to mention plantation products such as sago, coconut, rubber, pinang, and coffee.

However, the reality is that this potential is inversely proportional to the level of population welfare. Meranti Islands Regency, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) 2021, is the poorest area compared to 12 other regencies/cities in Riau. It was recorded that there were 48.5 thousand people or about 25.68 percent of people living below the poverty line.

In fact, this number is expected to increase at this time. The unemployment rate alone is increasing. Adil said, It can reach 41 thousand people to become unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On that basis, Adil was loud voice at the National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas) on Regional Revenue and Expenditure Management in Pekanbaru on December 8. Moreover, when he realized there was an uncertainty about the funds for the production of oil in his region.

Oil lifting in Meranti has recently increased dramatically, nearly reaching 8,000 barrels per day from the previous 3,000-4,000 barrels per day. Not to mention, the assumption that oil prices in the state budget rose to 100 US dollars per barrel from the previous 60 US dollars per barrel.

With this calculation, the profit-sharing fund we received was only Rp. 115 billion, only an increase of around Rp. 700 million compared to the previous year. Why? Asked Adil to the Director General of Fiscal Balance of the Ministry of Finance, Lucky Alfirman.

"The amount is large, how come the money is reduced. Is my money divided throughout Indonesia? So, I mean if you don't want to take care of us, the center doesn't want to take care of Meranti, give us to the next country," Adil continued.

Lucky briefly explained about the profit-sharing fund. According to him, the formulation of the distribution of profit-sharing funds has been determined in the law. In the Law on Financial Relations between the Central Government and Regional Governments (HKPD), the distribution has also been expanded to other regions, not only returned to producing areas.

"There is a formula, I said earlier, for example it was stipulated in law, 85 percent was given to the center, regions by 15 percent, then not only producing regions, but also given what is called equitable areas," said Lucky.

Adil still doesn't accept it, Do you need Meranti to take up arms, it's impossible, right? This concerns the people of Meranti who are extreme poor, sir. If you talk like this, it's wrong to share it equally, sir, where is it divided evenly?"

He admitted that he had tried to ask for an explanation from the Ministry of Finance with direct audience regarding it, but they asked for an audience to be held online. In fact, Adil had previously chased to Bandung, West Java just to meet. Unfortunately, the meeting was not attended by officials who were competent to answer his questions.

"Until I said, these are the financial people who contain demons or demons," he said.

The viral words of the Regent of Meranti on social media triggered one of the Special Staff (Stafsus) of the Ministry of Finance, Yustinus Prastowo, to give a response. Through his personal Twitter account @prastow, Yustinus uploaded a video of an objection statement and regretted the Meranti Regent's remarks which were considered to be heard passing and misleading.

Regarding profit-sharing funds, the Ministry of Finance has calculated according to the law and used official data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. In fact, Yustinus asked the Regent of Adil to immediately apologize and clarify so as not to mislead the public.

Using the keywords of the regent &&meranti&kemenkeu, as well as the regent &meranti throughout the period 9-13 December 2022, Netray found that 8,087 tweets from 3,782 accounts discussed the topic. Negative sentiment dominated 4,313 conversations while positive sentiment was recorded only 1,349 tweets.

Popular negative sentiment seems to have attacked Yustinus Prastowo as stated by the @Hasbil_Lbs account. This account writes that Yustinus does not have the right to demand an apology from the Regent of Meranti because he only acts as a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance. The same thing was also expressed by @Putra JayaHusin who assessed that the statement by the Stafsus actually made the atmosphere hot.

The conversation is widening, the @ArdoyantoE account also highlights the broken Indonesian law. Regents who openly defend their regions are labeled as treason, while officials who wish to change the constitution and violate the 1945 Constitution are allowed.

The Regent of Meranti, according to Netray, actually received a lot of positive sentiment from Twitter activists. As can be seen from the @NenkMonica account which feels applauded for his firm stance in defending regional sovereignty. @RicKy_KCh appreciates the courage to be fair for the sake of regional change and improvement. The same thing was also written by the @hc_poirot account.

Cuitan Ketua Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa Muhaimin Iskandar (Cak Imin) pada periode pemantauan mendapat paling banyak interaksi. Cak Imin, dalam komentarnya menyarankan agar kejadian tersebut menjadi bahan perbaikan dan kritik membangun melalui evaluasi terus-sisten bagi pemerintah pusat.

Apart from Twitter, Netray also monitors the issue of oil profit-sharing funds through online media reporting channels. There were 515 news from 77 media publishing this topic. As a result of Adil's statement, various news emerged with broader discussions and responses from various parties.

Because, wrote Netray, Adil not only referred to the Ministry of Finance as a demon or a demon, but also threatened to take up arms and move to Malaysia if the central government did not provide a solution to his complaint.

Secretary General (Secretary General) of the Ministry of Home Affairs Suhajar Diantoro advised Adil to use ethical language and show statesmanship. What is the concern of the Regent of Meranti can be communicated and resolved properly, so as not to cause public noise.

Like giving a way out for the Regent of Meranti, Kemekeus finally asked Adil to sit down together to match the data on the Migas DBH owned by Meranti Regency and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. The offer came out of Yustinus Prastowo, the Special Staff of the Minister of Finance for Strategic Communications, who had previously responded via personal Twitter, "quoted from Netray in closing his report on December 16, 2022.