PP Muhammadiyah Disagrees That SOEs Will Be Turned Into Cooperatives

Chairman of PP Muhammadiyah for Economic Affairs Anwar Abbas said his party's disapproval of the discourse or ideas related to the change of SOEs into cooperatives, but only needed to be reoriented by social functions.

"PP Muhammadiyah sees it is impossible to turn SOEs into cooperatives, because the wealth in SOEs belongs to the state, not to the individual property," said Anwar Abbas as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, February 5.

According to Anwar, the thing that needs to be done is to reorient the functions of the BUMN itself so that SOEs can increase efforts to protect, educate and prosper the people.

He said that in the teachings of Islam and also in positive law in this country, three types of ownership are recognized, namely personal or individual, community and state ownership.

"The state cannot take property rights from individuals and the public; personally it also cannot take property rights from the state and society, and vice versa, the community also cannot take property rights from individuals or the state. So each party must respect each other for the three types of ownership," he explained.

The man who is familiarly called Buya Anwar said the cooperative is only working on small businesses. Meanwhile, SOEs are working on big things, especially in the infrastructure sector, such as the construction of airports, ports, toll roads and others that cannot be carried out by cooperatives or private parties.

"Because it does not prioritize financial profit, it is more about creating general benefits," he explained.

According to Buya, SOEs do not need to be converted into cooperatives, but it is necessary to strengthen the function of SOEs as an institution that improves the country's economy and also protects and prospers the community, including by creating as many jobs as possible for the people.

He stressed that SOEs must have a social orientation of profit other than financial profit. Despite creating important financial benefits, people's welfare must also be the main focus that SOEs must pay attention to.

Furthermore, Buya said, efficiency in SOEs should not result in a lot of unemployment. In this context, SOEs are expected to create as many jobs as possible.

Buya encourages SOEs to have a new, more balanced orientation between profit finance and social profit, especially in creating jobs to overcome unemployment in the country.

Meanwhile, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said the discourse on disbanding state-owned corporations would only lead to new unemployment in Indonesia, considering that 1.6 million people were BUMN employees.

"It is ironic that the view is like that. If you want to be dissolved and replaced with a cooperative, it is tantamount to creating new unemployment when everyone needs jobs," he said in a written statement received in Jakarta, Sunday (4/2).

He conveyed that BUMN employees have proven themselves to be agents of change in Indonesia's economic development, which currently has a growth of 5 percent.

According to him, all state-owned corporations in 2023 have produced the largest dividend in Indonesia's history, which is IDR 82.1 trillion so that the profits obtained from SOEs have become a strong foundation for economic growth in the country.