Prabowo Asked To Intervene In Combating The White Onion Import Mafia

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto was asked to intervene directly to take action against his subordinates who were playing games at the Ministry of Trade regarding garlic imports.

Director of the Center for Budget Analysis, Uchok Sky Gaddafi, said that Prabowo needed to go down directly because the import of garlic had been going on for a long time and the head of state had to take firm action.

"Yes, it must intervene. If not, state losses will increase, due to the import of garlic," said Uchok Sky Gaddafi in a written statement, Monday, March 3.

Uchok added that this garlic import case had long occurred and was carried out by the technical ministry.

Therefore, he asked Prabowo to intervene to eradicate the garlic import mafia in the ministry.

"It's been a long time ago, basically what is called importing garlic, what is all about the prestige that must be eradicated," he concluded.

The case of the alleged garlic import mafia has surfaced again, this time with a more surprising issue.

The garlic import quota, which should be used to meet domestic market needs, has turned out to be used as a means of buying and selling at a very high price.

This garlic import mafia involves a number of individuals who have access to control import quotas.

By manipulating the import quota allocation, they make the quota a commodity that is traded at very high prices.

They are suspected of selling the quota to importers or entrepreneurs at a price of 7,000 rupiah per kilogram, much higher than the supposed price, thus affecting the soaring price of the garlic market.

The company's involvement in the garlic import process is thought to have been set by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) to create an illusion that the import was carried out in the public interest.

Although import policies should aim to meet domestic market needs fairly and transparently, in fact, some parties are taking advantage of this policy to reap personal gain in a very opaque way.

The process of granting permission to import garlic, which should have been carried out in a transparent manner, is thought to have been arranged in such a way by the Ministry of Agriculture.

These companies, which have only emerged or do not have a clear track record in agriculture, have been granted access to large amounts of imports.

This raises the suspicion that the Ministry of Agriculture has selectively provided import quotas, with the aim that certain business groups can control the supply of garlic and regulate prices in the market, even under the pretext of the public interest.