Zulkifli Hasan was inaugurated as Minister of Trade in Memory Today, June 15, 2022

JAKARTA - Today's memory, four years ago, June 15, 2022, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) appointed Zulkifli Hasan (Zulhas) as Minister of Trade (Mendag). The inauguration made Zulhas promise to prioritize the availability of cooking oil at affordable prices for the Community.

Previously, national cooking oil stocks had never been disrupted. Everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic came. Cooking oil scarcity began to be felt. The courage of the Ministry of Trade was also at stake against the cooking oil mafia.

A country with abundant natural resources is not a guarantee that its people can live Prosperously. This condition is seen when cooking oil is scarce in the market, even though there are oil palm plantations everywhere. It all started with the COVID-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia since 2020.

The presence of the corona virus brought panic throughout the country. People then competed to meet daily staple food needs. Cooking oil is also the most sought-after thing, both bulk cooking oil, simple cooking oil, to premium cooking oil.

The atmosphere of panic buying brings problems. This makes cooking oil not always available in the kiosks or shops. The peak of cooking oil scarcity began to be felt in early 2022. All people ask the government to take a stand.

The Ministry of Trade tried to photograph the problem. They saw that the national cooking oil stock was actually not a problem, the stock was abundant. The Ministry of Trade suspects that there are rogue businessmen who try to hold cooking oil stocks to make a profit.

Various policies are tried. The Ministry of Trade threatened to revoke the business license of rogue entrepreneurs. The Ministry of Religion also tried to set the highest retail price (HET) for oil. The results were far from expectations, scarcity continued to occur.

This condition then made the Minister of Trade, Muhammad Lutfi, apologize to the people of Indonesia. The apology was made because he was not able to defeat the cooking oil mafia.

"There are people who shouldn't get the results from this cooking oil. For example, cooking oil that should be consumed by the community goes into industry or is smuggled abroad."

"What happened was that most of the oil could not be accounted for, so the slope occurred. With an apology, the Ministry of Trade cannot control because this is the nature of greedy and evil people. Later, I asked the Food Task Force to fight these greedy and evil mafia people, we must work together," said Lutfi in a working meeting at the DPR RI as quoted by the lamankompas.com, March 17, 2022.

Lutfi's apology brought the narrative of the Ministry of Trade's inability to resolve the issue of the scarcity of cooking oil. This condition then became the concern of President Jokowi. As a result, Jokowi took a stance. He chose to remove Lutfi from his position as Trade Minister.

As a result, Jokowi moved quickly to choose the General Chair of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Zulhas, as the new Minister of Trade. Zulhas was also inaugurated by Jokowi at the State Palace on June 15, 2022. Jokowi considers that Zulhas will be able to handle the issue of scarcity of cooking oil.

The inauguration made Zulhas criticized. Zulhas is considered to have no experience in trade affairs. However, Zulhas also tried to dispel the criticism. He considers himself to have been full of experience as a politician.

"My background is long-term experience, I have also been a minister, I have also been the leader of the MPR, I hope that together with my friends we can quickly solve especially cooking oil, availability is there, the price is affordable. If it takes a long time, it will be a pity for the people. That's what I think is the priority. I want to learn, but I want to learn quickly," said Zulhas as quoted by the Setkab.go.id page, June 15, 2022.