JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Puan Maharani, asked the government to take concrete and measured steps to overcome the mixed premium rice scandal that is being discussed. He emphasized that consumers and small business actors should not become victims of fraudulent practices when people's purchasing power decreases.
"The government and law enforcement agencies need to immediately take concrete steps. Don't let consumers and small traders become victims," said Puan in her statement, Thursday, July 24.
Puan assessed that the estimated loss value of Rp. 100 trillion is a sign of gaps in national food distribution management, especially for strategic commodities such as rice.
More than just a financial loss, this scandal has hit small traders who are actually victims of an opaque distribution chain. They sell products with good intentions, but instead share the impact because product quality does not match the label," said the former Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture.
Puan assessed that there are a number of strategic steps that can be taken to anticipate the issue of mixed rice. For example, transparency of the names of producers and brands involved to restore public trust.
"The practice of mixed rice must also be thoroughly investigated. Allegations of involvement of cartels or monopolistic practices in the distribution of premium rice must be thoroughly investigated," said Puan.
In addition, he continued, the National Food Agency (Bapanas) must intervene in dismantling the root causes of the adulterated rice problem that is detrimental to the community. Puan assessed that all authorized agencies must follow up on findings by classifying the level of error in this rice mixing case, including the role of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU).
"The government must immediately issue an affirmative policy to protect market traders from bad reputation impacts and open up space for economic recovery fairly," said the chairman of the PDIP DPP.
Puan also reminded that food security cannot be built on fraudulent practices and quality manipulation so that she emphasizes the importance of economic justice from upstream to downstream, from farmers to people's dining tables.
"If food distribution continues to be controlled by a handful of big players without strict supervision, plus fraudulent practices, then it is the people who become victims. The state should not allow it," concluded Puan.
As is known, Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman explained that the findings of mixed rice were revealed from the price irregularities recorded in the last two months. In that note, the price of unhulled rice at the farmer level has decreased. But strangely, the price of rice at the consumer level has actually increased.
This condition prompted the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan) to conduct direct field checks. As a result, most of the samples showed a mismatch in the quality of the 10 main rice producing provinces with 268 circulating brands testing.
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The Minister of Agriculture said that from the laboratory test results, it was found that about 85 percent of the samples did not match the standard. In fact, it was found that the rice in a five kilogram packaging had a weight of only 4.5 kilograms.
Meanwhile, President Prabowo Subianto said the practice of cheating mixed rice caused huge losses to the state reaching Rp100 trillion every year.
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