Netray Monitoring Regarding The Polemic Prohibition Of 3 Kg Gas Selling Certificates, Bahlil Lahadalia Becomes The Target Of Netizens

Residents carried 3 kg LPG gas purchased during operations in the Tuban area, Badung, Bali, Wednesday (5/2/2025). (ANTARA/Fikri Yusuf/Spt)

JAKARTA The government's decision to make a new policy by prohibiting retailers from selling 3 Kg LPG gas cylinders has caused polemics among the public. The rise of price games by certain individuals is the main reason for the issuance of policies signed by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia.

The new policy limiting the sale of 3 kg gas cylinders only at Pertamina's official base without retailers was taken due to the soaring price of gas in the market of up to IDR 23,000 per cylinder. This far exceeds the highest retail price (HET) determined by the government of IDR 12,500.

This policy causes reactions on social media, especially X. Netray also tried to monitor the news in the online mass media as well as the discussion of social media X to see how the topic of changing policies was reviewed from various perspectives.

By using the keyword 3kg&gas during the period January 29 to February 5, 2025, Netray found 2,583 articles from 230 news portals containing keywords, "said Netray monitoring.

News about the termination of the distribution of 3 kg of gas to retailers has emerged since February 29 which was followed by news of the scarcity of LPG gas in various regions, from Jakarta, Serang to Bantul.

The intensity of this 3 kg gas related news since the beginning of monitoring has not been massive. However, on the day of the implementation of the regulation, February 1, the news began to increase to 86 news articles.

The increase on the next day and the peak of the news occurred on February 4, a total of 1,205 articles appeared that day. On this date too, the news was colored about Prabowo who finally decided to return to retailers.

As the party who set this policy, Bahlil's name was in the spotlight of mass media coverage during the week of monitoring. The words of the minister, esdm, andbahlil appeared quite prominent on the graph of the top words or the ranks of popular words.

Bahlil emphasized that the government is improving the governance of the provision of 3 kg LPG gas. For this reason, retailers are not allowed to sell melon gas anymore.

He emphasized that the price of 3 kg retail gas should not increase by more than Rp6,000 above HET. However, Bahlil felt that there were retail prices that were too high to exceed HET, so they had to be managed again by the government.

Supporting Bahlil, Pertamina Patra Niaga also appealed to the public to buy 3 kg of gas directly to the official base to get a selling price in accordance with the HET that has been determined by each local government.

Responding to this policy, energy economy observer Fahmy Totalingi actually felt Bahlil's policy as a blunder because it killed grassroots entrepreneurs, troubled consumers, and violated President Prabowo's commitment to favoring the small people.

According to him, the retailer can actually help people who do not have direct access to Pertamina. With this prohibition, he argues that the government actually plays a role in cutting off small and medium enterprises that will have a negative impact on the community's economy.

In line with Fahmi's statement, the ruler Aditya Rahman assessed that this policy would make it difficult for the community, especially households and small business actors, because it was increasingly difficult to get subsidized gas. He also highlighted the incident of a housewife in Pamulang, South Tangerang who died of fatigue in line.

The counter attitude also came from the DPR, especially the Chairman of Commission XII of the DPR RI, Sugeng Suparwoto, who grumbled that the policy issued by Bahlil was not coordinated with the DPR.

He also explained the fact that the prohibition of retailers selling 3 kg was prepared and very sudden. Without going through trials, the distribution chain was immediately cut so that chaos emerged as it is now.

The impact of this policy is the scarcity of stocks which is also in the spotlight of the news with the emergence of shortages in the ranks of popular vocabulary.

Scarcity in LPG stocks appears to occur in big cities such as Jakarta, Tangerang, Semarang, Bantul, to Kuta. As a result of this scarcity, it sparked protests from residents who had to queue for hours until someone died of fatigue.

This phenomenon certainly does not escape the attention of Warganet. They also criticized the government's policies, which were felt quite burdensome for the community. By using the keyword "LPtg&3" and gas &lg during the same period, 146.6 thousand uploads from 123.5 thousand enthusiastic users discussed this issue.

"Conversation at X is dominated by 113.9 thousand negative sentiment compared to positive sentiment conversations with only 9 thousand uploads," wrote the Netray report.

Bahlil's name was also the target of the discussion of netizens, his name appeared very prominent in the ranks of popular words. Bahlil was also sprayed by a resident in Tangreang when monitoring the 3 kg gas queue.

Meanwhile, the @03__nakula account blamed Bahlil for issuing a non-preparatory policy that caused queues of residents in various provinces.

The hashtag #Emergency Warning reappeared amid netizens' concerns when it was difficult to get 3 kg of gas. The same hashtag once appeared during the Constitutional Court's decision case and the revision of the Pilkada Law.

What is different is the upload of #WarningD this time with a black background, although Garuda's image still exists. This hashtag managed to reap approximately 12 thousand uploads.

The @geraldyustiadi account is the most popular in uploading this picture. He seemed to describe various problems that have arisen since the Prabowo administration. Starting from the education and health program which is a support program, the wages of MBG employees are late for payment, the stock of private gasoline has been running low for weeks, until the LPG subsidy is tugless for 3 kg which makes it difficult for residents to get it.

The next popular hashtag is #IndonesiaGlapwhich won 8.5 thousand uploads. Just like the hashtag #WarningEmergency, this hashtag was also colored by netizens who described the events that occurred at the beginning of the 100 days of Prabowo's leadership.

The @rreadresistance account clearly describes six points, including that Papua's land was seized for the sake of the illusion of self-sufficiency in food and energy, the sea was fenced and there was HGB above sea, a mother died while queuing for 3 kg gas, education and health, not a priority program, eating Free Nutrition as an unclear program, causing children to be poisoned and ASN to protest.

After receiving criticism in almost all corners of the country due to snaking queues when buying 3 kg of gas, President Prabowo Subianto finally instructed the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia to ensure that there are no more people who have difficulty accessing 3 kg.

Bahlil Lahadalia finally changed the policy by diverting retailers to sub-baselines. The retailers were also advised to be able to register through the Merchant Apps Pangkalan (MAP) application in order to obtain official sub-base status.