The Constitutional Court Session, Faisal Basri Calls El Nino's Assistance Only To Create "Panggung" And Get Votes

President Jokowi when providing social assistance (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - University of Indonesia (UI) economist, Faisal Basri said the extension of the El-Nino direct cash assistance (BLT) aims to create a new stage related to the 2024 General Election (Pemilu). In fact, it is considered limited to increasing vote acquisition.

His view was conveyed when he was present as an expert from the petitioner Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar or Cak Imin during the General Election Result Dispute (PHPU) trial at the Constitutional Court, Monday, April 1.

"I want to show again, El Nino has subsided, asking for an extension of El Nino, why do you want it to be extended? Because you want to create new stages, it's not enough to disburse them through existing mechanisms, but it must be shown that the one who gives you this wears a certain uniform, a certain message, and so on and so on, so the stages created are to ensure the feasibility of this social assistance as much as possible," said Faisal.

The government is known to have extended the provision of direct El-Nino cash assistance until June 2024. According to Faisal, the extension was only to increase the vote acquisition in the 2024 General Election.

The basis of that assessment, because El Nino has subsided. Then, the intensity and number of drought areas experiencing drought and flooding or extreme weather in 2023 is much lower than in 2021.

"Why doesn't El Nino have (assistance) 2021? So it's real that El Nino needs to raise his voice, only that, in terms of that data, this is very heartbreaking and as if we are all stupid," said Faisal.

Then, Faisal also conveyed an oddity about the policy of importing 3 million tons of rice. Because, if it is disbursed into the article there will be no price increase in February 2024.

"The logic is, if 3 million tons of rice are poured into the market, it is impossible for rice prices to reach the highest price in history in February," said Faisal.