Hate Jokowi's Foreign Products Similar To Obama's With 'Buy American,' Why Are You Doing It?

President Joko Widodo (Photo: Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia)

JAKARTA - Academic Ade Armando stated that President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) call about hating foreign products should be grateful. This statement is similar to former President of the United States Barack Obama with the tagline 'Buy America'

"It is time for the leaders of this country and nation to tell their people to stop buying imported goods, such as US President Obama, who since the beginning of his administration gave birth to a buy-american policy to grow his country's economy," said Ade Armando on the CokroTV Youtube channel launched on Sunday, March 7.

The flood of imported goods to Indonesia is something to be worried about. The President, said Ade Armando, was encouraging his people to love domestic products in order to cope with these imports.

For him, the protests must have come from the upper middle class who have been enjoying the consumption of imported goods.

"I can imagine there are people who say that in this global era there is no time to pretend to be nationalistic like Jokowi, but I believe Jokowi will not withdraw his words, he has taken the right steps and there will be many people who support him," explained Ade Armando.

There are several notes from President Jokowi's statement. First, what is being criticized is imports of consumer goods, not imports of raw materials or imported capital goods.

Economically, imports of raw materials are actually beneficial for Indonesia because they will be used for the production process of goods in the domestic industry, both for the needs of the Indonesian market and for export.

"The problem is the import of consumer goods which can be said to bring minimal economic benefits which will certainly absorb foreign exchange on a large scale," he explained.

For Ade Armando, what Jokowi emphasized was not hatred of global brands, but the love of some Indonesians for goods produced abroad.

"So there is no problem if we buy foreign branded goods such as coca-cola, head and shoulders, McDonalds and others as long as they are all produced in Indonesia. These goods are not imported goods because they are produced domestically," he stressed. he.

"The president is not encouraging people to be anti-foreign or xenophobic. The government has been trying to attract more foreign investors from abroad to invest in Indonesia. We really need foreign investment," he explained.