Embarrassed To See Rare Cooking Oil, Ganjar Pranowo: Government Slapped In The Face

Ganjar Pranowo (Photo via Central Java Provincial Government)

SEMARANG - The Governor of Central Java, Ganjar Pranowo, used the opportunity to meet representatives of the Ministry of Trade to convey his complaints about the difficulty of obtaining cooking oil.

Ganjar admitted that he was embarrassed by the current situation. Ganjar even frankly asked for this complaint to be forwarded to the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto.

"I'm sorry, sir, please convey this to the Minister of Trade or the Coordinating Minister. We can no longer do this because the government has been slapped in the face today," said Ganjar in his statement, Tuesday, March 22 before the High Level Meeting (HLM) forum with the theme "Mitigation of the Risk of Global Commodity Price Pressure and Supply of Global Commodities against Central Java Inflation." at Gumaya Tower Hotel.

In the event, representatives of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia, Director of Basic Needs & Important Goods Isy Karim, attended virtually.

Ganjar said the price adjustment policy and cooking oil subsidies were not appropriate. The scarcity of cooking oil is like a dead rat in a rice barn.

“We are the biggest palm oil producer, the biggest cooking oil producer and we are like dead rats in a rice barn. I'm sorry if my sentence is not pleasing, because we are confused in the regions because all production and policies are in the center," said Ganjar.

If extreme policies or actions are not taken, Ganjar said the conditions that have occurred since the end of last year will last longer.

"I'm sorry, sir, I think I'm just embarrassed as governor. I'm sorry once again I have to convey this, because maybe my voice represents a lot of people," he said.

Ganjar proposed the Ministry of Trade to regulate cooking oil producing companies. "When it comes to world oil prices, let's not take too much profit, this is a matter of morality and I believe the trade ministry can do that," he said.

Met after the meeting, Ganjar said that one of the actions that could be taken was to control the Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) by 20 percent. The idea, is to charge distribution to the company.

"Earlier, the best idea was who supervised, who supervised? Those who supervise are the producers themselves, not from us, they are the ones who supervise and must reach the people," explained Ganjar.

"So they are burdened, sorry, these are cooking oil entrepreneurs. They are burdened with efforts to distribute it to consumers so that the price can be 14 thousand, I think this is important," he added.

In addition, Ganjar said, the handling of fluctuating cooking oil prices cannot continue to be seen from the downstream side. In fact, handling from the upstream side is the most important point.

"So I ask friends from Perhutani to prepare land in cooperation with our booth so we can plant. We should take action, regulations that can benefit farmers as well and synergize with them," he said.

This is because fluctuations in cooking oil prices have begun to affect other commodities. For that, Ganjar continued, the government must also prepare alternatives and educate the public.

"Including buffalo meat, which has 70 tons in Central Java, we have Bulog, we will prepare it. If the beef is high, we will educate, this is frozen buffalo meat, buy it immediately. Only Rp. 70 thousand is cheaper. So it means that the stock is safe but the price is which is still fluctuating, we are trying to control this with the meeting earlier," said Ganjar.