This Legislator Values The Government Is Not Able To Control The Market Mechanism Makes Prices Soar Ahead Of Ramadan

Photo by Arif Riyanto on Unsplash

JAKARTA - As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, the average price of all commodities such as cooking oil, sugar, pulses, fuel oil (BBM), gas, toll rates and others has increased.

Member of Commission IV DPR Johan Rosihan said that this is proof that market governance is driven by the free market paradigm or liberalism. In fact, the constitution explicitly states that the economy is structured as a joint effort based on the principle of kinship.

"This uncontrollable price fluctuation is due to the shape of the market in Indonesia which tends to be oligopoly and even monopoly, and we see the government is unable to improve market mechanisms so that it must submit to market forces. lost to market interests," explained Johan as quoted from Parliament, Saturday, April 2.

He explained, according to Article 33 paragraph 3 of the 1945 Constitution which mandates the government that the use of all resources in the Indonesian state must be used for the greatest prosperity of the people.

"Based on this constitution, it is clear that the government has committed a violation because from a policy perspective it is not oriented to protecting and meeting the needs of the people, for example the CPO policy is prioritized for exports even though the people need it more so that there is a shortage of cooking oil and prices that depend on the market," he said.

Johan explained that the price of food in our country is not competitive compared to other developing countries in Asia.

"The increase in food prices will cause pressure for 81 percent of Indonesia's population, this means that food price stability is a constitutional mandate that the government must fulfill because it is closely related to the protection of all the people and the homeland of Indonesia," he said.

He said that the increase in prices for the food sector would have a significant impact on increasing poverty.

"This sector will contribute 72 percent to the poverty rate if there is an increase in prices, so it will seriously affect the socio-economic conditions of the people and the national economy," said Johan.

For this reason, he emphasized that the government should immediately improve the market mechanism and be more in favor of the interests of the domestic economy. The government must not lose and submit to market forces.

"I emphasize that government policies must be in accordance with the interests of the people and must not be subject to market forces," concluded Johan.