Did Not Expect The Director General Of The Ministry Of Trade To Be A Suspect In The Cooking Oil Case, PKS: Continue To Pursue If Necessary Until The Minister

The Director General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade Indasari Wisnu Wardhana (left) wearing prison clothes after being named a suspect in the alleged case of exporting cooking oil at the AGO/DOK Puspenkum building

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the PKS Fraction at the DPR, Mulyanto, appreciated the steps taken by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to designate the Director General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana (IWW), and a number of high-ranking private companies as suspects in the cooking oil case.

The reason, according to Mulyanto, is that the determination of the suspect can be an entry point for dismantling the cooking oil mafia network that has been troubling the community for a long time.

Mulyanto admitted that he was sad and did not expect that high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Trade were 'conceiving' to export illegal cooking oil.

"It is sad that we read this news. It was previously suspected that there was an illegal export of cooking oil. It is proven by the scarcity and the price which is still above the HET. But we did not think that this case involved persons at the level of the Director General, it is a pity," said Mulyanto, Wednesday, April 20.

The member of Commission VII DPR assessed that the government must immediately fix the cooking oil problem. According to Mulyanto, the case proves that the ministry's policies are 'barren'. As a result, there is corruption of the policy makers behind it.

"It is difficult for us to expect an effective policy to emerge if the ranks of the bureaucracy to the highest level, namely the Director General, commit corruption like this. This is a mess, because at the level of the Director General, the Migor Mafia is an accomplice," said Mulyanto regretfully.

Therefore, Mulyanto hopes that the law enforcement agencies will take firm action against the corrupt officials if they are later found guilty. Including the minister.

This, said Mulyanto, is to be a lesson for other bureaucratic officials to rethink committing crimes of corruption.

"This case must be developed and pursued continuously. Do not stop as a commissioner as an individual, but also as an institution or a corporation, including ministers if involved," he stressed.

In addition, Mulyanto said that the determination of the cooking oil mafia suspect was a momentum for the government to reorganize the cooking oil business. If the bureaucracy is clean, he said, the government should reconsider the government intervention system for packaged cooking oil trading in the future.

The government, continued Mulyanto, should also not hand over the question of cooking oil to market mechanisms at exorbitant prices. Because it will harm society a lot.

"The government must be present in managing this packaged cooking oil trade in order to benefit the community at an affordable price," he said.