Trade Minister Lutfi Abstains From Meeting To Discuss Cooking Oil, Deputy Speaker Of The House Of Representatives Rachmat Gobel Inflamed: If You Can't Attend 3 Times, You Will Be Called Forcibly

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rachmat Gobel. (Mary Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The House of Representatives (DPR) held a cross-commission joint meeting namely Commission IV, Commission VI, and Commission VII with the government, in this case, the Minister of Trade, Minister of Agriculture, and Minister of Industry to discuss issues of food prices to gas prices for fertilizer production. However, at this meeting, the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi was again absent. This makes the DPR inflamed and will make a third summons before the forced summons.

The chairperson of the meeting and Deputy Speaker of the DPR, Rachmat Gobel, said that the DPR would write to the Minister of Trade asking for an explanation regarding the current cooking oil problem. If they are not present, they will be summoned according to the rules in the DPR.

"We'll discuss it first, then we'll call for the third time. If you can't (attend) three times, you have to be summoned according to the rules in the DPR," he said when met at the DPR Building, Parliament Complex, Senayan, Tuesday, March 15.

According to Gobel, the presence of the Minister of Trade is important to determine the steps the government should take in overcoming the current cooking oil problem.

"That's why after two times the minister did not come. Couldn't give (an explanation), did not attend according to my friends, there was a lack of attention to parliament. This is a high state institution," he said.

According to Gobel, it is necessary to find out the root cause of the scarcity and high cost of cooking oil on the market today. He said the problem of cooking oil could be at the distribution level.

"It could be distribution, it could also be playing on the field. We must know very well what the problem is. In my opinion (from) the existing regulations, what are the holes," he said.

Therefore, according to Gobel, it is possible that the DPR will also summon the cooking oil industry players to ask for an explanation so that the root cause of the problem can be identified.

"Perhaps we will call everyone. Who are the perpetrators of these cooking oil players," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of Commission VI Aria Bima in the joint meeting said that the cooking oil issue had been postponed for too long. In fact, according to him, this problem must be resolved immediately.

"I think the public will see our seriousness regarding matters related to the people's problems regarding the price of this commodity. Because they really will not be able to solve it," said Aria.

Furthermore, Aria admitted that she was worried that the issue of community prices would not be resolved without Lutfi's participation as the Minister of Trade.

"Once again, I believe that this issue will not be resolved if we do not solve it comprehensively from upstream to downstream," he said.