Trade Minister Lutfi Delays Announcing The Name Of The Cooking Oil Mafia Until Monday, Baidowi: Waiting For Primbon?

Minister of Trade, M. Lutfi. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission VI of the House of Representatives Achmad Baidowi regretted the attitude of the Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi who decided to postpone the announcement of the candidate for hoarding thousands of tons of cooking oil on Monday.

According to him, the government must be firm in taking action against those who violate the law in order to create a deterrent effect and the same thing does not happen again.

"I regret the attitude of the Minister of Trade that he will announce the suspect candidate on Monday. No need for warnings, just announce if he is guilty," Baidowi said at the Chrosscheck by Medcom.id event with the theme 'Minister Confesses, the State Defeats the Greedy and Evil?', Sunday , March 20, 2022.

Baidowi continued, with a firm attitude this can show that the government is not inferior to the mafia.

"There are already potential suspects, yes, the potential is very strong. Why not just announce it? Or what are the considerations from the primbon?" he continued.

Baidowi also admitted that he was surprised by the statement of the Minister of Trade who claimed he could not control the cooking oil mafias because they have limited authority in the law to thoroughly investigate the mafia and cooking oil speculators.

"No matter what the government's story is, it must not lose to anyone. Maintaining a balance in the economic climate is necessary, but there are legal rules that regulate everything," added Baidowi.

Baidowi revealed that based on the data submitted by the Minister of Trade, one person in Indonesia can get ten liters of cooking oil, so he is confused by the current scarcity.

"Some fraudulent parties intentionally hoard cooking oil because they are reluctant to sell it at a cheap price. They are all waiting for the rules to be revoked to get abundant profits," he concluded.

Previously, the Minister of Trade had provided data on findings to the police regarding the hoarding of cooking oil which amounted to thousands of tons.

"I have given all the data. This is still a presumption of innocence, but we have found it and this is in the thousands of tons (hoarding). We have reported it to the Police through the Criminal Investigation Unit, we have started to arrest and investigate," he explained.