Black market aggravating crisis, ex-minister warns
Black market aggravating crisis, ex-minister warns
JAKARTA (JP): Black market activities over the past three
years have contributed to the worsening of the economic crisis,
former manpower minister Bomer Pasaribu said.
Bomer urged all parties to pay serious attention as the black
market has grown robustly over the last three years.
He contended that awareness toward black market activities
should be given equal priority as the focus on improving economic
fundamentals, for the effects were almost equally as
debilitating.
"Corruption, smuggling, illegal logging, narcotics and trade
in bogus academic titles are just five of 12 illegal activities
which are growing robustly in the reform era," he said here on
Thursday.
The other seven were collusive and nepotistic practices,
piracy in Indonesian waters, prostitution, the distribution of
pornographic CDs and VCDs, bribery of the judiciary, money
politics and gambling.
Bomer, also chairman of the Center for Labor and Development
Studies (CLDS), said besides paying no taxes, these illicit
businesses had affected the labor market and employment.
He said further that based on secondary data collected by
CLDS, the prevalent black market was related to the continuing
legal and political uncertainty, ineffective state institutions,
especially the government and the legislature, and security
instability.
"The black market during the New Order era reached only around
4 percent (of domestic economic activity) because strict law and
order were maintained," he said, while estimating that currently
the black market accounts for over one-third of domestic economic
activity.
Bomer pointed out that the absence of stiff legal sanctions
against corruptors had contributed to the rise of corruption to
alarming levels.
"It isn't unexpected that several international institutions
have ranked Indonesia second on the list of the most corrupt
countries in the world," he said.
Bomer quipped that the government should build more prisons
before applying a reversal of the burden of proof within the
legal system.
"If the new investigation system is enforced, half of the law
enforcers could be jailed because of their alleged involvement."
Bomer further noted that according to data from the forestry
and marine resources ministries, the government lost US$8.9
billion due to illegal logging and $12 billion from illegal
fishing in 1999.
He further charged that Indonesia was now ranked fourth in the
list of narcotics supplier countries in Asia and 10th in the
world.
"We can imagine the debilitating impact of the narcotics trade
within the country over the next three decades if our younger
generation consumes narcotics," he said.
He warned that Indonesia might be on the verge of losing a
generation due to a combination of a weak education system caused
by conflicts in numerous regions, the large number of refugees
and the narcotics trade.
On the trade in phony academic titles, Bomer remarked that a
doctorate could easily be obtained at a cost of between Rp 10
million to Rp 15 million.
"Numerous local and international educational institutions
that have no official permit from the government are intensively
offering various academic titles through media advertisements,"
he said.
There is an allegation that the practice has become so
prolific that recently an academic institution also offered a
fast-track PhD to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri and
Tresna Dermawan, chairman of the supervisory board of private
universities in West Java.
Ronny R. Nitibhaskara, chairman of the supervisory board of
private universities in Jakarta, conceded recently that numerous
educational institutions had offered business management
diplomas, masters and PhD programs without official permits from
the relevant authorities. (rms)