Cooperatives in dire need of government support

Cooperatives in dire need of government support

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The shortage of fuel in Jakarta has dampened the enthusiasm of
Sunaryo and friends, fishermen in Angke, North Jakarta, from
going to sea.

"We can't earn money, and our cooperative has collapsed
because we stopped contributing and paying our debts. The
government ignores us," he said during a discussion on how to
empower cooperatives held at Trisakti University, West Jakarta,
on Tuesday.

The discussion was held to commemorate National Cooperatives
Day that falls on July 12.

Another attendee, Tatang of the Indonesian Traders Cooperative
Association said that the government had failed to protect
traditional market traders and instead was siding with
hypermarkets who run businesses side-by-side with them.

"We just can't compete with them. They can offer much lower
prices because they directly buy merchandise from factories in
large quantities. They get huge discounts so that they can sell
at lower prices," he said.

Tatang said that many small traders went bankrupt as they
couldn't attract customers.

"The cooperative, which we usually lean on, also went
bankrupt because we can't pay our debts. The government really
kills us by letting big capital take over our business," he said.

Sunaryo and Tatang are only two of two million cooperative
members in the capital who are suffering from the government's
unfavorable policies towards cooperatives.

According to data from the Jakarta cooperative agency, only
around 30 percent of 6,725 cooperatives in Jakarta can maintain
their operations.

Trisakti University rector Thoby Mutis said that the central
government should be promoting cooperatives as the real motor of
the economy.

"Indeed, cooperatives can grow by themselves. Healthy
cooperatives are those that depend only on their members. The
government should only facilitate the environment for them, and
not hamper them from expanding. I am sure that many good
cooperatives will excel," he said.

He questioned, for instance, the government's decision to give
a big conglomerate like Salim Group monopoly right to import
flour while many cooperatives could handle the task just as well.

Trisakti University had helped many cooperatives, with
millions of members across the country, to sustain themselves.

An example was Kodanua cooperative, the biggest in West
Jakarta, which started as a small group of peddlers in Glodok in
early 1990s. Now, it has around Rp 250 billion in annual revenue
from its operations throughout the country with thousands of
members, and it achieved this without any financial help from the
government.

Thoby said that the government should learn from other
advanced countries, such as Japan, Germany, and the U.S., which
fully support their cooperatives.

"Many cooperatives abroad are big businesses, in banking,
farming or trading. Their governments support them because they
know that cooperatives actually benefit a huge number of people."