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."