Entering the free trade era

Indonesians, as members of a pluralistic society, may or may not agree with the International Monetary Fund's reform package. We are being forced to open ourselves widely to competition from other nations when we are still scarcely prepared in terms of legal framework and infrastructure. Some of us believe we are being forced to compete without any mental preparation whatsoever.

When we consider our legal infrastructure, for example, we see that we still do not have a law to ensure healthy competition, to protect the consumer, or one against monopolies. How are we expected to compete fairly when no clear (legal) beacons exist? How can consumers feel protected when their market position has always been decided by the producers of goods? Won't the scrapping of Bulog's monopoly merely result in other, private monopolies because it has always been the same old players who get a part of the action? The warnings given to hoarders, for example, have only added to the public's confusion because the concept of "hoarding" has never been clearly defined.

This is the homework which the executive and legislative institutions have to do. For its part, the public too will have its own, no less complicated homework to do. The free trade environment which we will be enter in a few days calls for the mental readiness of the whole community, particularly the state apparatus.

So far, there have been many distortions because of the practice of collusion. In this free trade era such practices, even on the smallest scale, will destroy the competitiveness of our national economy and thus hurt us all.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta