Ginandjar says economic gaps must be corrected

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Development policy makers should reduce facilities for business groups which are already strong and should, instead, extend greater assistance to the economically weak groups, a high-ranking official says.

State Minister for Development Planning/Chairman of the National Development Planning Board Ginandjar Kartasasmita said here on Saturday that the government had launched a concerted campaign to bridge social gaps.

Ginandjar, as well as Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad, was a addressing the congress of Muhammadiyah, a reformist Moslem organization.

Presided over by Muhammadiyah Chairman Amien Rais, the session with the ministers was lively, as participants raised critical questions about the social and economic gaps in Indonesia and queried the government's efforts in relation to the situation.

Nadjamuddin, a member from Palu, Central Sulawesi, claimed that businesses managed by people of Chinese descent, which constituted only three percent of the Indonesian population, controlled almost 80 percent of the total assets of the national economy. "This is a tragic situation...the rich have become richer, while the poor have become even poorer," he said.

A large layer in society felt the pinch of discrimination when it came to applying for loans or other financial assistance, he said. "Banks are reluctant to give loans to small-scale businesses," he said.

Ginandjar acknowledged that there were social gaps and that they "created a dichotomy between strong economic forces and the weak".

"These gaps cause the Indonesian economy to be vulnerable in the face of external as well as internal shocks," he said. "The discrepancy may become wider unless we take action to correct it," he added.

Ginandjar said the government had initiated steps to close the gap. "The key is to give more trust to our (economically) weak people...give them greater power," he said, citing as an example the government's anti-poverty drive, targeting the poor in rural areas.

He said that the government had been handing over the funds of the Inpres Desa Tertinggal anti-poverty campaign directly to the villagers, rather than letting village officials manage them.

"This is a form of the government placing trust in the people," he said. "The community is thus challenged to manage the funds by themselves."

Another participant, from Lampung, questioned Mar'ie about the government's "reluctance to establish anti-monopoly laws in order to protect small-scale entrepreneurs".

Mar'ie, however, said that not all forms of monopoly were contrary to the public interest. Several natural resources, such as oil, were intentionally monopolized by the government, he said, to ensure smooth distribution and uniform prices throughout the country.

Other forms of monopoly which the public believed to be contrary to their interests "will stay under the government's supervision," he said. "Let's not be preoccupied with the concern that there aren't any anti-monopoly laws yet," he said.

Mar'ie said the government was currently preparing a set of laws to protect small-scale businesses and laws against unfair competition. He said that there were already a number of laws which were anti-monopoly in nature.

"So, they are not called anti-monopoly laws. But their objectives are to counter monopolies," he said.

In another part of his speech, Ginandjar said that social gaps and the phenomenon of giant businesses swallowing up small businesses were an ongoing social reality.

"That's not a new problem. It's a legacy of our history," he said. "What we should do now is, not limit the space for the conglomerates, but to ensure that we can all run as fast as they are," he said. (swe/Wisnu Pramudya)