Government urged to alter role in cooperatives

JAKARTA (JP): Leaders of major political parties said on Wednesday that the new government should refrain from intervening in the affairs of cooperatives to allow strong growth of the movement.

Benny Pasaribu of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said strong cooperatives should be built based on the bottom-up approach, meaning they would be founded on grassroots initiatives to benefit the people.

"The government's role in building strong cooperatives should be limited to only creating a conducive environment for cooperatives," he said in a seminar on the parties' platforms on the movement.

He said that creating a favorable environment did not entail doling out subsidies or special treatment to cooperatives, such as exempting them from the antimonopoly law.

"Instead of providing subsidies, credits or special treatment, the government should support a free market economy because this will create free, open competition which enable cooperatives to work efficiently."

Fahmi Idris of the Golkar Party said the government should not take part in the establishment of cooperatives.

"The target should be to develop and lead cooperatives into the economic mainstream. The government has provided many facilities for developing business, but only the big business groups have been able to take advantage of them."

Fahmi, who is the manpower minister, said that Golkar would propose an amendment to Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution, which founded the cooperative movement in Indonesia.

Economist Didin Damanhuri of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said cooperatives should be given access to vital sectors of the economy, including financial institutions and state enterprises.

"If the cooperatives have easy access to financial institutions, such as banks, the government would not need to provide heavily subsidized credits to them."

He added that during Soeharto's 32-year rule until today, cooperatives in the country were "political vehicles" of the ruling Golkar to gain public support.

Meanwhile, cooperative analyst Thoby Mutis said that the government's rampant intervention in the cooperatives' movement, both under Soeharto and President B.J. Habibie, forced cooperatives to violate their own principles.

"It's fallacious to claim that the government has done a lot to develop cooperatives. It is, instead, killing the cooperatives," he said.

Thoby, the rector of private Trisakti University, said the government should treat cooperatives as a business entity, not a political tool, if it was sincere about their development.

He proposed that the new government scrap the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises from its Cabinet, recommending that its tasks be taken over by smaller departments in other ministries and the central bank.(gis)