Government urged to alter role in cooperatives

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)