Immature administration
The present government gives me the following impressions: (a) it fails to respond to matters in time; (b) it simply follows what others do; (c) its policies are experimental in nature; and (d) it lacks self-confidence. Don't the people in the government realize that by simply waiting for a condition to evolve, and imitating what other people have done before taking action, they show that they are just like teenagers seeking their own identity? Is this really the dilemma now hitting our government as a result of being suddenly forsaken by their father, former president Soeharto?
The disastrously unfavorable economic condition our country now finds itself in may not affect those with either U.S.-dollar or rupiah time deposits. If you keep dollar deposits, the purchasing value of your deposits must have multiplied several fold. If you keep rupiah deposits in a bank, you don't need to work any more because you can earn decently from the interest (for example Rp 100 million x 5 percent/month = Rp 5 million).
However, what will happen to people who have neither dollar nor rupiah time deposits and have to spend all their monthly earnings simply on daily necessities (unfortunately, daily necessities keep on increasing in price)?
All this is the result of the depreciation of the exchange- rate value of the rupiah against the dollar. Now, what has the government done to cope with this condition? It has decided to maintain the rupiah at the lowest exchange value on the grounds that if our rupiah strengthens too quickly, there will be ample opportunities for speculators to make a profit.
Is it true, then, that the government must take into account only the profits that speculators may make? What about the majority of people who use the rupiah every day in their lives? They certainly want to have a strong rupiah so that their spending power will also get stronger and they can purchase items sold on the basis of the dollar, such as airplane tickets, electronics, milk and other imported goods, at proper prices. Certainly, they are not engaged in any speculation. So, the authorities must see to it that proceeds in dollars acquired from the export of Indonesia's agricultural products are not stashed abroad and turned into capital for rupiah speculations.
Therefore, I suggest that the government should learn both from its own mistakes and from the success achieved from the time our independence was proclaimed up to the enactment of Government Regulation No. 1/1982. This regulation has betrayed the people and robbed them of their rights. What this regulation stipulates is just like what happened during the colonial time: paying local laborers in rupiah and getting away with the dollar proceeds acquired from the sales of agricultural products abroad. That's why our forefathers and our freedom fighters opted for freedom, to ensure that this nation would no longer be robbed. Unfortunately today, we, in a sense, are again colonized by the provisions in Government Regulation No. 1/1982.
I am for the revocation of this government regulation because it has given rise to a host of problems. Besides, this regulation violates Law No. 32/1964. Finally, the parties involved in the drafting of Government Regulation No. 1/1982 must be prosecuted because they have violated a state's law.
ST. TRIDARSA TOSIB
Jakarta