Learn from Habibie

Learn from Habibie

Kerosene is scarce. People in various regions have to queue to
obtain it. Some have even fainted while doing so. In 2001,
Indonesia's economic growth at 3.5 percent was the highest in
Southeast Asia. This figure has aroused optimism among policy
makers.

The government took the right measures when it instructed the
state-owned oil company (Pertamina) to launch market operations
to sell kerosene directly to the consumers.

But unless the root cause is removed, kerosene supplies will
continue to be troublesome. The root cause of that problem is
that the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar is very low.
With the current exchange rate of Rp 10,000 against the US
dollar, there will be a price disparity between prices in the
domestic market and those overseas. This cannot prevent the local
price of kerosene from increasing. Monetary difficulties have
also spurred the hike in electricity, telephone and fuel prices.
This hike will continue for quite some time in future.

We should take action to remove the source of the problem. The
government has to seriously strengthen the value of rupiah.

In this case, the administration of Megawati should be humble
enough to learn from the administration of Habibie. His
administration proved that it was able to strengthen the rupiah
value from about Rp 16,000 to Rp 6,700 against the US dollar even
though it was shaken politically. With the great political
support the government now enjoys, the administration of Megawati
should be able to act more firmly and do more.

-- Republika, Jakarta