Learn From Habibie's Administration

Learn From Habibie's Administration

Kerosene is scarce. People in various regions have to queue to
obtain it. Some have even fainted while doing so. It takes them
quite a long time to get only a few liters of kerosene. Still,
many others have failed to get any.

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 scarcity of kerosene has disturbed the public peace and,
again, victimized the ordinary people.

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.

For a while, the kerosene crisis can certainly be controlled.
But, in the long term, 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 will cause many
unfavorable conditions and 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.

If we truly care about the ongoing situation, we should take
action to remove the source of the problem, namely monetary
difficulties. The government has to seriously strengthen the
value of rupiah. If the government can work this out, people need
not have to shoulder an increasing burden in their lives. The
extraordinarily great difficulty small-scale fishermen are
experiencing to obtain diesel oil for their boats is one of
consequences of the rupiah's drop in value.

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. The military did not fully
support it at that time. 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