Minister asks KPPU to oversee Red-White Village Cooperatives to prevent monopoly entrenchment

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s Minister of Villages and Disadvantaged Regions Development (Mendes PDT) Yandri Susanto has requested the Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU) to oversee the implementation of the Red-White Village Cooperative (Kopdes Merah Putih) programme to prevent entrapment in monopolistic practices.

“We therefore ask the KPPU to serve as a bulwark against monopoly and other such practices. I believe there is a need for fairness to protect the people,” stated Minister Yandri during an audience with KPPU Chair M. Fanshurullah Asa at the Ministry of Villages and Disadvantaged Regions Development office in Jakarta on Monday.

He further stated that Kopdes Merah Putih represents one of the state’s instruments for economic equalisation, in line with the sixth Astacita (national aspiration) of President Prabowo Subianto, which focuses on development from the village level upwards to achieve economic equalisation and poverty alleviation.

“This cooperative serves as a state instrument for economic equalisation whilst simultaneously combating poverty, because money circulates within villages and profits remain in villages,” explained the minister.

For this reason, Minister Yandri requested that relevant authorities refrain from issuing new licences to minimarkets, particularly those located in rural areas. According to him, it would be inequitable to pit Kopdes Merah Putih, a newly emerging business, against minimarkets owned by large capital investors.

Nevertheless, Minister Yandri emphasised that the approximately 80,000 village and community cooperatives planned would not eliminate existing small warung (shop) businesses owned by villagers.

Rather, according to him, Kopdes is expected to serve as a distributor and partner to existing small businesses.

In his view, cooperatives are not merely a regulatory mandate but also possess constitutional grounding.

“Cooperatives are indeed the pillars of the economy. In essence, we do support this, because this is government policy and we want the Kopdes Merah Putih programme to proceed well and truly realised, not merely remain as discourse,” stated KPPU Chair Fanshurullah Asa.