MP: The livelihoods of ordinary people must be protected from the spillover of the conflict

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Member of Commission VII of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Kaisar Abu Hanifah, urged the government to protect the livelihoods of small communities following the escalating conflicts in the Middle East region. “This is not merely a geopolitical issue distant from us. When the Hormuz Strait is volatile, our industry shakes,” Kaisar said in Jakarta on Thursday. He said that war never benefits the small population because those who incur losses are always traders, artisans, and workers. According to him, the government must immediately take concrete steps to anticipate this. He assessed that the fighting in the Middle East has the potential to destabilise the foundations of Indonesia’s national industry. He also reminded the government not to underestimate the systemic impact of this conflict on the supply chains of the manufacturing sector, the UMKM sector, and domestic energy price stability. He said the structure of the national industry is quite vulnerable to external shocks because 90 percent of raw materials for the national manufacturing industry still come from imports, with 30 percent of them dependent on China. Moreover, he noted that data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show that the value of raw material imports from January to July 2023 reached 93.97 billion US dollars, equivalent to 73.25 percent of total national imports. Moreover, the textile industry in Indonesia also imports up to 85 percent of monoethylene glycol (MEG) from the Middle East. Furthermore, he strongly condemned the military aggression conducted by Israel and the United States against Iran. He said both countries have violated the sovereignty of other nations. The preamble to the 1945 Constitution is clear; Indonesia opposes colonisation in any form. “My political stance is firm: I condemn all forms of military aggression that violate the sovereignty of other countries,” he said.