Stop making promises, uphold justice for farmers

JAKARTA (JP): Chief economic minister Rizal Ramli's promise to soon increase rice floor-prices rang hollow in some observers' ears. The earlier policy of lifting rice import restrictions has left its mark -- thousands of farmers have threatened to stop planting because of high production costs and poor rice prices due to the influx of imported rice.

"Within these two weeks we'll have new prices," Rizal said last Monday. His colleague, agriculture minister Bungaran Saragih said he did not have any figure in mind to suggest for the new prices. "What's important is that we have to protect farmers by increasing import taxes and prevent rice smuggling," he said.

Rizal's promise and Saragih's vow came on the heel of news reports of farmers' plans to strike, abandon their land and travel to Jakarta to stage their protest. Many among them have surrendered and become beggars in the cities, according to some news reports.

Indonesia is forecast to produce 32 million tones of rice this year and 53 million tones next year.

A 1998 presidential instruction divides the country into three pricing regions. Region I covers Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and Central, Southeast and South Sulawesi provinces where the floor-price is Rp 1,400/kg. Region II covers provinces in Sumatra where the floor-price is Rp 1,450/kg, while Region III covers Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, Maluku, West Papua (officially called Irian Jaya) and East Nusa Tenggara where the floor-price is Rp 1,500/kg.

Another promise recently made was of the 28 banks' readiness to make available credits totaling Rp 2.04 trillion for rice, corn, soybean, and cassava cultivation, sugar-cane planting and husbandry. The banks are expected to start channeling the credits as early as late October, according to agriculture minister Bungaran Saragih.

But some observers are maintaining their skepticism that the promised policies would help reverse the declining rice prices. They insist that there are steps and emergency measures to be taken to stop the falling prices and soothe frustrated farmers.

"The government is kuping budheg, mata picek (deaf and blind) to our suffering. The government needs us only when election time comes around," said a farmer quoted by Republika. "The logistics agencies refuse to buy our rice the way they used to."

"When our local logistics agency and village cooperative stopped buying our harvest, the prices dropped drastically. We have to contend with this, on top of the price increase of other goods because of the rising fuel price," another farmer said.

The National Logistics Agency (Bulog) defended its refusal on the fact that it has had to fund the rice purchase with commercial bank loans with an interest rate of 16 percent. Bulog's budget for rice purchase is Rp 4.8 trillion, therefore imposing on itself an interest of Rp 45 billion per month or Rp 1.5 billion per day.

"That's too heavy a burden for us," according to Andi Chaeruddin, the Bulog deputy chief in charge of operations, as quoted by the daily.

Observers such as legislator Awal Kusumah and professors Didin S. Damanhuri and Musa Hubeis of the Bogor Institute of Technology (IPB) insisted that claims of limited funds could not be accepted.

"How could the government provide trillions of rupiah to bail out (indebted) big businesses while claiming it has no money to help farmers?" Awal said.

H.S. Dillon estimated that if the government purchased the rice stocks at the standard floor-price of Rp 1,020/kg, it would need only a total of Rp 6.3 trillion. "Compare this with tens and even hundreds of trillions allocated to recapitalize bad banks," he said as quoted by Republika.

The professors believe that reallocation of some funds--such as the expected windfall profit from the increasing oil prices as well as from the revocation of oil subsidies -- would be adequate to reverse the trend.

Experts have also identified the causes of the declining prices, which are especially the easing of rice import restrictions and the influx of illegal rice imports by unscrupulous people suspected to be within the government agencies.

"Those people are traitors," said Musa harshly.

The experts have also identified a number of emergency measures the government should take, including the purchase of farmers' rice stocks, which will be needed anyway when harvest seasons conclude. A number of interim solutions have also been put forward, including the establishment of a division within the central bank to deal solely with farming credits.

Justice

At the bottom of the experts' analysis and suggestions is the belief that what's lacking in the current government is a sense of justice for everyone. A fairness for, especially, the small and downtrodden.

This sentiment is shared by many, including legislators Awal Kusumah and Achmad Arief. "The government's decision to bail out big businesses is unfair. This government is caring for the big businesses. We demand similar attention for farmers and fishermen," Awal said as quoted recently by Antara.

The government should also "bail out" the farmers and purchase their stocks, if possible over the floor-price, he insisted. "(Remember) farmers make up the most part of the Indonesian workforce," he said.

Unless help is extended, some of the observers are afraid that the farmers would simply throw their ploughs away and stop working. Or worse, as one observer put it, organize themselves and revolt.

-- Santi W.E. Soekanto