Sweet as sugar

Sweet as sugar

Ada gula ada semut literally means "where there is sugar,
there are ants."

The old proverb is an eminently appropriate way of describing
sugar smuggling in Indonesia, which is dubbed as one of the most
corrupt countries in the world.

Only recently, the customs service detained 42,900 tons of
sugar at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta.

In the shipping documents it was declared that the sugar
belonged to state plantation company PTPN X, an officially
appointed sugar importer. The company, however, denied importing
the sugar.

What happened next? The two began trading accusations. The
customs service felt it had proved it was not involved in sugar
smuggling, while PTPN protested its innocent. Caught in the
middle was a village cooperative, Inkud, a trading partner of
PTPN.

The real story about sugar smuggling in the country is as
opaque as the real story about the smugglers. Not a single sugar
smuggler has ever been arrested and brought to court.

There are six registered companies authorized to import sugar
based on a quota system. However, the companies are not allowed
to import sugar during a certain period before and after the
sugercane harvest.

The smuggling should be easy to tackle as the registered
importers are real companies. This means that before alleging the
involvement of others in the illegal business, the registered
importers should be questioned first.

The old Indonesian proverb Ada gula ada semut used to have
positive connotations. But nowadays, the proverb has a negative
meaning as the ants are getting fat on the proceeds of smuggling.
-- Media Indonesia,