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,