Top economists gather to tout respective presidential candidate

Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta

A number of top economists representing different presidential candidates gathered on Monday to discuss to best ways to fight unemployment, with all insisting that their respective candidates were the most capable of solving the problem.

Sri Adiningsih of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, who represented President Megawati Soekarnoputri, dismissed allegations that the incumbent had failed to fight unemployment during her tenure.

"It's true that many lost their jobs over the past three years, but 2.3 million jobs were created annually during the period to absorb the 2 million new job seekers entering the market annually," Adiningsih said during the discussion, which was organized by the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU).

In a five-minute presentation, Adiningsih spelled out Megawati's economic achievements over the last three years, while claiming her administration had succeeded in laying strong foundations for sustainable growth.

Adiningsih is among the team that formulated the economic platform of Megawati and her running mate Hasyim Muzadi, which promises the creation of almost 13 million jobs over the next five years through accelerating annual economic growth to an average of 6.8 percent.

Sofyan Djalil, who represented presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Jusuf Kalla, admitted that millions of jobs had been created during Megawati's presidency. But, many more jobs would have been created had Megawati's administration managed to fight corruption and improve bureaucratic effectiveness.

"The current government knows what is happening, but lacks the will to take the action that is needed to fix the problem," he said.

Susilo and Kalla served as coordinating minister for political and security affairs and coordinating minister for people's welfare respectively in Megawati's Cabinet.

Sofyan said Susilo and Kalla would create more jobs by boosting investment through measures aimed to ensuring business certainty and equity.

Dradjad Wibowo of the INDEF economic think tank, who represented Amien Rais and Siswono Yudo Husodo, criticized Megawati's administration for failing to curb "illegal economic activities".

"Legal businesses suffered during Megawati's administration as it failed to curb illegal activities such as illegal logging, smuggling and piracy," he said.

He recalled that Megawati once said that she knew who was behind illegal logging.

"But she did nothing," he said.

Amien and Siswono, he said, are determined to create more jobs using the state budget as a stimulus by encouraging domestic investment in infrastructure, housing and agroindustry, as well as curbing illegal economic activities.

All the presidential and vice presidential tickets, except for the Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar ticket, have placed job creation at the top of their economic agendas.

Hamzah and Agum, who did not send a representative to Monday's debate, has placed economic equality at the top of its list of priorities.

Economist Harry Azhar Azis, who represented presidential candidate Wiranto and running mate Solahuddin Wahid, noted that the best way to create jobs would be to first establish strong economic fundamentals.

"We aim to establish strong economic fundamentals, through law enforcement, transparency and a crackdown on rent-seekers.

"This will attract foreign investors and boost domestic business and support the development of small and medium enterprises," Harry said.