PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES' PROGRAM UNREALISTIC

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, May 24 (ANTARA) - The three presidential tickets that will compete in the upcoming July 8, 2009 presidential race have begun this week debating their economic development concepts. However none of them seemed to have realistic programs. The programs they offered are rather normative, merely designed to attract support to win the July contest, observers say.

        "I still could not see any realistic program raised by the three presidential candidate pairs. The three presidential tickets still talked about jargons and normative programs," economist Kodrat Wibowo of the Bandung-based Padjadjaran University said over the weekend.

        Today, Indonesia, like other countries in the world, is now facing the impact of global economic crisis so that it needs realistic economic programs. Thus, the three presidential candidate pairs should not merely aim at a short-term goal in arranging their economic policy platform.

        "If that happens, the economic programs and policies of the three presidential aspirants would not be productive. The concept and policies often could not be carried out all together in development," Kodrat Wibowo said.

        The three presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs are the SBY-Boediono (the incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the Democratic Party and his running mate Bodiono), JK-WIN (Jusuf Kalla of the Golkar Party and Wiranto of the People's Conscience Party or Hanura) and Mega-Pro, which is a combination of Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) and Prabowo Subianto of the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

        In their attempts to boost the country's economic growth in the coming five years, the Mega-Pro pair promised a 10 percent growth (or two digits), JK-WIN 8 percent and SBY-Boediono 7 percent.

        Sjukrianto Yulia of the Gerindra said that the 10 percent growth target set by the Mega-Pro pair was a reasonable figure. He said that the target was achievable by increasing consumption, investment, government expenditures and competitive edges of domestic products.

        "We have to improve the quality of our products so that they would be able to compete in the world market. We have also to restrict the entry of foreign goods," he added.

        In order to achieve the 10 percent growth, the Mega-Pro camp will boost development in the agricultural sector where about 7 million hectares of new rice fields were to be opened.

        Sjukrianto Yulia said, if elected, Megawati will return the country's economic sovereignty to the people, significantly boost economic growth and distribute development results equitably to the people.

        In the meantime, Kalla in a recent dialog with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said Indonesia's economic growth could be boosted to 8 percent in 2011.

        The JK-WIN argued that the economic growth of 8 percent could be achieved by accomplishing the on-going kerosene-to-gas conversion program in 2010 and the 10,000 MW power mega project. These two projects alone could save about Rp200 trillion.

        Fuad Bawazier of the JK-WIN camp said Kalla knew well the problems now being faced by the nation and understood how to overcome it. "We are serious about abandoning the neo-liberalism economy which has caused the people to become poorer and distanced the people from the self-economic reliance," he said.

        On the other hand, SBY-Boediono presidential pair promised lower economic growth as compared to the other two, namely 7 percent in 2014. Yudhoyono set a lower target considering the fact that the economic crisis which hit the world was still in the recovery stage.

        According to Jafar Hapsah, supporter of the SBY-Boediono pair, Yudhoyono has five pillars of development programs, namely improving the people's standard of living, continuing law enforcement programs, democratization, bureaucratic reforms and increasing growth and equitable distribution.

        On people's welfare, the SBY-Boediono pledged to meet the basic needs of the people and pay more attention to education and people's health.

        On the three presidential candidates' programs, economic analyst Kodrat Wibowo said in economic theories it was impossible for all concepts to be carried out because there was a principle which was called opportunity cost. "If the concept looks too good and irrational, the people would have reason to doubt it," he said.

        After all, under the current economic conditions it would be unrealistic to set a two digit economic growth. "It is impossible for Indonesia to achieve a two-digit economic growth because Indonesia is part of the international world which is now experiencing an economic downturn," he said.

        He said in order to boost economic growth to that level, large scale foreign investments would be needed and high consumption must be achieved. "But what are to be consumed in an economic condition like this," Wibowo questioned.

        The same questioned is also raised by Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) for internal trade, Bambang Soesatyo. He said that a two-digit economic growth target is too optimistic, though it could be achieved with certain assumptions.

        "If the government is able to negotiate with creditor countries and ask for a delay of external debt installments for four years, a two digit economic growth could be achieved," he said.

        Soesatyo said that the government had limited budget while its obligations to pay external debt installments were relatively big so that basically Indonesia had no funds to accelerate its economic growth.***2*** (T.A014/A/H-NG/a014) (T.A014/A/A014/A/A014) 24-05-2009 21:59:37