By: Made Raditya )*
The polemic about the scarcity of cooking oil turned out to be the result of the mafia’s game. The community supports law enforcement against the cooking oil mafia so that the cooking oil turmoil can be ended.
Cooking oil has been the talk of the town since the beginning of the year because it had a shortage. Even if it is sold in a mini market, it is limited to a maximum of 2 packs per buyer, and the stock runs out very quickly. It turns out that the scarcity of oil is because of the mafia who deliberately plays with it in order to gain profit in a devious way.
The investigation continued and it was finally revealed that the members of the cooking oil mafia were officials. RI Attorney General ST Burhanuddin stated that there were 4 suspects in cases of alleged corruption in the provision of export facilities for crude palm oil and its derivatives from January 2021 to February 2022. Apart from unscrupulous officials, the suspects were also from the private sector.
ST Burhanuddin continued, due to the cooking oil mafia, there was a shortage in the market. In a sense, scarcity occurs due to collusion and because of the cooking oil mafia, people are dizzy because they have to hunt for oil everywhere.
Boyamin Saiman, Coordinator of the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Society, stated that the losses suffered by the government reached 5.9 trillion because the state had to issue BLT cooking oil. The case that occurred because of the cooking oil mafia also harmed the state because cooking oil was scarce and people had to buy it expensively.
The cooking oil mafia must be dealt with firmly so as not to harm the state and society. Inspector General Helmy Santika, Head of the National Police’s Food Task Force, stated that the oil mafia would be strictly enforced. The National Police will coordinate with related parties to investigate the cooking oil mafia case.
Meanwhile, the cooking oil mafia is threatened with a sentence of 4 to 20 years in prison in accordance with articles 2 and 3 of corruption. However, this policy depends on the judge, because it could be subject to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the cooking oil mafia caught hoarding oil can face up to 5 years in prison or a maximum fine of 50 billion rupiah. This is in accordance with Article 29 of the Trade Law.
The threat of punishment has been deemed appropriate because the land mafia is very detrimental to the state. The reason is that because of their actions, cooking oil disappeared in the market and eventually led to an increase in prices. Even though at that time the government had applied the highest retail price, the price of oil became unstable.
The cooking oil mafia also received social punishment for deliberately playing games and in the end a riot ensued. Already know that cooking oil is one of the nine basic ingredients, but instead it is corrupted and stockpiled at will. Even though the perpetrators are echelon officials whose salaries are large, but instead show greed.
The increase in the price of cooking oil has also resulted in an increase in food prices so that it is confusing for the community. It’s a rare item, the price has also gone up. The little people screamed because they couldn’t enjoy fried tempe as usual. Meanwhile, if using used cooking oil will be dangerous for health.
When the cooking oil mafia was finally caught, the people were relieved. Hopefully, with the capture of the mafia, the cooking oil issue will not be a headache. The reason is because oil prices are stable and are no longer scarce in the market.
The threat of punishment against the cooking oil mafia in the form of fines and imprisonment is deemed commensurate with the mistakes made. It is hoped that the enforcement of this penalty will prevent the recurrence of similar incidents, so that price stability and cooking oil supply will return to normal.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute