TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - After two ministers from the NasDem Party, now it is the turn of the Golkar Party. The Attorney General’s Office is investigating Airlangga Hartarto on the alleged corruption in cooking oil and misappropriation of palm oil funds in the Oil Palm Plantation Support Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS). As the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga was in charge of controlling cooking oil prices and served as the Chairman of the Steering Committee of BPDPKS.

The prosecutors suspect that the cooking oil policy last year has caused financial losses to the country, while the allocation of palm oil subsidies benefited palm oil companies, amounting to hundreds of trillions of rupiah. Through the BPDPKS, the government provided subsidies to palm oil companies to produce biodiesel, a blend of vegetable oil and diesel oil, to reduce carbon emissions.

In April 2022, Tempo magazine published an investigation on the distribution of palm oil subsidies. The findings revealed conflicts of interest in determining the subsidies. Because, the BPDPKS Steering Committee consisted of owners or representatives of large palm oil industries who determined the subsidy conversion factors and export levy indexes.

AGO’s investigation seems to intertwine with the 2024 presidential election politics. Golkar has not yet decided which candidate they will support, while Airlangga has aligned himself with the PDI-P, which endorses Ganjar Pranowo, a candidate not supported by President Joko Widodo. As a result, several ministers have attempted to shake Airlangga’s position within the party.

This week’s edition covers the attempts to overthrow Airlangga and reexamine the alleged corruption cases related to cooking oil and palm oil subsidies. Additionally, there are many other interesting articles, such as the arrest of an Iranian vessel entering Indonesian waters illegally, suspected of attempting to sell oil on the black market. There is also a story on how several 1998 activists have taken a different stance by supporting Prabowo Subianto, who was previously declared guilty of kidnapping their colleagues. Happy reading and have a great week!

Bagja Hidayat
Excecutive Editor

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