The longer the Libyan crisis lasts — which is widely believed to be a domino effect from the preceding crisis which had led to the downfall of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak — the more severe the impact on Libyans and the world population will be, with no guarantee that oil prices will not continue to increase.

So strong is the atmosphere for freedom worldwide that the domino effect will unlikely stop at Libya, as many other Middle Eastern and North African countries, particularly those governed by monarchs and authoritarian rulers, are experiencing the same trend of potential revolution, including Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Iran and even Saudi Arabia.

What is more worrisome is that the trend is mostly hitting oil-producing countries and thus increasing the threat on global oil production and the subsequent potential for uncontrollable oil prices. And any uprisings in those Middle Eastern and North African countries will undoubtedly heighten the risk of decreasing global oil production and contribute to skyrocketing oil prices as Middle Eastern and North African countries, if combined, contribute 35 percent of global oil production.

Sooner or later the impact of the Libyan crisis — and potential crisis in other Middle Eastern and North African countries — as well as increasing global oil prices will strike Indonesia. Being a net oil importer since 2003, Indonesia is therefore vulnerable to any decline in global oil production and oil price increases and will unlikely escape from such a crisis unscathed.  

There is still time before the winds of change in Middle East and North Africa, and its social and economic repercussions, will finally have serious impacts here. There are things that we — the government and the people — can do to mitigate them, including the commitment to significantly reducing oil consumption, by, among others, immediately reducing unnecessary use of personal cars and turning to public transportation.  

It is perhaps too late to boost domestic production of alternative energy to compensate for our dependence on oil. Such an idea was widely discussed a few years ago, including the possibility of mass production of biofuel made of jatropha. Yet, all discussions and debates ended with no concrete follow-up and the issue has died down.  

However, it is also unfruitful to only regret our failure to seriously push for such renewable energy and just do nothing. It is therefore advisable to re-think such development of alternative energy before everything is completely too late. Perhaps Brazil, which anticipated the global energy crisis by mass-producing sugarcane ethanol, is a good lesson to learn from. We can either follow in Brazil’s footsteps by mass-producing sugarcane ethanol, as we, like Brazil, have vast lands for sugarcane plantations. Or we can revive the jatropha oil production, as technology-wise Indonesia is also capable of mass-producing such oil.

Apart from the crisis in Libya, a series of unfortunate events hit Indonesia over the past week. One of them was the unsuccessful motion by a number of House of Representatives (DPR) lawmakers to establish a committee of inquiry to probe the country’s graft-ridden taxation system. So political was the motive behind the proposed establishment of the inquiry committee that it is difficult to judge which of the opposing camps — anti- and pro-inquiry — deserves our support. The anti-inquiry vote won by a narrow margin of 266 votes against 264 votes from those in favor of the inquiry committee.

In terms of law-enforcement purposes, such an inquiry committee is perhaps necessary to prevent acute corrupt practices in our taxation system in the future. We have had enough, however, with such House inquiry committees in the past. The House inquiry committee on the Bank Century scandal, which took months of hearings to issue political recommendations on further legal prosecution into the scandal, was later proven toothless in ensuring that recommendations be heard and complied with.

The inquiry committee on the Bank Century scandal was also condemned for its members’ harsh statements against officials who were summoned for testimony, including Vice President Boediono.

Another high-profile event this week was the controversial mechanism to elect the chairman of the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI). Defying public support for fresh faces to lead the soccer association, the selection committee barred Army chief Gen. George Toisutta and businessman Arifin Panigoro from contesting the election due to technicalities. A PSSI appeal committee rejected Friday the appeal filed by Toisutta and Panigoro against the selection committee’s decision.

In apparent support for reforms in PSSI, the government, via Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, had even threatened to cut funding for the organization by not funneling the much-needed Rp 25 billion (US$2.7 million) to fund PSSI operations.

Also this week, the issue over the boycott threat against media outlets that have been critical of the government ended inconclusively, with Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam, who had issued a statement threatening the boycott, declining to apologize, although admitting that his statements were his personal views.

— Imanuddin Razak

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