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n a perfect world, the government would keep the fuel subsidies. However, here is what happened: fuel subsidies had been budgeted under the 2014 budget and it was predicted the situation was unsustainable. One reason was that income from taxes was Rp 115 trillion (US$ 9.58 billion) short of the target.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo had two options: to keep the subsidies, which would result in the budget deficit and give his opposition a chance to take him down, which would not have been fair in the sense that the bigger part of this year was run by the previous president and keeping the fuel subsidies would have been unhealthy anyway, and to cut the subsidy to fit within the budget, which is what he did. I presume he did a feasibility study around how much he could cut and I think Rp 2,000 was reasonable.

What baffles me is why people blamed him for the fuel-price hike. It wasn'€™t entirely his fault. The ball was in his court to do the right thing. And as I mentioned, one part of this was caused by the shortage of tax income, which was caused by people who did not pay.

No one likes to be poor and cutting fuel subsidies means they have to tighten their belts more, which is being done in almost every country these days. Instead of protesting, they need to find extra jobs, if possible, and somehow manage their finances and wait until the storm ends. There is no easy way to overcome this.

What is lacking from Jokowi is charisma. He needs to tell the Indonesian people to brace themselves in this difficult situation, to stand united and work harder.

Poppin YS
Jakarta