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Mahfud MD wants to revive Madura's status as 'salt island'
Vice presidential candidate Mahfud MD aims to restore Madura as the “salt island” and improve the national salt industry. He said Madura once exported salt to the world, but now faces losses.
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The Surabaya-Madura (Suramadu) Bridge is Indonesia's longest bridge and stretches 5.43 kilometers across the Madura Strait connecting Java Island and Madura Island. (Shutterstock/File)
Vice presidential candidate Mahfud MD expressed his intention to restore Madura Island in East Java, as Indonesia’s “salt island” during his visit to Nahdlatut Thullab Islamic boarding school in Sampang regency on Thursday.
"Madura's image as the salt island must be revived because this is where the best salt for the world's needs is produced," Mahfud stated as quoted by Antara news agency.
He said that Madura was once known as the salt island because it exported salt to various parts of the world, but now the salt farmers and factories in Madura were suffering losses and needed improvement.
One of the improvement steps that he had made in the past, he said, was to revitalize state-owned salt producer PT Garam when he was a member of the House of Representatives in 2004. Nevertheless, he said the salt issue in Madura was never fully resolved.
"The salt issue in Madura is never settled. Why? Because sometimes not only do we end subsidies for the people, we also end up importing [salt] from abroad, so the salt purchased in Indonesia is imported from various places," he said.
Mahfud also claimed that the condition was not resolved because certain parties made no efforts to fix the problem.
He then addressed the aspirations of some Madurese people who wanted to separate from East Java and form their own province.
