Sandiaga, the former Jakarta deputy governor who is running for vice president alongside Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, said during a vice-presidential debate on Sunday that the OK OCE had been successful in reducing the rate of unemployment in Jakarta, claiming that it had created almost 30,000 new jobs.

With a goal to create 200,000 new entrepreneurs in the city by 2022 through the program by providing training and access to loan capital, Sandiaga said he would bring the program to the national stage if he and Prabowo were elected.

However, according to OK OCE chairman Iim Rusyamsi, of the program’s 85,000 participants as of March, only 16,734 had obtained business permits. Of those with permits, 150 had received a loan from city-owned Bank DKI.

Data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) show that, when OK OCE was launched in February 2018, it recorded 290,120 unemployed residents. The number increased 6.24 percent to over 300,000 unemployed people in August 2018, six months after the administration implemented the program.

Fahmi Hasfi, a university student at Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UIN Syarif Hidayatullah) who participated in three OK OCE training sessions, said the program did not benefit him a whole lot.

“It is understandable if the public thinks this program was a failure because what the program provides is only mentoring. Those who don’t have any [business] ideas or talent decided to stop, including me. I thought they would provide cooking classes or graphic design or Adobe Photoshop courses,” he said.

Separately, Sheftyan “Tyan” Asti Nasution, who has been running his small beverage business for two years, said he registered with the program at the Kebayoran Lama district office in South Jakarta in 2018, but an official told him he needed to wait until February 2019 to become an OK OCE member.

“I filled out the form and submitted it. They promised to contact me again, but to date I haven’t heard anything from them,” the 22-year-old told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Tyan said he signed up for the program for business certainty, not a loan, as it promised to allow entrepreneurs to set up shop at various bazaars in the city.

However, he said he found out that these were just empty promises after asking officials about the process.

“I won’t wait for their approval anymore as I know that they just provide training and mentoring, without necessarily involving us in bazaars and providing business locations,” Tyan said.

Sofia Kartini, a herbalist entrepreneur at Thamrin City Mall, Central Jakarta, said she had not heard about any OK OCE bazaars in the past year.

“In early 2017 I was invited to join a bazaar at an Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) event. Pak Sandi was there at the event. It then continued until early 2018, but I have not heard of more information about bazaar activities as of late,” Sofia said.

Sofia said she had attended training sessions set up OK OCE on several occasions, which, according to her, were quite useful.

“The mentors trained us to be independent and have our own expertise. The participants ranged from teenagers to the elderly like me,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ikhsan Ingratubun, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Akumindo), said the program was a failure at the city level, so the government should not bring it to the national stage.

“We have no OK OCE members in Akumindo because everyone said it was unclear as it only provides training. We saw its stores were also empty. They even closed one of the stores,” Ikhsan said.

According to Iim, there were currently 11 OK OCE stores in Jakarta after one of its minimarts in Kalibata, South Jakarta, was closed last year.

Sandiaga previously said he acknowledged that many OK OCE stores were empty because of the stagnant economy. (ggq)

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