Blame it on the weather

The problem with infrastructure is now affecting the economy. Roads are damaged or submerged in flood water, many areas are facing blackouts due to power shortage. And food prices have skyrocketed to a level which is no longer affordable. Inflation looms. But officialdom finds it easy to give reason – blame it on the weather. Never in the history of modern Indonesia one finds a 34 kilometer long trucking queue at the northern coastal roads. Or airports closed due to flooding of the expressway to the airport. Public works authorities blame it on rising tide and flooding while environmentalists accused developers of violating environmental impact analysis requirements. The state electricity company, PLN, reasoned that coal supply didn’t reach power plants in time due to transportation problem. The National Logistics Board (established by former president Soeharto to control food supply) also failed to carry out market operations to stem food price hike. Ten years of reforms did not pay off. The economy is in dire situation (but on paper it grows 6.2 percent). Former president Soeharto built the infrastructure. People believed that his successors failed to maintain them. Nor did they plan to improve or build new ones. Most of the coal is probably exported rather than stockpiling for national interests. What we see and hear now is an awful lot of politics, corruption check and public relations campaign but no new development as far as infrastructure is concerned.