Fidelis E. Satriastanti – A coalition of civil society groups has blasted the commitments made at the World Economic Forum as favoring foreign investors at the expense of local communities.

Dani Setiawan, chairman of the Anti-Debt Coalition, said on Tuesday that the agreement reached by the government and multinational corporations to boost food security would privatize what were essentially the government's duties.

"This is neo-liberalism, where the state's responsibilities to provide jobs, eradicate poverty and ensure people's welfare are being transferred to the private sector," he said.

"The government is obviously trying to shift its constitutional obligations to corporations. The result will be even more social conflicts because the government can no longer control investment flows."

Dani added that it was time to return to the spirit of the Constitution by involving the people more of a stake in the economy. "Give them what they need."

"For instance, give farmers more land to work on, don't sell it all to corporations. Give more space for community cooperatives, don't push for the domination of the private sector."

The WEF on East Asia, held on Sunday and Monday in Jakarta, resulted in several commitments to boost investment in the country in a bid to shore up food security.

They included agreements to work with 14 multinational companies, including consumer goods giants Nestle and Unilever, as well as palm oil and pulp and paper behemoth Sinarmas.

The commitments are targeted to increase food production by 20 percent, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent and slash poverty by 20 percent, dubbed the 20-20-20 program.

Dani conceded that although more jobs would be created as a result of increased foreign investment in the country, the subsequent contribution to national economic development was still highly questionable.

"There will never be a middle ground between environmental stewardship, community welfare and corporate interests in Indonesia," he said. "The system is wrong because it is based on economic growth through natural resources extraction, which will lead to nothing but ecological disasters and social injustice."

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had overseen a failed economic system that was heavily dependent on the extractive industries, which he blamed for a host of ecological disasters.

"Now they're trying to answer the food security issue with the same formula – through corporations – even though the forest destruction we are seeing now is also the result of corporations," Berry said.

He also argued there was no clarity on how the 20-20-20 program would actually work while achieving its targets. "What we need is management for natural resources production, because we're already the largest producer of palm oil and the second-largest of producer of coal."

"We need better management of current production because the people themselves are still not benefiting from these economic activities."