Antara, Amelia Rahima Sari, Jakarta – Presidential candidate number one Anies Baswedan spoke up about the supposed plan to liquidate state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
He said on Monday during the "Desak Anies" event in Semarang that any information must be faced with critical thinking, including the idea of an SOE transformation.
Including, he said, when SOE Minister Erick Thohir responded to that notion. "There are kinds of information that we immediately know to be untrue upon hearing them. But then the one saying it is the minister [Erick Thohir]," he remarked.
The candidate backed by NasDem Party, PKS, and PKB then stressed that the notion of him liquidating SOEs was a "ridiculous slander". He hoped that in the future, SOEs could undertake state function instead of "an agency to seek profits".
"That's why I said last evening that the state is not trading with its citizens," he said.
Previously on Saturday, January 31, 2024, cooperative figurehead Suroto PH recommended to Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar's winning team that cooperatives were constantly being played with.
"This is the chance for Anies-Muhaiming to make changes, to place cooperatives as a subject. If you want to be radical, then make cooperatives SOEs. Transform SOEs from PT to cooperative," Suroto said at the time.
Erick Thohir responded. He said the change will induce around 1.6 million unemployed people, formerly SOEs workers. "That view is ironic. If SOEs are dismissed and transformed into cooperatives, unemployment will spike despite the need all-time high need for job opportunities," he said on Sunday.
"It's not perfect, but we can see that SOEs contributed Rp250 trillion which is used by the government to fund their programs, such as health and food," Erick Thohir said.
Suroto then emphasized that his initial idea was to push for SOE transformation to become cooperatives-based, and not to straight up dissolve SOEs without care.
"Erick Thohir's statement is devoid of meaning since my idea was to convert SOEs to become a cooperative, not dismissing them," he concluded on Monday.