JAKARTA – The Chairman of The House of Regional Representative of the Republic of Indonesia (DPD RI), AA LaNyalla Mahmud Mattalitti, pointed out that food shortages such as cooking oil and sugar will cause the domino effect when it’s not immediately taken care of. The most significant impact is that the nutritious needs of the community would not be completed.
“Further food chain problem has made an impact on health, malnutrition, intelligence, performance and also the decrease of IPM. Therefore, insufficient food has made a tremendous impact on various aspects and this is very dangerous,” LaNyalla said, Sunday (13/3).
This senator from East Java, LaNyalla added, the slow action taken against the stability of prices and the availability of the basic needs must be answered through a serious means of technical policy from the National Food Agency to ensure the food distribution is well-guaranteed so that the community could be relaxed as a result.
“To date, cooking oil is not the only item that is needed in the community, but also almost all of the commodities of the basic food needs that are slowly disappearing from the markets and experiencing the surge of irrational price,” said LaNyalla.
LaNyalla viewed the issue as a boomerang for the national economic recovery.
“Because, many families will be affected by this. Since the government is no longer supporting the social assistance (bansos), the community is now facing difficulties in managing their daily needs,” said LaNyalla.
Furthermore, he also requested the government to quickly take action in finding the solution toward the issue and hopefully that the price stability could be suppressed and the community wouldn’t be suffering the lack food.
“Because the food problem is a primary problem. Never let the state be absent when its people are facing food shortage,” he said.
“I ask for an immediate solution and rapid response in solving this issue. The community’s needs can’t be fulfilled on discourses based only,” he concluded.
