Economist Faisal Basri Claims National Food Agency BPN Has No 'Fangs'
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26 August 2021 13:35 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A senior economist from University of Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia), Faisal Basri, responded to the formation of the National Food Agency (BPN) by President Joko Widodo. Faisal assessed that the function of BPN was not in accordance with the initial design planned by the government and has no “fangs”.
Initially, said Faisal, BPN was like a super-body that would take care of all food issues from upstream to downstream. However, in practice, he said that the food agency only has policy-limited powers due to the alleged intervention of parties that weakened the function of BPN.
“Those who have been sawing off ideas for the past nine years so that BPN has left little authority have left them with no fangs. So we can no longer have hope with BPN," said Faisal Basri in the PATAKA webinar, Thursday, August 26, 2021.
Referring to the original plan, Faisal stated that BPN is designed to have plenary authority to handle various food chains. The chain starts from food security, security, sovereignty, production, to consumption, and even stunting.
However, he said, this planned function seems to have interfered with the authority of a number of ministries, especially those that are full of vested interests or rent-seeking practices. Faisal did not specify the ministry he was referring to.
As a result, the currently formed BPN has a smaller function. "Now it seems that it only leads to the policy, Bulog will implement it later. So we are the same now," said Faisal.
The Presidential Regulation (Perpres) regarding the National Food Agency was recently signed by President Jokowi. BPN is led by a head who reports directly to the president.
In the Presidential Regulation it is stated that the authority of BPN is to coordinate, formulate, and establish policies on food and nutrition availability. The National Food Agency also functions to regulate the diversity of food consumption and maintain national food security.
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