Truck Driver Shouts, Where is the Saber Extortion Task Force?
FKPN is an Indonesian Driver Community Forum, a self-help organization for truck drivers to provide an umbrella for thousands of driver communities in various regions. In West Java alone, there are around 500 truck driver communities. Throughout Indonesia, there could be thousands or even tens of thousands.
According to the General Chairperson of ReJo (Jokowi Volunteers) Darmizal, together with Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) cadre Munawar Fuad who organized the event "How Dare to Stop Extortion?" in the Lippo Cikarang area, last Thursday (21/12), the number of truck drivers throughout the archipelago reached 5.9 million people.
The role of truck drivers is truly important. They are like the blood flow in the human body that carries life force throughout the body. They are the ones who struggle on the streets every day, from morning, afternoon, evening and even until night and meet again at dawn.
But they have one complaint: illegal levies, aka extortion, along their way to earn a living. This is a long-standing complaint. Even though President Joko Widodo once issued Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 87 of 2016 concerning the Task Force to Clean Up Illegal Levies (Satgas Saber Pungli).
Extortion on the streets is a matter of "small money", but very annoying. And cumulatively, if added up, it becomes huge. This is clearly a significant factor in high logistics costs nationally.
Because of their job of dealing with "small change" that is scattered on the highway, the Saber Extortion Task Force seems to have lost its spirit, and up to now we don't know what its performance is like. Dead wind.
Chairman of the Indonesian KADIN Domestic Trade Standing Committee, Franky Sibarani, in October 2023 gave an example of distributing goods from Jakarta to Lampung, for example, the cost is IDR 3 million per container, which includes extortion fees of 15% during the journey. There are two types of extortion perpetrators, those who wear uniforms and those who don't.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Aprindo) Tutum Rahanta, said that to send goods from Jakarta to Cirebon you have to pass through at least 10-15 extortion posts! Even the thugs who asked for deposits carried out their actions not far from the police station. This is crazy! Why did you leave it?
By definition, extortion includes corruption. Indeed, the scale at which the incident (extortion activities) was carried out did not reach billions (or not even trillions like the BTS corruption) but cumulatively it made our logistics costs high (around 23.5% of GDP).
Based on records from the National Single Window Institute (LNSW), logistics costs in Indonesia reach 23.5% of GDP. This figure is higher compared to Japan which is only 8%. Or with Taiwan which is only 9%, in Malaysia only 13%, China 14%, and Thailand 15%.
Indeed, logistics costs have many factors. Apart from extortion, the availability of road infrastructure is of course a major factor. What's really troublesome is if extortion is carried out in areas with poor road infrastructure, then extortion is also levied along the damaged roads.
According to Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, the Jokowi era government in the last eight years has disbursed IDR 2,779.9 trillion to build infrastructure. This is a basic policy to also reduce logistics costs.
In short, all components of the nation must work together and work together to smooth out existing transportation (logistics) blockages. It's not enough to just curse and complain.
That's why the General Chair of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Kaesang Pangarep, in his capacity as a supervisor at FKPN, has once again intensified the activity "Stop Extortion, Do You Dare?".
Together with dozens of truck drivers who were present, they put up stickers "Stop Extortion, Are You Dare?" from PSI, as well as activating a telephone number for complaints if there are illegal levies on the streets.
A small effort that gives hope (rather than just complaining), while waiting for the revival of the Saber Extortion Task Force to show off again.