Cooking Oil Chaos

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - On May 18, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) named Lin Che Wei as a new suspect over allegations of corruption in the export of crude palm oil (CPO). Although he is not a bureaucrat, there are indications that this finance expert played a role in the granting of CPO export permits to three major oil palm companies whose managers were previously named as suspects. Exports of CPO that ignore the domestic market requirement are believed to be the reason for the cooking oils shortages since the end of last year.

Che Wei is not a government official with the authority to grant export permits, but it seems that the AGO has evidence that he played a major role in the management of CPO exports, particularly regarding who obtained export permits and which businesses did not. If this is true, how was he able to gain so much power. What was Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi doing?

We met with a number of sources to seek answers to these questions. If the AGO’s accusations are true, Che Wei is an individual right at the center of conflicts of interest. Because according to the AGO, as a consultant, he received payments from palm oil companies. Everybody knows that conflicts of interest open the door to corruption.

Lin Che Wei’s influence over, if not control of, public policy sets a bad precedent for good governance. It is in the nature of our government to doubt the abilities of bureaucrats that are not as businesslike as ‘private sector’ experts like Che Wei. Bureaucracy makes them work in a way that is inflexible, sluggish and procedural. People like Che Wei come along to speed things up.