Skip to main content

Kalla appeals to grass roots, promises fertilizer subsidies

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 06/27/2009 9:58 PM | Presidential Election

Presidential hopeful Jusuf Kalla Saturday promised that if elected he would increase subsidies for fertilizers to make them more affordable for farmers, tempointeraktif.com reported Saturday.

“Companies must increase production and subsidies must be increased so that fertilizers are affordable,” Kalla told 500 fishermen and farmers during an election campaign rally in Manggar Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

Kalla said the current production of fertilizers did not accommodate the needs of farmers, causing high prices.

A shortage of gas supplies had hampered fertilizer production for firms such as PT Pupuk Kaltim, he added.

“If Pupuk Kaltim is short of gas, we will supply more to enable increased production,” Kalla said.
The fishermen also lamented the shortage of diesel fuel, which had prevented them from working and earning necessary income.

“These days, Pak Kalla, the price of diesel fuel increases, but the price of fish and shrimp falls,” Mujib, a fisherman, said.

Mujib asked for state oil company Pertamina to reopen gas stations for fishermen (SPBN).

In response, Kalla said, “that is the duty of a vice president, not a presidential candidate, so I will order Pertamina to reopen the SPBN’s”. (adh)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Wake of Protests, Khamenei Faces Split Inside Regime

By Geneive Abdo Iran Analyst, The Century Foundation The basij militias may have crushed the historic street protests against Iran’s election results, but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei now faces a more pressing problem: how to prevent a potent coalition of political elites arrayed against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from destabilizing the entire Islamic political system – and undercutting his own power, too. Western journalists, politicians and pundits have largely focused on the unrest in the streets of Tehran – the worst in the history of the Islamic republic – usually with the underlying, if unjustified, assumption that popular rebellion against clerical rule is at last at hand. However, the real battle is taking place inside the closed world of Iran’s clerical caste, particularly among the relatively confined circle of the “political mullahs” and their lay allies – all of whom have eschewed traditional Shi’ite teachings against direct involvement in political affairs. A “coali...
Post a Comment
Read more

Former Iraqi Official Gets 7 Years for Expelling Kurds

By VOA News 02 August 2009 An image from Al-Iraqia TV station of former deputy PM Tariq Aziz in Baghdad (file) Iraq's highest court has sentenced former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz to seven years in prison for expelling Kurds from northern Iraq during former dictator Saddam Hussein's rule. The Iraqi High Tribunal handed down the sentence Sunday. Aziz was deputy prime minister when Iraq invaded Kuwait and during the 1991 Gulf War. He served as an international spokesman for the Iraqi government. Also Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled to Iraq's Kurdish region to meet Kurdish politicians in an effort to resolve disputes over land and oil. Mr. Maliki met near the city of Sulaymaniyah with the Kurdish region's newly re-elected President Massoud Barzani and Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, who also is a Kurd. After the meeting, Mr. Maliki said the two sides agreed to hold furthe...
Post a Comment
Read more