Food Fiasco

WHEN news broke in August that Amran Sulaiman had filed a civil lawsuit against Tempo in the South Jakarta District Court, a former official of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) sent me a message. He asked whether there were other public officials besides the Minister of Agriculture who were furious with Tempo but the public did not know about. I replied to his WhatsApp message: “Many.”

This former official knew Amran’s lawsuit was not his first. In 2019, he also sued Tempo for the same amount, Rp200 billion. At the time, we made a report on a sugarcane project in Bombana, Southeast Sulawesi. During his first term as Minister of Agriculture, Amran pledged to achieve sugar self-sufficiency within five years.

He invited several businesspeople to plant sugarcane with the compensation of import quotas, allowing them to bring in sugar while the local crop had yet to be harvested to meet domestic demand. One of the businessmen who joined the program was Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, widely known as Haji Isam. Amran is still considered a distant uncle of Haji Isam.

The report was published under the headline A Bittersweet Family Connection. After mediation at the Press Council, Amran sued Tempo in the South Jakarta District Court. The process mirrored what happened when he filed a civil lawsuit over the article Poles-poles Beras Busuk (Polishing Rotten Rice) last June. His 2019 lawsuit was dismissed.

Prompted by the former Bulog official’s question, I began telling him about our relationships with news sources. The number of people who grow angry after being written about by Tempo is countless. But most do not go to court, they come to the Tempo newsroom. When they meet with our editorial team, they unload their grievances and frustrations.

Some proceed to mediation before the Press Council, but most cases end after that meeting. Over time, these sources, who often become friends, come to understand how the media works and its role in a democracy. They realize that Tempo writes about public policy, which can be debated and tested, not personal matters that bear no public interest.

I explained to the Bulog official that our reporting on Amran was about his policies as a public official. That responsibility is set out in the constitution, Article 6 of Law No. 40/1999 on the Press. Clause (d) states that the press plays a role in “conducting oversight, criticism, correction, and recommendations regarding matters related to the public interest.” This is followed by clause (e), which states “fighting for justice and truth.”

If, in carrying out that duty of oversight and criticism, the media errs—whether through inaccurate information, a writing mistake, or a biased presentation of facts—the Press Law mandates the Press Council to mediate. Article 5 obliges media outlets to provide a right of reply or correction when information is disputed or wrong. This is the civilized way to resolve press disputes in a democracy.

This week is no different. We present our cover story, The Grain Illusion. We consider food policy a matter of public interest, something the press is obliged to inform the public about. Especially after findings by the Commission on Agriculture of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Indonesian Ombudsman revealed spoiled rice following the government’s implementation of Presidential Instruction No. 6/2025 on the absorption of unhusked rice last March.

The instruction required Bulog to purchase unhusked rice of all qualities at a fixed price of Rp6,500 per kilogram. The policy was Amran’s idea, intended to ensure farmers could sell their harvest. It was, in principle, a good idea: farmers wouldn’t struggle to offload their crops, and Bulog would secure ample reserves for food security.

Yet every policy carries downsides. House members found hundreds of thousands of tons of spoiled rice unfit for consumption. The Ombudsman even calculated potential state losses from the “any quality” procurement reaching Rp7 trillion. These findings, made between July and August, confirmed our May 16, 2025 article, Polishing Rotten Rice.

It is the media’s duty to uncover the harmful sides of public policies so their impact can be minimized and so the public knows who will bear the consequences. As for the good things, it is the responsibility of public officials to realize them. That is why they receive salaries and facilities funded by public money through taxes.

This relationship was well understood by public officials like Ali Sadikin. During his tenure as Governor of Jakarta from 1966 to 1977, the Navy General urged journalists to criticize him harshly. He regularly met with media leaders and asked to be warned if his policies went astray. “I consider journalists my unpaid staff,” he said.

What a remarkable situation that was, Bang Ali.