If you want to blame somebody for the minimarket beer ban that went into effect last week, you can point your finger at Minister of Trade Rachmat Gobel who pushed it in the first place (Rachmat, if you’ll remember was also the man who thought you could get AIDS from wearing used clothing).
Since it has gone into effect, critics of the minimarket beer ban have turned up the volume, citing the negative economic and health impacts of the policy. Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has been a particularly vocal critic of the policy, which he sees as short-sighted.
Ahok has been pushing the idea of creating speciality stores for beer as a compromise solution to the problem. Islamic political party PKS has already expressed its support for the plan and it looks like, in response to all of the criticism, Rachmat is ready to get on board too.
At a meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta last night, Rachmat said his ministry was currently reviewing the rules regarding the establishment of beer speciality stores with the goal of creating a new license for stores to sell alcohol.
“We will release a permit specifically for stores to sell alcoholic beverages, but not all will be able to get the permit, so we will rearrange the distribution of beer. We are still studying how we will organize the distribution system,” Rachmat said as quoted by Detik.
However, the Trade Minister explained that the main focus of any policy would still be to prevent the harmful effects of alcohol on communities. But he said some people, especially tourists, eed beer because it’s a part of their lifestyle.
“People still have to be protected, we must set rules, the beer is needed by tourists,” he said. (Right, because only tourists drink beer in Indonesia.)
Rachmat said any such beer stores would have to be set in areas far from schools or places of worship to minimize their negative impact on the community. He also said many other countries had similar regulations on alcohol.
Ahok’s idea was that the beer stores have strict policies requiring customers entering the store show ID proving they are over 21 years old. That would answer Rachmat’s only real justification for the minimarket beer ban, which was that minimarkets made it too easy for children to buy beer.
Hopefully reasonable minds will prevails and we’ll see a lot of toko khusus bir popping up in the future.
