Indonesia is in the midst of a currency crisis after the rupiah fell to to IDR14,777 to the US dollar on Monday, its weakest level in 20 years and am 8.93% drop since the start of the year. This morning, the rupiah fell even further to IDR14.953 per US dollar according to currency converter website xe.com.
With the presidential campaign season now kicking into high gear and the opposition ticket of Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto and former Jakarta Vice Governor Sandiaga Uno promising a campaign focus on key economic issues, what was multi-millionaire entrepreneur Sandiaga’s sage advice on dealing with the tanking rupiah?
“We ask that our politicians shut up first,” Sandiaga told reporters this morning as quoted by Detik (note: the “shut up” was in English). “For the next two weeks, do not (talk about the rupiah), and that includes our side. I say wait, let us lower tensions first.”
So what was the justification for the “shut up” comment? Well, according to Sandiaga, politicians need to keep quiet about the rupiah until the exchange rate strengthens again to prevent further economic instability,
The former Jakarta vice governor said he did not want to see Indonesia become like Argentina or Turkey, both countries that have seen their currencies plummet in recent weeks, which analysts say caused much of the foreign exchange market instability that has rippled out to other currencies, especially the rupiah.
The Saratoga Capital co-founder said that in his experience, entrepreneurs feared election years due to the uncertainty they cause.
One of the parties supporting the Prabowo-Sandiaga ticket is Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and, Suhud Aliyudin, the head of the the Islam-based party’s presidential campaign team, said he agreed with Sandiaga’s “shut up” statement while also kinda contradicting it.
“I agree with Pak Sandi’s statement. That means that the government must be open and must be honest about the current economic conditions of the nation,” Suhud Aliyudin said today.
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