Beer drinkers in Indonesia have had been very inconvenienced ever since January of this year, when Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel pushed into law a ban on the sale of beer in convenience stores. Rachmat said the law was to keep beer out of young people, and while there’s a chance a few fewer kids got buzzed off Bintangs as a result of the policy, we know the policy severely hurt local beer manufacturers. It also certainly didn’t help decrease the number of deaths due to poisoning from tainted alcohol.
But now Gobel is gone, replaced during last month’s cabinet reshuffle. More recently, President Joko Widodo announced a stimulus package meant to help boost Indonesia’s faltering economy, partly through decreased regulation.
One of the deregulatory moves in the stimulus package is a change to the Trade Ministry’s Technical Guidelines for Control of Distribution and Sale of Group A Alcoholic Beverages (Group A being those with less than 5% alcohol such as beer).
Currently the guidelines force all regions to follow the national government’s regulations (including the ban on sale in minimarkets). But if the announced changes proceed, then regencies and cities will once again be given the ability to regulate Group A alcohol sales as they deem fit.
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said that he would wait to see what happens to the Trade Ministry regulations, but he already knows what he will do if control of the capital’s alcohol regulations is returned to his administration.
“We will wait to hear the [ruling of the national government]. After we that we can just go back to the old regulations that governed the sale of beverages with alcohol content below five percent,” Ahok said at City Hall today as quoted by BeritaJakarta
This would seem to imply that the minimarket beer ban would be removed, as the city’s previous regulation allowed for the sale of Group A alcoholic beverages in convenience stores.
However we’re not letting our hopes get too high. Srie Agustina, the director general of domestic trade at the Ministry of Trade, told Republika that the decentralization of alcohol regulations would still not overturn another law (Decree No. 06/2015 on the second amendment of the Regulation No. 20 / M-DAG / 4/2014 on the Control and Supervision of Procurement, Distribution and Sale of Alcoholic Beverages… phew) that prohibits beer sales in minimarkets.
“In terms of the director general’s regulation, [beer sales] are only allowed in tourist areas. Later, places outside of tourist areas will also be allowed depending on the regulations set by regents or mayors, but it is still non allowed in minimarkets,” Srie said.
This might just be wishful thinking, but we think Srie could be deflecting because she doesn’t want to admit a lifting of the minimarket beer ban is a posibility. We’re obviously not legal experts, but it seems like the decree she mentioned would also fall under those that would be revoked if regulatory powers were decentralized.
Ahok, for his part said that he didn’t want alcoholic beverages to be sold freely or to children. But the governor also said some things that imply that he supports getting rid of the beer ban.
For one, Ahok said that too much regulation led to people drinking unlicensed alcohol mixed with dangerous chemicals. He also drew a parallel to prohibition in America, which was enacted for religious reasons but ultimately failed because it led to more criminal activity and people’s deaths.
The governor also noted that many people have a legitimate need for easy access to beer.
“Now you know that if you tell your doctor that you are having difficulty urinating, the doctor will order you to drink beer,” Ahok said as quoted by Okezone.
Responsible adults should be given easy access to beer, whether they need it to pee or just because it’s Wednesday night and they want to get a buzz on to help them over hump day. The minimarket beer ban hurts Indonesian beer companies and increases the risk of people dying from adulterated alcohol. If the government wants to prevent kids from drinking beer, have minimarkets enfore the age rules that were already in place.
Ahok, you’re our only hope. Help us get our easy beers back!
