Statement of Hizb ut Tahrir Indonesia
Reject Fuel Price Hike, Reject Liberalisation of Oil and Gas

Jokowi-JK Administration strongly signaled they will soon raise fuel prices, probably in the range of Rp 8,500/liter. The main reason is to reduce the burden of subsidies of fuel which they said to have been enormous.

In the Revised 2014 State Budget, it mentioned the controlling program of subsidized fuel has been set at Rp 403 trillion, consisting over Rp350.3trillion for energy subsidy, i.e. Rp246.5 trillion for fuel subsidy and Rp103.8 trillion for electricity subsidy, as well as for non-energy subsidy of Rp 52.7 trillion. The government considers that the subsidy rate should be reduced given the fact that the magnitude of the subsidy has reduced the government ability to finance other needs considered more important, such as the budget of infrastructure in 2014 which is only around Rp 200 trillion, or for the health sector which is only around Rp 70 trillion.

It is true that nominally the fuel subsidy has been increasing rapidly from only Rp 90 trillion in 2005 to Rp 246 trillion in 2014. Even when including the electrical energy, in which there is also subsidy for fuel, the total amount will be Rp 350.3 trillion. Although nominally subsidies continue to increase, but in percentage, the portion of the subsidy for fuel to the state budget is almost the same. According to the government, raising the fuel price to Rp 8,500/liter will save Rp100 trillion from the state budget. The question is whether the condition is so critical that our budget should be reduced considering that so far the state budget has never been fully absorbed. In 2013, there was the remaining budget of Rp 20 trillion. Whereas from remaining budget funds in 2013, additional fuel subsidy can be covered in part.

Therefore, the policy of fuel price increase must be rejected, because: Firstly, it is a tyrannical policy, inevitably afflicting people while the result savings is not comparable to the suffering experienced by the people. The research of National Economic Census (SUSENAS 2010) showed that 65% of fuel users are the people of the lower classes and the poor, 27% are middle class, 6% are middle - upper class, and only 2% are the rich. In addition, of the total number of vehicles in Indonesia which reaches 53.4 million (2010), 82% of them are two-wheeled vehicles which are mostly owned by the lower-middle class. This suggests that the increase in fuel prices will make people suffer. Remember that a tyrannical ruler will surely receive God's wrath in the afterlife. Prophet Muhammad (saw) specifically pray for them:

«اللَّهُمَّ مَن ْوَلِيَ مِنْ أَمْرِأُمَّتِي شَيْئًا فَشَقَّ عَلَيْهِمْ فَاشْقُقْ عَلَيْهِ وَمَنْ وَلِيَ مِن أَمْرِأُمَّتِي شَيْئًا فَرَفَقَ بِهِم ْفَارْفُقْ بِهِ»

"O Allah, whoever has the right to administer the affairs of my people, then he puts the burden /trouble the people, put him into trouble; and whoever has the right to administer the affairs of my people, and he treats them well, treat him well too." (Reported by Ahmad and Muslim)
Secondly, this is a treasonous policy. The policy to increase price actually is nothing but to succeed the liberalization in the downstream sector (sectors of commerce and distribution) after the liberalization of the upstream sector (sectors of exploration and exploitation) has been perfectly completed.

Liberalization of oil and gas gives greater control to the private (foreign) and diminishes the roles of the state. This policy will extremely lead to more misery to the people that in fact are the owner of the natural resources itself. Liberalization is undertaken to meet the demands of foreign parties. And for that purpose, the government is willing to ignore the aspirations of the majority of its people. So, obviously the fuel price hike is a form of clear betrayal of the people.

In this regard, Hizb ut Tahrir Indonesia states:

1. Reject the oil price hikes because it is a tyrannical policy that will harm people.

2. Raising the price of fuel and any policy that intends to liberalize the fuel management is a policy that contradicts to Islamic laws. In the view of Islamic Sharia laws, oil, gas, and other abundant natural resources are public properties so that the management be handed over to the state for the welfare of the people.

Therefore the capitalistic policies, which cause misery to people, must be stopped. Instead, oil, gas, and other natural resources be managed in accordance with Sharia for the benefits and the welfare of all the people, including both Muslims and non-Muslims.

3. The only choice is through the implementation of Islamic laws under the shade of the rightly guided Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah. For that purpose, struggle must be doubled so that the noble ideals can actually realized.
Remind the government that raising fuel prices amid the hardships of life as it is today can lead to the emergence of social unrest due to the unbearable economic pressures already suffered by tens of millions from the poor people.

Mohammed Ismail Yusanto
Official Spokesman of Hizb ut Tahrir in Indonesia

Hp: 0811119796 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.