TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Zulkifli Hasan, head of the task force for accelerating the formation of Merah Putih Village Cooperatives, has revealed why the cooperatives are working with investment management body Daya Anagata Nusantara (Danantara).
"Well, all state-owned enterprises are now under Danantara, so of course they have to be involved," the man, better known by his portmanteau nickname Zulhas, said during a press conference at the Ministry of Food Coordination office in Jakarta on Friday, May 23.
According to Zulhas, the partnership between the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives and Danantara doesn't require a formal agreement—it happens automatically. "If it's with state-owned enterprises, it’s automatic," said Zulhas, who also serves as Coordinating Minister for Food.
He had previously mentioned the partnership during the Ministry of Home Affairs' Inflation Control Coordination Meeting on Monday, May 19. "We now have Danantara. So we'll work with Danantara: the people, the governance, the systems," Zulhas said in an online briefing in his capacity as chair of the national task force for forming the cooperatives.
The National Mandate Party (PAN) politician explained that the collaboration aims to improve cooperative governance. He pointed to past efforts as cautionary examples. "Friends from SOEs will help with that," he said.
However, the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) has warned that Danantara's role should be limited to enabling the program, not controlling the cooperatives. "It's not an organization that should hold control over cooperative operations because the spirit of a cooperative is mutual cooperation," Celios public policy director Media Wahyudi Askar told Tempo on Wednesday, May 21.
Askar said Danantara's involvement in the cooperative's institutional structure is irrelevant, since the new financial institution does not have the capacity to provide cooperative mentoring.
He believes that technical ministries or regional cooperative and MSME agencies, who have the authority and experience, should handle aspects like organizational structure, governance, and internal systems. "Danantara's involvement in governance is really misplaced," he said.
He added that Danantara's role would make more sense if confined to financing. "But even then, can it truly add value or promote independent cooperatives?" he asked.
Askar also criticized the government's overly centralized approach to building cooperatives. He emphasized that cooperatives are meant to be member-driven, not state instruments. "The government should act only as a program enabler," he said.
He drew a comparison to the village unit cooperatives (KUD) from the New Order era, which he said failed to thrive because they were too heavily controlled by the state. "KUDs became little more than aggregators for government services," he added.
Alfitria Nefi contributed to the writing of this article.
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