A Conversion from Oil to Gas : Between Government's Assumption and Public's Ability to Pay

These days in every Indonesia's TV stations, there is an ad to promote a recent programme of our government : Converse in using oil to gas for cooking. This programme is intended to help the Government in reducing the heavily subsidized fuel and electrical consumption.


The bottom line of the ad is that if we really count it, the average daily cost of using gas is definitely lower than using oil, not to mention others advantages like easier in cleaning, less time consuming in cooking process, lower risks in igniting fire and explosion.


Well, it's true. But one thing crucial which I guess never thought by our government is the people's ability to pay. Maybe gas is less costly than oil, but one couldn't buy gas in only 2-5 litres a day. One has to buy a container minimum for 15 kg, that assumed could be used for one or two weeks. And for that, one has to pay Rp 30.000,00. Compare that with oil which could be bought only for a litre or Rp 2.000,00. It could be only for a day, yes, but then mostly lower and middle class people now live on daily basis. That means all they have is just for living today only. So, they would buy things they need for today. There's no money that big so they could buy gas, and surely there isn't any agent who would willingly sell the 15 kg gas at once and be paid daily afterwards.


Maybe there are many people in this country that couldn't imagine or simply don't know that there are others who still try hard to live and exist from day to day, even in big metropolis cities like Jakarta and Surabaya. But, they do exist, and they're the most to suffer from this conversion programme as this programme mostly is aimed for people living in the big and metropolis cities.


Well, I guess it's hard. The government and those people, they both are all right in their each opinions. But, really, all that we need is time to cool down. So, the government has to be more patient in socializing the programme. And we, the people, should try to trust the goodwill of our government and give a chance in trying and running the programme, see if it is really as good as the government says it will.


Talk less, do more!