Does Indonesia Really Need The National Car Project?

In the middle of the various unresolved multidimensional problems attack, Indonesian people now face a new issue that shook the media coverage in the nation. The Indonesian government has recently launched the national car program, which is in the program, ironically they signed an agreement with Malaysia, a country that is considered 'noisy neighbors' by most of Indonesian society (Nashrillah 2015). Actually, when viewed from economic standpoint, Indonesia has the competence to run the program. However, multidimensional crisis experienced by Indonesia makes this country should postpone to implement this national car program. In other words, Indonesia is not ready enough to produce the national car.

                As a country with very large population, number of the middle class people that increasingly dominant, as well as people's incomes are rising gradually, Indonesia must have the automotive industry that has the label 'national' or belonging to Indonesia with various attributes. The country with automotive industries would have some potential benefit because the sector becomes the growth driving factor for the national economy progress. The automotive industry was promoted as a sector that is resistant to the global dynamics of the regional economy. It is said that automotive manufacture gives great effect to the creation of employment and the increase in purchasing power.

                There is an interesting phenomenon seen from this condition. Through the lens of development, perhaps political views realized with products that sounds 'national' are no longer have a place in the hearts of the people. For a rational society, the most important to them is a useful product with the appropriate fee to the purchasing power. Nationalism is no longer manifested in physical form because people have realized that the production of goods nowadays is done with the global supply chain system. Transportation experts have become apathy with the government plans that look like paradoxical policies. When efforts to encourage the use of public transport seem unprogressive, efforts to rationalize the use of private vehicles even get stuck as they go.

                In other opinion, considering to postpone this program is better to do by the government for some reasons. According to Dewa Yuniardi, an auotomotive analyst, producing car is not just about making designs and prototypes, but it also needs huge budget and the government needs to prepare market maturity, in order to make the national car absorbed by the market well. In addition, the production must suit its production capacity and set competitive price (Nashrillah 2015).

                Besides the unreadiness problem, the other reason to postpone this national car project is that persuading the people to have a car is not reasonable considering the not-good-enough traffic systems in Indonesia, especially in big city like Jakarta. When people buy car, simply the traffic will be more crowded with cars, because they will probably use their cars and won’t let them idle. The increasing number of cars on the road will simply increase the traffic jam. For this reason, the government is expected to recreate a better public transportation system more than making more cars. These arguments are enough to say no for the national car program.

Nashrillah, F 2015, ‘Kenapa Mobil Nasional Tidak Siap Diproduksi’, Tempo.co Bisnis, 9 Feb 2015, accessed 2 March 2015, <http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2015/02/09/090640990/Kenapa-Mobil-Nasional-Tidak-Siap-Diproduksi>.

Parikesit, D 2015, ‘Menyoal Mobil Nasional Indonesia’, Metrotvnews.com, 10 Feb 2015, accessed 2 March 2015,<http://news.metrotvnews.com/read/2015/02/10/356415/menyoal-mobil-nasional-indonesia>