Dare to stop import?

Misreading of the crisis aftermath (Indonesia has been quite resilient -- Indonesia's exposure to trade was quite low -- therefore, stop trading, go domestic) is getting pervasive. Kompas yesterday (24/8) ran couple of articles with anti-import tone. Today it continues, featuring Kadin chief in its headline (25/8). As quoted by Kompas, Hidayat says "If the government does not have the guts (to stop food import) and instead play blame gain among each other, we would not be self-sufficient in the next five years".

As I said repeatedly here, our conception of self-sufficent is false. We reached the so-called "rice-self sufficiency" briefly on the back of heavy protectionism.