Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

That is the headline in today's business section of the Post:

Franciscus Wilerang, head of the Permanent Committee for Food Resilience at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said yesterday at a Feed The World seminar that the successful implementation of the programme could contribute $101.5 billion to the country's revenues for the 2010-2014 period.

This is all part of the government's '2009-2014 road map for food development' and at first glance may sound wonderful. However, a closer read of what what was said, demonstrates that Kadin doesn't actually have any faith that it is achievable.

There is the "could" in the quote above and then he continued by saying, "Considering Indonesia's potential to achieve food self-sufficiency, we have to see the global food crisis as an opportunity and participate in efforts to feed the world."

Ah, there's that word 'potential', one that is unfortunately over-used when talking about Indonesia.

Full marks to SBY who reminded the assembled business executives not to neglect the domestic demand for the sake of more lucrative markets overseas.

"Why feed the the world if we still have problems with food supplies and price instability at home?"

I trust he was, in part, referring to the 'potential' to rid Indonesia of the high levels of malnutrition, infant mortality, hunger and poverty as identified in the Nutrition Map of Indonesia published in 2006.