Pengelolaan pemangku kepentingan dalam kebijakan kenaikan harga BBM

Menarik untuk dicermati kenaikan BBM yang diumumkan oleh Presiden Joko Widodo secara "mendadak" tanggal 18 Nopember 2014. Kenaikan tersebut, meskipun sudah diprediksi melalui sejumlah komentar dan analisis pengamat ekonomi di media cetak maupun elektronik telah memicu kenaikan harga bahkan jauh sebelum kenaikan BBM diumumkan.

Pasca kenaikan BBM diumumkan, terjadi demonstrasi di beberapa tempat yang mengakibatkan kekacauan kecil. Nampaknya beberapa pihak merasa dirugikan dengan adanya kenaikan ini.

Saya teringat kembali rujukan-rujukan dalam pembentukan kebijakan, terdapat satu elemen yang perlu diperhatikan. Elemen dalam mengelola pemangku kepentingan seringkali kurang mendapat perhatian serius. Kalaupun hal ini dilakukan definisi pemangku kepentingan hanya terbatas pada pemangku kepentingan dalam lingkaran pembuat kebijakan namun diluar penerima konsekuensi kebijakan.

Benar bahwa sosialisasi baik dalam bentuk analisis, komentar maupun provokasi telah dilakukan di media massa. Dalam hal ini paling tidak persepsi mengapa BBM perlu dinaikkan mendapat jangkauan yang cukup luas. Namun disisi lain perlu diperhatikan kesiapan penerima konsekuensi kebijakan dalam menghadapi kebijakan yang telah ditetapkan. Dalam hal ini waktu sosialisasi yang lebih lama serta jangkauan yang lebih luas nampaknya perlu mendapat porsi yang lebih di masa mendatang.

Comment on rural electrification strategy in Cambodia

Unlike my previous writing, this is only a thought or you can say a comment. When I read a survey study on rural electrification in Cambodia, I was surprised that the country set rural electrification target as an intermittent modality rather than a fix one. As implied from the government plan, rural electrification by means of renewable energy will be taken over when the grid comes. This also means that rural electrification enterprises will be phased out in the future. While at present this is too early, we must see this development.

Debunking the argument of reaching of electrification target

While you might see the title as provocative, since the goal of full electrification of a nation is a target every country wish to, I will expose how putting emphasis on the timeframe of the target without a clear roadmap would lead to a waste of money and redundant effort. As one example, I have just read again and again studies showing one of Southeast Asia countries (Cambodia) with the target of providing 70% village electrification by 2020 and 100% of household electrification by 2030.

This is good for the country having around 80% of its population lives in rural areas with limited electricity access in 2011. As a consequence for such strategy, the setup of rural electrification enterprises emerged and through these enterprises people in provinces and villages far away from the grid have access to electricity. Two means of electricity generation are available: diesel with fuel or biomass gasification. Across the time,it is true that electrification ratio in the country increases. It was noted that in 2013, when a workshop on rural electrification was held in Myanmar, one participant from the Electricity Authority of Cambodia stated that at the end of 2012 the electrification ratio is around 40% as compared to 27% in 2011. This was largely contributed by the use diesel and also biomass gasification where on the first instance, around 7,000 kW (7 MW) capacity of biomas plants was installed only as a demonstration project.

The use of biomass gasification is plausible. The country inherits a lot of biomass feedstocks particularly those from rice husks. Thus, the fuel price is either zero (for rice planters and millers) or very low. The output generated can go to a substantial capacity especially for the productive use of energy (PUE). The cost of installing gasifier can be spreaded through regular payments from villagers or from cooperative. In the case of the 7 MW above, as an impact four more gasifiers were requested. Accordingly, the know-how of biomass gasification was tapped and the technology was adopted. Local manufacturers tried to construct the technology to be used domestically.

What happen then was due to lack of technology details, many local manufacturers fail to produce a sufficient standard of biomass gasification. Some of them managed to produce with mediocre results. The electricity delivered was not stable and some were unable to continue operating. Only those small developers that imported the gasifiers from proven technology were able to sustain their operation.

This was also quite similar with the experience of fulfilling electrification ratio target in Vietnam. While during the last ten years the country has successfully raised its electrification ratio to a substantial number, there are and will be issues of grid and off-grid quality that need to be seriously taken. And this comes with very expensive price.

The Misconception of Networking

People often fail to recognize that when they are expanding their network, it starts from the nearest things they can ever imagine. This is because probably the term ‘networking’ itself creates an attribute whereby 'face-to-face' network is established with a rite of exchanging a business card. I found that most often this sequence does not last long except if the rite is followed up by a mutual transaction from both sides.

Often when I observe the existing networking practices, the use of conventional networking tools undermines our ability to develop unlimited network through a device in front of our desk or at our hand. The tenet is that the more individuals involved in a physical network, the more we increase the possibility to optimize our network. It is therefore not unusual for professional to spend their time to ‘shop’ for workshops, seminars, symposiums, conferences or exhibitions just to expand their network.

Here, is the problem: The money and effort spent to these networks often are more expensive than the benefits created from the networking. Most of the time we spent on these efforts would go into a chit chat session on business profiles and sometimes hobby (yes, it’s true that talking a similar hobby can create a chemistry, but then what?) and politics rather than business portfolios and opportunities. At the end of the day, the network is gone with the wind, we fail to recall our networks and when we need them, often the business cards have been expired or missing. Then we start from scratch again just to find another network with the same purpose.

Realizing that this may not work well, professionals seek a specific network that would not only create but convert sustainable benefits for them. The network is mostly embedded in a so-called professional organization or association with quite some 'annual investment'. While this can be seemed as the most efficient tool, the utilization of this network is even overshadowed by daunting tasks preoccupied by these professionals. How often do we deal when we ‘network’ in association or professional organization? How often do we get the insight benefits from networking that can be converted into real value?

The paradigm of ‘face-to-face’ meeting still preoccupies us as professional. It is true that we need to meet our targeted network physically to get the first impression. The level of trust can be built and ensured during physical networking. Yet, we can also search for credentials. Through social media we can examine the level of trust that can be built when we network virtually. I found that when I obtained the credibility from my network virtually, there is no barrier to enter into the next beneficial follow up. I often found that here at LinkedIn, people with credential do really take the most benefit from virtual networking. They can ask what their needs, request information or even exchange knowledge. And the great thing about this that cannot be found in physical networking is it costs less money (well, you may have to pay the internet line) and we can expand our network without limit.

Issues on rural electrification

With the vow to have equity on energy access, many institutions, government, NGOs, private as well as international donors are becoming obliged to provide energy access for those living in areas far from the grid access. In 2008 alone, it is estimated that around 1.5 billion people lack of energy access. These people lives in areas where due to the geographic conditions, access to electricity is barely possible (IEA, 2010). Often, these people are those unfortunate fraction of individuals living in the lowest line of economy.

There are some benefits of rural electrification. In fact, these benefits are similar to having access to electricity. For the sake of discussion, this article limits the benefits to the scope of social and economic benefits.

Having access to electricity improves social life. Through adequate lighting, people can prolong their time to interact socially. This also applies in electrified rural areas. By its virtue, human is social being. They tend to interact to each other to fill social needs. Interacting with others results in generation of ideas, perceiving information as well as filling the need of social exchanges. In areas where the economy is less developed, the only leisure activity that may happen is social interaction whether within the family members or with the neighbours. With electricity access, time to interact socially can occur in the afternoon after villagers have finished their productive activities.

Rural electrification also facilitates information access. Where printed media is accessible, educated people living in rural areas can read newspaper or magazine in the afternoon. If the economy is more developed, villagers having affordability to buy TV or radio will have the benefit to access information. News or entertainment broadcast on TV or radio fulfills the need of perceiving information.

Pacing economy vs. energy needs

Who does not want better economy? Surely all people wish to. With better income, we can have a better quality of life. In the 1950s or maybe even in 1980s, it was an individual dream to own a car. Now it's possible. For a family to purchase a microwave, toaster, LCD TV is credenced as a must have goods. Thanks to tighter competition, better technology and pervasive marketing.

In the world of digital era, our life has become so dependent on electronic equipments, that we would freak out if these are out of our sight. We don't use our fix line telephone anymore. Instead, our mobile phone always stays near our pocket. The car we drive has been equipped with all those frontier technology and of course iPod connection. The laptop we use is geared with wifi that makes us easier to connect to the internet. 

Yet the more we enjoy the progress of these stuffs, the easier we consume energy. It seems that right now there is no way to live without electricity. It powers every gadget we need for our work and life. We now write letters with email. We browse the internet for various information: news, journal, magazines, etc. Some of us listen to streaming radio. Others prefer youtoube. Like it or not, those stuffs need power.

On the one hand, producers are aware that the energy to power gadgets is contested for efficiency. Living in this digital world where a needle hole could contain millions of processor would do. What may have been missing is that through the Moore's law, the price of electronic gadgets plumments sharply for every eighteen months that intrigues costumer to buy more gadgets. Translating this into the energy needs means that the more consumer electronics are purchased, the more the energy needs to be supplied.

The aggregate energy source is increasingly threatening countries to secure their power supply. With the creation of new jobs, new business and new modes of supplying goods, the country economy is heating up. More middle classes  are created. Wealthier people are booming. Consequently, the demand for house, cars, consumer goods, better services, good education, and so on is skyrocketing.

It is now becoming an unsurprising fact that the economic growth of five percent, could trigger over ten percent growth of energy demand. What makes it complex is when the country is not prepared enough to supply their energy. On the other side, the good news is we can still act through rebalancing our daily energy consumption. So, it's not that late.

Pembangunan kapasitas atau kelembagaan?

Ada pencerahan yang menarik dalam pembicaraan saya dengan kolega hari ini. Dimulai dengan kendala dalam mengumpulkan data kapasitas terpasang dan pembangkit yang harus saya minta dari institusi yang terkait dengan energi di negara negara tetangga, data tersebut belum dapat dipenuhi oleh semua negara. Tercatat hanya 3 dari 10 negara yang baru mengirimkan datanya.

Dibalik semua itu, bukan data yang tidak ada atau kurang lengkap yang menjadi masalah. Namun bagaimana sebuah agen pengeksekusi (executing agency) bisa melihat peluang yang jeli untuk melakukan interfensi kegiatan.

Hal yang sama juga terjadi sewaktu data diminta dari sebuah kementrian di salah satu negara tetangga yang lainnya. Alih alih memberikan data, perwakilan dari negara tersebut mengatakan bahwa mereka harus meminta data kepada institusi lain yang berfungsi sebagai 'think thank'. Ada dua hal yang dapat di tarik. Yang pertama, lembaga yang pertama belum dapat melakukan fungsi penyimpan data di bidang energi. Yang kedua, tidak terdapat koordinasi antara lembaga yang berkecimpung dalam bidang energi untuk saling melakukan pertukaran informasi.

Alhasil, yang terjadi adalah potensi kebijakan yang tumpang tindih akibat tidak terdapatnya suatu data terintegrasi yang berfungsi sebagai basis informasi yang diperlukan untuk pembentukan kebijakan. Ini mengakibatkan di satu sisi lembaga yang telah siap dengan data merekomendasikan kebijakan yang jauh lebih ke depan dibandingkan dengan lembaga yang lain yang mungkin masih mensyaratkan pembentukan kelembagaan sebagai upaya untuk menjembatani ketersediaan informasi sebagai dasar untuk pembentukan kebijakan.

Dari sini, sebuah executing agency harus bisa menjembatani bahkan menyediakan kebutuhan kebutuhan yang diperlukan untuk sebuah institusi agar dapat melakukan fungsinya secara baik. Bukan hanya pembangunan kapasitas atau lebih tepatnya meningkatkan kemampuan sumber daya, namun juga membangun kelembagaan yang tepat dan efektif dalam menjalankan satu atau beberapa fungsi tertentu, sehingga secara keseluruhan lembaga yang dibangun dapat berperan dalam kegiatan yang lebih bermakna.

Di sisi lain, apabila sebuah executing agency telah menjalankan fungsi jejaring dengan baik, maka lembaga ini dapat menjembatani pasokan informasi antar lembaga lembaga yang terkait, sehingga koordinasi antar lembaga dapat membuahkan keharmonisan dalam penyusunan kebijakan kebijakan yang diperlukan.