Gus Dur: President has no courage on Supertoy case

Jakarta, NU Online
General Chairman of the Advisory Board of the National Awakening Party (PKB) KH Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) said here on Saturday that the Supertoy rice variety development project, which failed in Central Java was due to the lack of courage of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"That (Supertoy failure) is because the president is fear and has no courage to do anything," Gus Dur was quoted by detikcom as saying.<>

In this seed scandal, the ex-general chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) also blamed the involvement of the manager of PT Sarana Harapan Indopangan (SHI), Heru Lelono, who is also president's special advisor.

While farmers in Purworejo regency, Central Java, who had experienced harvest failures for planting problematic Supertoy HL-2 rice seeds, received compensation from the seed producer on Saturday (13/9), Antara news agency reported.

Farmers gathered at Grabag village head office in Purworejo to get the compensation from PT Sarana Harapan Indonesia (SHI), the developer of Supertoy seeds.

According to farming consultant who had advised farmers in Purworejo, Bustanuddin, SHI had prepared compensation money totaling Rp 1.65 billion for 427 farmers in Purworejo who planted Supertoy.

SHI earlier promised farmers that they would be able to harvest their Supertoy rice three times, with the first harvest reaching up to 44 tons per hectare.

In reality, according Bustanuddin, farmers got only 3.5 tons per hectare in the first harvest, and got almost nothing in the second harvest, leading to angry farmers setting fire to their rice fields in protest against the company. They threatened to sue if the firm refused to pay them for damages incurred. (rif)