While government officials promoting the idea of a single time zone insist that it could improve the country’s economy, critics have said that it would only cause confusion.
Cabinet ministers have touted the proposal for the application of a
single time zone in the country’s territory as a way to boost the entire
economy, down to village levels.
Previously, Coordinating
Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa had claimed that applying a single time
zone could bring economic benefits and save the country trillions of
rupiah.
The implementation of a single time zone, the same with
that of Singapore, the main financial hub in the region, would help
improve Indonesia’s economy, he said.
“If we have the same time
zone as our neighboring countries, we could save substantially in terms
of working hours, traffic and economic activities,” said Hatta.
He claimed that the study on the implementation of a single time zone had actually been started a couple of years ago.
On Wednesday, Hatta said critics should cease debating the pros and cons of the proposal and instead focus on its benefits.
Indonesia
is currently divided into three time zones. Provinces in Sumatra and
Java, including the capital city of Jakarta, as well as the western part
of Kalimantan, have the time zone of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)+7.
Bali
and Sulawesi islands, as well as the West and East Nusa Tenggara
provinces, are on GMT+8, while the easternmost part of the country,
which includes the four provinces of Maluku, North Maluku, West Papua
and Papua, is on GMT+9.
The idea to merge the time zones was
first floated late last week by a spokesman for the Committee for the
Expansion and Acceleration of Indonesian Economic Growth (KP3EI), Edib
Muslim. Hatta is executive chairman of the outfit.
According to
Edib, the merging of the three time zones is necessary to improve
national productivity. “One hour’s difference between time zones is not
effective,” he said.
He gave as an example that trade in Jakarta
began at 9 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m., meaning that the effective trading
time between the western and eastern zones was only four hours.
He
has suggested that Indonesia use the GMT+8 time zone, just like
Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. “We chose that because it is
already used in the central part of the country,” he said.
With
GMT+8, Indonesians living in eastern and central time zones would be
able to conduct more business with people in the western region, he
said.
“Having just one time zone would make business easier
because people living in western, central and eastern regions would have
the same standard time,” he said.
Many, however, remain cautious about the proposal.
Religious
Affairs Minister Sur-yadharma Ali said that if adopted, a single time
zone would change the praying habits of Muslims.
“Actually,
there would not be much problem when it comes to praying times. It would
just take some time for Muslims to adjust to their new prayer
schedules.”
A lawmaker from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s
Democratic Party, Achsanul Qosasi, said the idea would create confusion
among the population and could in fact create inefficiency.
He said that creating a single time zone was not a priority.
“We should give priority to other issues that are far more important.”