Are phone rate

Are phone rate rises cynical?

From Koran Tempo

The hike in electricity rates and fuel prices can perhaps be understood, as the state electricity company (PLN) and the oil company (Pertamina) have suffered financial losses, even though people cannot prove whether the losses were caused purely by their operational fees or various manipulations.

What about the telephone rate increases? The board of directors of the state telecommunications company (Telkom) has admitted that, at the company's current rates, it is still able to earn some profit, despite the company's alleged manipulation of about Rp 600 billion, as Koran Tempo's edition of Jan. 24, 2002, reported in a story titled Roy Suryo: Public should know the rate formula.

The government is raising the telephone rate at a time when people are still disturbed by fresh fuel price hikes. Where is the government's concern or sense of crisis? Or, will this fresh hike illicitly benefit from the fuel price hikes? The public does not wish to be bothered by the rise in telephone rates because its attention is focused on the increase in the price of fuel.

"The rate increase is needed to ensure that the telecommunications network in the country, which is the most underdeveloped in the ASEAN region, will be built," said Agum Gumelar.

Agum seems to feel ashamed about the "backwardness" of the country's telecommunications system. Yet, as a Cabinet member, he seems not to be ashamed about the country's general economic state. Will Agum still be proud if our telecommunications facilities are later developed while our people remain poor?

If every minister tried to be the most technologically sophisticated in his respective field by ignoring the wishes of the majority of the people, what would become of the Republic?

Perhaps, Agum Gumelar has calculated that the country's telephone users make up a maximum of 15 percent of fuel users and on average they are relatively well-off. Therefore he and the minister of energy and mineral resources may feel confident that there will be no protest rallies against them.

If that is the case, what more can one say?

DEHEN BINTI Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan