'Bang' Ali clarifies

'Bang' Ali clarifies

From Forum Keadilan

I have an objection to a news item published in Forum No. 16
of the weekly newsmagazine, Forum Keadilan. On page 54, column 3
it said, "Indeed, Senayan is not a mere national asset, but also
has historical value. The complex was built during the time of
president Sukarno as a venue for the 1962 Asian Games. During the
New Order period, the area began to fragment. In 1971, Jakarta
governor Ali Sadikin, for example, allowed PT Indobuildco to
build the Jakarta Hilton Hotel close to the Semanggi Bridge..."

My objection is to what was quoted above because upon reading
it, one may get the impression that I was also one of those
fragmenting the Senayan area. In fact, while I was the Jakarta
governor, I was assigned to organize facilities for a congress of
the PATA Asia-Pacific Conference. For this purpose, I had to
provide accommodation for about 2,000 to 3,000 people and a
convention hall for a larger number. In my opinion, the best
place for this was Senayan. But then where would the convention
be? Where would the hotel be? Finally, a site on the corner of
the Senayan area was chosen for the hotel. This hotel was to
accommodate foreign guests. Domestic delegates could be
accommodated at other hotels. It would be cheaper this way. The
Hilton Hotel was designated only for foreign delegates. This
principle was also adopted when the Non-Aligned Summit was held
here several years ago.

To build the hotel, I requested help from Pertamina. My reason
was that Pertamina had many subsidiaries, including one dealing
in the hotel business, namely Patra Jasa, which operated in
Cirebon and Bali. As a subsidiary of Pertamina, Patra Jasa was
also a state company. So, I contacted Ibnu Sutowo and asked him
to help. "Help us. This is a national project. You can have a
hotel built."

What was in my mind then was that Pertamina would assign Patra
Jasa to build the hotel, so it would be owned by the state. The
land was owned by the state also and when I officially sold it I
gave away a great concession indeed. So back then, I thought that
the state's facilities would still be controlled by the state.

After the hotel was built, it suddenly became the property of
Indobuildco. I did not learn about it until after it became
Indobuildco's property.

What I cannot understand about the report in Forum is that it
gives the impression that I was committing corruption, collusion
and nepotism. The report fails to mention anything about
Pertamina. It wrote that I gave an opportunity to PT Indobuildco.
In fact, I did not know anything about Indobuildco until the
building of the hotel was completed. Therefore, I cannot accept
this part of the report. In fact, I asked Pertamina to build the
hotel. I never gave any opportunity to Indobuildco to build the
hotel. To learn later on that Pertamina belonged to Indobuildco
was not of my knowledge. Neither did I know if the contractor who
built the hotel got money from Pertamina or Indobuildco.

ALI SADIKIN

Former Jakarta governor