Company bill gets mixed reactions from DPR members

Company bill gets mixed reactions from DPR members

JAKARTA (JP): The four factions within the House of
Representatives (DPR) gave mixed reactions to the government-
proposed bill on limited liability companies in a plenary hearing
with the Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman yesterday.

The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) suggested that the House
set up a special team to discuss the bill more thoroughly due to
its complexities and significance.

"We must evade our bad experience in the past because the bill
will considerably shape the future of our economic development,"
said the spokesman for the PDI, B.N. Marbun.

PDI called on members of the House to work on the bill in a
bipartisan fashion, he said.

He said that the House should make the bill "a legal product
instead of merely a political product."

Mohammad Rusdy Thahir, a spokesman for Golkar, stressed
yesterday the need to clarify the status of commissioners and
directors in limited firms.

He said business people in the country have a bad habit of
appointing unqualified people as commissioners or directors of
companies.

According to Golkar, such appointments are made to conceal the
legal responsibility of the firms' real owners.

This trick has been revealed in the notorious Golden Key fraud
case, in which some unqualified personnel were positioned to be
dummy commissioners. Golden Key chief Eddy Tansil, along with
some bank executives, are currently facing trial in Jakarta.

The government submitted the bill on limited-liability
companies (Perseroan Terbatas), which contains 128 articles, last
March after 20 years of work.

The Ministry of Justice initially proposed the bill in 1974 to
the State Secretariat but changes in the business world and
disputes on principles forced several revisions.

Clarity

Thahir said yesterday that the bill should be modified to
clarify the legal responsibilities of major shareholders,
directors and commissioners.

According to Golkar, the lack of precise legal distinctions on
the roles of the boards of directors and commissioners may lead
to illegal activities.

Thahir demanded that the House pay attention to this case
unless it wants to frequently see disastrous frauds emerge in the
future.

A spokesman for the Armed Forces faction, Taufiequrochman,
stressed that the bill should not only accommodate rapid economic
development but also impose the basic principles of the 1945
Constitution.

The constitution says that the national economy should be
organized as a common endeavor based upon the principle of a
family system.

A spokesman for the Moslem United Development Party (PPP),
Yudo Paripurno, questioned whether the bill has already
considered the issue of unequal distribution of wealth.

Paripurno noted that the bill, which if enacted requires every
share issuance to be offered to existing shareholders prior to
the public, needs some adjustment.

According to PPP, the public has the right to buy the shares
of a company in a public offering without being surpassed by
existing shareholders.

Paripurno raised more issues regarding the composition of
shareholders, company statutes, capital expansion and the bill's
preamble. (09)