Court draws criticism for overturning KPPU ruling

Court draws criticism for overturning KPPU ruling

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The court decisions to overturn the ruling of the Business
Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) over the Indomobil sale
has drawn criticisms from some local legal experts, who blamed
the "wrong" decision on the judges's lack of knowledge about the
case.

Lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan said last week that he suspected that
the judges did not understand much about monopoly practices,
which made them incompetent to examine such a case.

"Monopoly is a complex matter, which only experts can
understand. It seems that those judges have yet to master it,"
Luhut told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

"But we also have to understand that for Indonesia's legal
system, this (monopoly) is a new thing. We're not yet used to
it."

Hikmahanto Juwana, a law professor at the University of
Indonesia, concurred, saying the government needed to launch
campaigns to improve judges' understanding about all aspects of
monopoly to make them more capable of fairly judging monopoly-
related cases.

"People still lack understanding about the substance of the
anti-monopoly law. Maybe that's why the courts were more
concerned with the procedure of the decision made by KPPU, not
its substance," Hikmahanto said.

Last week, KPPU experienced a double blow in its efforts to
keep fairness in the country's business competition with two
courts overturning its decision of the sale of television firm
Indomobil.

First, the State Administrative Court granted a plea filed by
PT Trimegah Securities against the commission, for declaring the
publicly listed company guilty of conspiring in the Indomobil
sale process. Trimegah is the leader of the consortium which
bought IBRA's 72 percent stake in Indomobil in December last
year.

The Administrative Court declared that KPPU had neither the
right nor the legal basis to summon Trimegah in the Indomobil
sale.

Several days later, the Central Jakarta District Court
followed suit, overturning the KPPU ruling on the same case, but
this time against Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) and PT Bhakti
Assets Management, both of whom acted as IBRA financial advisors
in the Indomobil sale.

KPPU, in its ruling on the case announced in May this year,
found irregularities in the Indomobil sale. It therefore ordered
all parties involved in the sale, including the three companies,
to pay penalties.

But the three filed objections to the courts, saying they had
done no wrong in the Indomobil sale.

The double losses in court experienced by KPPU, which was
assigned by the Anti-Monopoly Law No. 5/1999 with the noble task
of gradually establishing fairer competition in the country and
gradually wiping out monopoly practices that have marred the
country's business world for decades, was a real shock to the
public.

Some members of the public question whether the anti-monopoly
law is too weak, especially if a district court can so easily
overturn KPPU rulings. Many legal and business experts are now
calling for the revision of the law to give stronger legal powers
to KPPU.

However, Luhut did not subscribe to this opinion, saying the
Anti-Monopoly Law was already good and the KPPU court loss should
be blamed on the judges's incompetence or lack of moral
integrity.