Eliminate illegal fees

Eliminate illegal fees

Four corporate guests of mine arrived from Thailand on Oct. 18
at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, and the
immigration officer in charge, for no apparent reason, denied
them entry unless they paid US$100 each.

They were allowed to pass through immigration after they paid
$40 each. My guests from Singapore had a similar experience some
time ago.

Such treatment of foreign visitors to Indonesia obviously
brings disgrace to the nation.

In fact, all visitors from member countries of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are exempt from the visa-on-
arrival policy, so the charges are definitely going into the
pockets of the immigration officers. If 100 visitors arrive
daily, they will pocket $1,000, or Rp 9.5 million, in a day and
make cumulative monthly takings of $30,000, or Rp 285 million.

I would like to call upon public officials to stop making
money through illegal fees and carry out an internal
reorganization to show the world that we are, indeed, committed
to making improvements in all areas.

HERBERT SUBUR P. SILITONGA

Jakarta