Experts fault antitrust bill over monitoring flaws

JAKARTA (JP): A German consultancy group has faulted the government's antimonopoly bill for not doing enough to bar against manipulation of its implementation by vested interests.

Wolfgang Kartte, who leads the seven German experts hired by the government to advise on the antimonopoly bill, said on Thursday it was not apparent in the draft that the government would establish an independent team to guarantee just implementation of the law.

"The draft is still unclear on the position and composition of the commission. It also does not protect the commission from being controlled by political parties or other powerful groups," Kartte said in a media conference.

Kartte, who served as a president of the German Antimonopoly Board for 16 years, said commission members should comprise individuals who are fair and clean of any graft practices.

It should also be transparent and give freedom to the media to report on its activities to provide another check against any malfeasance.

"The commission members should be well paid to avoid collusive practices, and the terms of their appointments should not be limited," he said.

The advisory team, hired by German-educated President B.J. Habibie, is currently evaluating the antimonopoly draft devised by a team of government officials and academics.

It is scheduled to meet with members of the House of Representatives on Friday to discuss the draft and to also review another antimonopoly bill submitted by legislators recently.

The House is scheduled to deliberate the antimonopoly bill next month. It is expected to pass the bill into law by the end of this year before it takes effect next year to meet the deadline set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic reform program.

Meanwhile, several non-governmental groups claiming to represent the lower end of the business sector urged both the government and the House to be transparent in drafting and deliberating the antimonopoly bill.

Mukti Asikin of the Association for the Development of Small Enterprises (Pupuk) said Thursday the government must include informal discussions with different segments of society before the antimonopoly bill is submitted to the House.

"So far the so-called Reform Cabinet has not involved the public intensively in the drafting of the law," Mukti told reporters.

It reflected the "elite" manner of the preceding government in issuing a law and was thus outdated, he said.

"The era of issuing an elites-only law is over because it has made the nation suffer."

Concentration of the economy among a few business groups, especially through decrees furthering the interests of members of former president Soeharto's circle, is widely considered the cause of the country's worst economic crisis in decades.

Zaim Saidi of the Public Interest Research and Advocacy Center (Pirac) said the government's effort to establish the law seemed merely a token gesture to comply with the IMF requirement instead of a genuine effort to create a healthy business climate.

The two groups together with the Foundations for Strengthening the People's Participation, Initiatives and Partnerships (Yappika) expressed their eagerness to participate in the drafting process of the law.

Pupuk also planned to submit its own antimonopoly draft both to the government and to the House so that it could be considered additional input.

Ingo Schmidt, a University of Stuttgart expert on competition policy, conceded the law might cause a slight interruption in the country's economic expansion because it closed the door on major conglomerates.

However, he endorsed it as crucial to enable Indonesia to compete in the global economy in the long run.

"From the financial point of view, it may not be a perfect time to implement such a law amid the economic crisis, but from the economic point of view, Indonesia must do it now," he said. (gis/das)