Experts fault antitrust bill over monitoring flaws
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)