Former Caltex boss named Pertamina chief

Former Caltex boss named Pertamina chief

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid appointed on Monday
former president of oil company PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia
Baihaki Hakim as the new president of state oil and gas company
Pertamina, replacing Martiono Hadianto.

Abdurrahman, nicknamed Gus Dur, also appointed six new
directors of the state company to assist Baihaki in carrying out
his job. The new directors are mostly from within Pertamina.

Gus Dur said Baihaki and the new directors faced a tough job
of turning the most strategic state company into an efficient and
world-class company amid the increasingly competitive global oil
industry.

"The new directors of Pertamina should work out a strategy to
face a seriously challenging century after the year 2003, that is
globalization. If Pertamina is not well prepared, it will be
beaten out by others," Gus Dur said at the ceremony to install
Baihaki and the new directors.

"In the past, Pertamina acted as a Trojan horse to enrich
certain groups. (The anticorruption efforts) that were initiated
by the previous management should be continued by the new
directors," Gus Dur said.

Pertamina was considered the country's worst symbol of
corruption for several decades due to the deep involvement of the
family and cronies of former president Soeharto in its business.

A graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology, Baihaki,
who was born in Sijunjung, West Sumatra, on Dec. 3, 1942, led
Caltex Pacific Indonesia, a joint venture of American firms
Chevron and Texaco, from 1994 to the end of 1999.

Baihaki is the first executive of a foreign contractor to hold
the position of Pertamina president.

Another outsider appointed to Pertamina's board of directors
on Monday is Ainun Naim, 39, who was research and electronics
development program (EDP) coordinator at Gadjah Mada University's
master management program in Yogyakarta. He was installed as
Pertamina's new finance director.

Some sources claim Ainun is part of the inner circle of
People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais and Minister of
Finance Bambang Sudibyo.

Other members of the board are exploration and production
director Gatot K. Wiroyudo, who previously headed the Foreign
Contractors Management Body (BPPKA); processing director Arifin
Nawawi, who was previously the president of liquefied natural gas
producer PT Arun NGL Co; Iham Syarif, who maintains his position
as director of shipping, communication and ports; director of
general affairs Syahrial Daud, who was previously the head of
Pertamina's foreign marketing department; and director of
domestic provision Harry Purnomo, who was previously a division
head at the domestic provision department.

Baihaki vowed to improve Pertamina's efficiency and turn it
into a world-class company.

He also vowed to be professional, brushing aside the worries
of some parties that he could favor foreign contractors over
local contractors given his position at the foreign oil company.

"The worries of some parties that I will give preference to
foreign contractors are not correct. I am an Indonesian and my
mission is clearly for the nation's interest," Baihaki said after
being installed.

Oil and gas expert Ramses Hutapea said he was pessimistic that
Baihaki could successfully transform Pertamina into a profit-
oriented company as long as the government continued taking all
of its profit and did not allow it to be financially independent.

He said some people could have high expectations of Baihaki
given his career in Caltex, but he warned that Pertamina was far
more complex than Caltex.

Ramses, however, believed Baihaki would not favor foreign
contractors over local ones.

"The House of Representative will also closely watch
Pertamina's move, giving Baihaki no leeway to stray from the
nation's interest by favoring foreign parties," Ramses said.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Mining
Professsionals (Perhapi) Herman Afif Kusumo also criticized the
appointment of Baihaki.

He said he did not believe Baihaki would be able to turn
Pertamina into a world-class company as expected by Gus Dur.

"Nothing will happen (in Pertamina) as Baihaki's track of
records is limited to exploration and production, while Pertamina
is a multidimensional company," Herman was quoted by Antara as
saying.

He said Pertamina did not only handle exploration and
production, but also liquefied natural gas (LNG), petrochemical
and refinery business.

"Thus, there is no guarantee that Baihaki will turn Pertamina
into a global market player," Herman said. (jsk/prb/bkm)