Habibie, colleague defend IPTN
By Dwi Atmanta
MEDAN (JP): State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie and his assistant Sofian Effendi defended the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT IPTN yesterday from criticism that it only served Habibie's personal ambitions and had failed to find a market.
Habibie denied having a personal ambition in regard to Indonesia's aircraft policy and said he was just fulfilling the expectations of the country's founding fathers.
Addressing an ongoing seminar on the development of social scientists here yesterday, Habibie said Indonesia's decision to build the aircraft factory in Bandung, West Java, two decades ago had been taken under the late first president Sukarno.
"The government at that time pledged to develop both aeronautic and maritime technology," Habibie said in his paper read by his assistant Sofian Effendi.
Habibie praised the founding fathers' vision which had led them to choose advanced technology in order to prevent the country from becoming dependent on other countries in the future.
"Indonesia has now emerged as one of only eight countries in the world that has managed to produce high-technology commercial aircraft. In addition, Indonesia is the only Asian country to do so," Habibie said.
Dubbed "super-minister," Habibie is president of IPTN as well as nine other state-owned companies under the Indonesian Strategic Industry Board.
Sofian, Habibie's assistant on policy formulation, regretted the aircraft industry had become a laughing stock, even among top echelon officials who say that IPTN has failed to obtain its market.
"It's obvious that people do not have pride in our own products," he said.
IPTN (Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara) launched its newest product, the CN-235 aircraft last year. Last October, IPTN signed a financing agreement with PT Dua Satu Tiga Puluh, set up by President Soeharto in his personal capacity, for the production of Indonesia's first passenger jet.
Under the agreement, DSTP would provide US$2 billion for IPTN to design, develop and produce two prototypes of the N-2130 passenger jet and obtain at least three international certificates for the aircraft, including from the U.S. and Japan.
The N-2130, which is the second airplane to be designed and engineered entirely in Indonesia, is scheduled to enter the market by 2005.
Habibie said that Indonesia could no longer rely on agriculture but had to develop advanced technology because rice would not generate enough profit.
"Profit will help us provide enough jobs even though our population continues to grow," he said.
Habibie denied the government would neglect agriculture as Indonesia marched toward a fully industrialized economy.
"The government wants people to enjoy a better life, and we won't have the opportunities to push agriculture in the future due to its shortcomings which are beyond our reach," he said. He did not elaborate the weaknesses of the agricultural industry.
Another speaker, sociologist Nasikun of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, warned that technology would only cause a catastrophe in the future if scientists were not committed to improving human dignity.
"Scientists should choose enlightening, liberating and humanizing technology," he said, adding that such choice of technology would require democratic deliberations.
Nasikun admitted that Marxist sociologists were the first to criticize scientists who introduced technology for the benefit of only the upper class and not the whole of society.
Nasikun suggested that as the new century was drawing near, Indonesian scientists should serve as "spokespersons of humankind," to develop science and technology to reach the whole of a just, free and wealthy society.
"Scientists should pay more attention to the poor and those who fall prey to and are alienated by development," he said.