I like to make things happen: Gontha

JAKARTA (JP): "Relatively high education, friends, working hard and logic," said Peter F. Gontha when The Jakarta Post asked what helped make him a successful manager.

Gontha, a commissioner of the widely diversified Bimantara group and chief executive officer of the petrochemical company PT Chandra Asri, graduated from Praehap Institution, a business school in the Netherlands, and spent about 12 years working for foreign companies.

After graduating, he started his career as a trainee at the Shell Benelux Computer Center, the Netherlands in 1970.

In 1975, he moved from the center to Citibank N.A. in Jakarta and spent about four years working with the American bank. His last position there was vice president.

Deciding he wanted to broaden his knowledge and experience, Gontha moved in 1979 to the American Express Bank as vice president in charge of regional operations system planning.

Then he made a decision in 1983 that put him on the path to becoming a successful business manager. Rossano Barrack of PT Bimantara Citra, which is owned by President Soeharto's second son Bambang Trihatmodjo, offered him a job as a director of that company.

"I was hesitant at first. I already had a high position in Amex. So it took me nine months before I decided to join the firm," he said, adding that he felt there were better prospects for him in the company.

He started his career at Bimantara as a director. He said he felt comfortable with the working environment in the company.

Bimantara Citra has now become a major conglomerate which has interests in trading, construction, chemicals and television. Many analysts accredit him with playing a big role in developing the group.

"What's made me settled in Bimantara is that its shareholders gave me the freedom to do new things," Gontha said. With such leeway, he is willing to work hard for the company.

Asked to elaborate, he noted: "I think it comes back to basics: Do you want to be somebody who wonders what's happening or to be somebody who makes things happen? For me, I like to make things happen. I like to do new things. I like to do things other people don't do, like the petrochemical company Chandra Asri. I wanted to do it because not many could. Do it before other people did."

He said that he did not want to enter, for example, the plywood sector because many people already work in that sector. "So why should I enter it?," he said, adding that he likes being a pioneer.

As a matter of fact, he said, there have been seven licenses issued for olefin projects, including Chandra Asri. Some of the licenses were issued by the government in 1982, but Chandra Asri is the only olefin factory to have been established.

Gontha said that some of the license holders are multinational companies.

Asked why they did not build a chemical factory, he said it is not easy to set up a petrochemical plant. "It is very highly capital intensive, carrying high risks and very political," he noted.

He said several of the license holders just wanted to suppress the petrochemical sector so that their dominant role could be maintained. Some of them treat the licenses like goods to be traded.

He attributed Chandra Asri with having strengthened Indonesia's industrial structure, which is, according to him, is still weak.

He pointed out that Indonesia is still very much dependent on industrialized countries and that multinational companies continue to dominate the country's economy.

"Economically speaking, we're still colonized. Do you know that?" he asked.

"Look," he said, "Indonesia is probably the biggest assembling country in the world. We only use manpower. That's our only competitive advantage," he said.

Gontha claimed that such a condition had urged him and his associates to do something on that issue. He named Prajogo Pangestu, Bambang Trihatmodjo, Henri Pribadi, Rossano Barrack and Japanese investors as his associates in the petrochemical industry.

But unfortunately, he said, the consequence of their actions is that people do not understand what the company is doing. People say that Chandra Asri should not be protected as the practice is against free trade.

"Because this is an infant industry, we asked for protection from the government. But you see, people have made an issue of it," he noted.

He blamed it in part on analysts who implied that such protection is bad. "Do you think it's bad?" he questioned.

According to Gontha, protectionism is not always bad. Maybe the wrong impression resulted from the fact that many businesspeople in the past lied about needing protection.

"Many businessmen in the past got protection despite the fact that they did not actually need it," he noted.

Manpower

Also many foreigners, especially those working for multinational companies, came to question the protection Chandra Asri was granted. They said that it was not in line with the principles of free trade under the World Trade Organization.

However, they actually wanted to maintain their business interests in this country. They wanted to keep their dominant role, he said.

"So the whole thing about protection has been politicized. It is no longer an economic issue. It is a political issue, more than anything else," Gontha noted.

He cited that the same thing has happened to the national car project. Many people have said it is not good to protect the project. Japan is particularly against this car project.

"But I think, as we're running out of time to prepare ourselves for free trade in 2003, we need such protection to develop our industry. Otherwise, we'll see that we are still dependent on industrialized countries," he said. (13)