I like to make things happen: Gontha

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)