Indonesian consumers lack legal protection

Indonesian consumers lack legal protection

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian consumers do not have legal
protection from abuses by producers, the Indonesian Consumers
Foundation said.

Reviewing the outgoing 1995, the foundation named PT Telkom,
the state telecommunications company, as this year's biggest
violator of consumer rights.

The foundation said that of the 904 complaints it received
during the year, 143 concerned the services supplied by Telkom,
which has a virtual monopoly in domestic telecommunications.

Other major complaints concerned food and beverages,
transportation services, advertising and raffles, electricity
supply, housing, electronic goods, clean water supplies and
banking and post office services, the foundation said in a
statement.

According to the statement, which is signed by the
foundation's chairperson, Zumrotin K. Susilo, there is a strong
need for political and legal recognition to protect consumers in
Indonesia.

The foundation proposed that Indonesia uphold the principles
of a "people's economy", a system that sides more with the
people.

It called for the enactment of a legislation to protect
consumers and also for the establishment of a special government
agency, on a directorate general level under the Ministry of
Industry and Trade that would deal with consumer protection.

The foundation highlighted a number of areas where consumer
rights are being violated, such as in the way the authorities set
toll road fees for the benefit of the contractors, at the expense
of consumers; the absence of legal protection for home buyers who
are being duped into buying property that does not exist; and of
students being deprived of their studies because of the conflict
at the Satyawacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central
Java.

Based on a survey it carried out in May, the foundation found
that many imported food and beverage products sold in leading
Jakarta supermarkets were not registered with the authorities.

Another survey, on cosmetics, established that many facial
creams sold in Indonesia contained mercury substances, which are
hazardous to health. (01)