ITW report Laksamana to police

JAKARTA: Non-governmental organization (NGO) Indonesian Telecommunications Watch (ITW) reported State Minister of State- Owned Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi to the police on Monday over Indosat's majority stake sale to Singaporean firm Singaporean Technologies Telemedia (STT).

"The privatization must be suspended as it has not been based on a proper feasibility study ... It only shows that the government bowed to foreign pressure," said Masgar Kartanegara, the NGO chairman.

The sale, Masgar said, would simply cause the state to suffer massive losses, given that the firm had been sold cheaply.

He accused the government of using the excuse of the need to plug the state budget deficit for rushing to sell the healthy firm.

Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) won the government's 41.9 percent stake in Indosat on Dec. 15 through a bid by paying Rp 5.6 trillion, which represented a 50.6 percent premium on Indosat's share price on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.--JP