ITW report Laksamana to police

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