Megawati updated on smuggling case

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon

Unsatisfactory with the way Cirebon Customs and Excise handled the 19 containers with allegedly smuggled goods at the port, the municipality's Legislative Council has reported the case to President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Council Chairman Suryana, who was accompanied by his deputies, Agus Al Wafier and Haris Sutamin, told the media on Monday that the agency had sent an official letter of complaint to the President last Thursday.

"We had to report it to the President as the officials investigating the case were neither transparent nor cooperative with us. We strongly suspect that they lied to the public. They have also been disrespectful to the Council," he said.

He said that while all of the institutions, including the municipality council, were either still investigating or discussing the issue, the customs office released 17 of the containers secretly.

The 19 containers of luxury cars and electronic goods, worth Rp 20.5 billion in total, arrived at Cirebon port on Jan. 10 under the name of PT Tiang Grage. They had been brought from Singapore by Santosa Jaya Ships under a Panamanian flag.

The Cirebon Customs and Excise Office decided to release 17 of the containers, as it claimed that only two of them had illegally entered the port.

According to Suryana, there was a conspiracy between the institutions to release the 17 illegal containers. This was based on the council's finding that the containers' seals had been broken and they had been taken out of the port secretly under special escort by members of a youth organization, which was strongly linked with the military during the new order administration under President Soeharto.

Suryana said that in the letter they asked President Megawati to take stern action against the city's police, prosecutors office and customs and excise agency, which had insulted the council.

He said that by doing so they had also insulted the general public, who had elected the council members in a general election.

It also asked the attorney general, the Indonesian Police chief and the director of customs and excise to thoroughly and quickly investigate the smuggling, punish any wrongdoers and announce them to the public.

When asked whether the letter also aimed to ask the President to fire the officials implicated in the case, he said, "Yes, that's true. Politically speaking we can no longer trust or cooperate with them. Therefore they should be fired."