Megawati updated on smuggling case

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."