Mobile phone users object to SEA Games 'donation'

JAKARTA (JP): A poll of mobile phone owners has found that almost all of them object to paying the South East Asian (SEA) Games "donation".

The poll, conducted by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, found that only two percent of mobile phone owners questioned by the foundation did not object to paying the Rp 2,500 (US$1.06) donation every three months.

The foundation's executive director, Zumrotin K. Soesilo, said that of the 98 percent of respondents who had objections to the donation, 61 percent were willing to pay the donation once and 37 percent did not want to pay anything.

She said that most of the 100 users selected randomly in Jakarta asked whether they had to pay the donation. "In fact, the donation is voluntary," Zumrotin said.

She said that many respondents complained they had not received the SEA Games stickers after paying the donation along with their mobile phone bills.

Zumrotin said the foundation would distribute the survey results to mobile phone operators. "It will be up to them to decide whether they will continue adding the donation to the bills," she said.

Since last month the foundation has been flooded with complaints from consumers about SEA Games donations being added to mobile phone, telephone, water and electricity bills.

Last week the foundation sent letters to the state-owned telephone company PT Telkom, the state owned water company PAM Jaya and the state electricity company PT PLN asking them to stop adding Rp 1,000 to their customers' bills.

"We have had no reaction so far from Telkom and PAM," Zumrotin said yesterday.

PLN's President Djiteng Marsudi promised last week to stop adding the donation to its customers' bills.

"Donations", ranging from Rp 1,000 to Rp 50,000, are being collected by public utility companies by the sale of stickers under a Ministry of Social Services decree to raise Rp 35 billion (US$14.3 million) to help finance the Rp 100 billion Games.

The ministry appointed PT Angkasa Ronagraha, a consortium headed by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, to raise the funds.

The system has caused problems in cases when utilities have simply included the "donation" on monthly bills, making it difficult for customers to refuse payment.

City Council Speaker M.H. Ritonga said yesterday the municipality should carefully monitor the collection of SEA Games donations from the public.

"The donations' collection should be based on the regulation. If it violated, such as no stickers being distributed in return for the donations, it should be put in order," Ritonga said.

"If there's a violation, the municipality and the consortium in charge of the SEA Games fund-raising should be held responsible," he said. (ste)