Mysterious containers

Bisnis Indonesia in its Aug. 21 edition reported that at least 40 containers of garbage had accumulated at Tanjung Priok Port over eight years. The port authority alleged having difficulty in finding the owner or importer because the address of the consignee was fictitious.

The spokesman of the port authority further alleged that there were 7.5 million tons of goods and 26 containers containing various commodities unclaimed at the port.

Inasmuch as during my tenure of office for almost half a century, I was mostly involved in the export and import business. When reading this article, I could not help exclaiming: "But this is preposterous, unthinkable." And to think that this has been going on for eight years is absurd. But anyway, I can only draw the following conclusion.

In advanced countries, getting rid of waste or garbage, especially nuclear or chemical waste, has become a problem. In this instance, perhaps a European enterprise made good use of an import regulation in Indonesia, by virtue of which a shipment which has a value of less than US$5,000 does not need a letter of credit. And as far as I can remember, an SGS certificate (survey report) is also not required. A European enterprise would gladly pay the sea freight for the garbage, and if this continues indefinitely then I am afraid that Tanjung Priok Port will become the largest garbage dump in the world. The smart manager of such an enterprise would be laughing up his sleeve. In this context, I remember that some time ago a European country shipped nuclear waste to an Asian country, against a substantial payment of course.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta