Political climate affects consumers

Political climate affects consumers

By T. Sima Gunawan and Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): You are upset to hear that the toll fees on Jakarta's highways will likely increase this year. You grumble, take a breath and then ignore it. There is nothing you can do to prevent the hike anyway.

Your complacency is common. More and more Indonesians are becoming apathetic, according to the head of the Indonesian Consumers Organization (YLKI), Zumrotin K. Susilo.

"There are more people who are critical, but most are apathetic," she told The Jakarta Post last week.

She divides consumers into several groups: very critical, not critical at all, and apathetic.

"Those who aren't critical at all don't have purchasing power and are not educated. But the apathetic consumers are educated people from the middle-class with enough buying power," she explained.

She believes the apathy is linked to the political situation in the country. The middle-class prefer to remain silent because they belong to the establishment and are enjoying life, even though deep in their hearts they fume. They won't risk losing what they have by condemning things related to the government or those in power.

This attitude bothers Zumrotin. She regards criticism as a factor which could improve the condition of the consumer, especially at a grassroots level.

Yet, Zumrotin has perceived a significant improvement in consumer awareness over the past few years.

Partial credit for the increase must go to YLKI. It was established on May 11, 1973 following the success of an exhibition held to encourage Indonesians to buy local products at the Jakarta Fairground in Central Jakarta.

Chairwoman of the fair's organizing committee, L. Hardi, told the Post that after the exhibition a journalist questioned the quality of the local products and asked about consumer protection.

Hardi, an activist in several organizations, had never thought about the need to protect consumers.

"I told the journalist I would answer within a month," she said.

She talked to her secretary, Permadi Satrio Wiwoho, and contacted several people with interest in the issue. They agreed to establish YLKI and appoint Hardi as chairwoman.

A year later, Hardi moved to Vietnam when her husband was appointed Indonesian ambassador to the country. Her position was taken over by Soemarno, wife of a former Jakarta governor. Soemarno was succeeded by Permadi in 1979. Six years later he was replaced by Erna Witoelar, who headed the organization until Zumrotin took over in 1989.

Since 1991 Erna has been the president of the London-based Consumer International.

Critical

Hardi emphasized that being critical is the most important element in empowering the consumer.

"We have been free for 50 years. We should be able to become more critical," said the 78-year-old woman.

According to Zumrotin, some Indonesians are unable to criticize because they have been conditioned to accept whatever happens to them without complaint.

She cited the chaotic first phase of this year's haj pilgrimage as an example. Some 240,000 Indonesians were allowed to register for the first phase, 43,000 more than the final quota of 197,000. As a result, many Indonesians had to postpone their departure.

She recalled her own experience when she joined the haj pilgrimage in 1993. Due to poor management in Indonesia, she and the other pilgrims had to stay longer in Saudi Arabia than scheduled.

"We were told to thank God because God loved us so much that He chose us among hundreds of thousands pilgrims to stay longer and pray again," she said.

"And I said that God's love, and lousy management were two different things," she recalled.

As long as criticism is curtailed, the running of the pilgrimage won't get better, she vouched.

Zumrotin criticizes the government for showing little political will to protect the consumer. She notes that there are policies which favor industrialists and business people but are disadvantageous to the consumer, such as the one on cement.

Last month, the government increased the reference price of cement by more than 40 percent to about Rp 9,000. In response to strong criticism from the public, the government announced a few days later that the retail prices should be 10 percent below the reference price.

Indonesia has been plagued by market distortions in the cement trade for the past two years. This is caused by the dominance of several major cement producers, who are believed to control distribution to bar newcomers to the industry, according to analysts.

"A better policy on the distribution on cement is required," Zumrotin said.

She said that some producers have good business ethics, but there are more who do not.

"Compared to the past decades, their delinquency is different. It is more sophisticated now," Zumrotin said. "For instance, in the past, a delinquent biscuit producer would just put more papers in the box so that it looked bigger. Now, they fool the consumers by placing misleading commercials," she said.

Citing an example, she said that there was an advertisement declaring that one could buy a van, by an installment plan, with a down payment of less than Rp 900,000. It turned out, however, that people also have to provide a huge sum of money to pay for various fees, which were not mentioned in the commercial.

Mature

The 22-year-old YLKI feels that it is mature enough to deal with the government when rules are issued that favor industrialists and businesspeople, but harm the consumer, Zumrotin said. Despite its experience, YLKI often fails to persuade the government to review its policies because state is exceedingly sensitive to criticism.

Although YLKI is outspoken, it does not oppose the government.

"We have to exercise diplomacy to be able to achieve our goals. There must be a dialog (with the government)," Zumrotin explained.

"If we took a frontal position (against the government), we might become popular among the people. This will be good for our organization, but we will not be able to attain our goal of protecting the consumer," she explained.

Unlike other non-government organizations, YLKI has never staged a demonstration.

"We try to stay away from politics," Zumrotin said.

Strong criticism is launched every time the organization finds a government policy that could cause the public to suffer. They target not only government institutions, like the telecommunication authorities or the state-owned electricity company, but private firms as well.

Early last year the organization called for a boycott of television fees when the Minister of Information ordered TV owners to pay between Rp 1,000 and Rp 6,000 a month. He was backed by a presidential decree. YLKI believes that the House of Representatives' approval is required for the collection of the fees. The consumer organization also criticized the ambiguous way in which the collected money was managed.

Realizing that active public participation is essential to improve consumer protection, YLKI has set the empowerment of consumers as their aim. The organization concentrates on education, information and advocacy to achieve this goal.

To increase consumer awareness, YLKI publishes Warta Konsumen (Consumer News), a monthly bulletin with a circulation of between 4,000 and 5,000 copies. A subscription costs Rp 10,500 for six issues. It has also expanded to Surabaya, Medan and Ujungpandang.

In conjunction with its 22nd anniversary, YLKI organized a training program involving activists from the other 28 consumer organizations in Indonesia.

YLKI has 26 full-time staff, six part-time employees and an eight-member executive board. Human resources has been a big problem for the organization.

YLKI's treasure, Irama S. Abdulgani, said they couldn't handle insurance, banking or other financial cases because no expert economist would work for the organization.

The basic salary given to a university graduate is only Rp 150,000. This probably explains YlKI's expertise deficit, according to the secretary of the organization, Agus Pambagio. He added that the organization offers its employees the opportunity to win a foreign study scholarship as an incentive.

Agus, who works on the side as a financial management consultant, studied engineering management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.between 1988 and 1990.

YLKI's modest office is located on Jl. Pancoran Barat VII/1 in the Duren Tiga area of South Jakarta.

It began in the house of one of its founders but, after moving several times, YLKI asked the government for office space and was allowed to move into the Bureau of Logistics. A few years later, YLKI moved to a house owned by the Logistics office. The organization operated there for 10 years until the government took the house back.

The Logistics office compensated YLKI Rp 110 million, 25 percent of the value of the house, which they used to buy the building in Duren Tiga.

The government provides YLKI access to laboratory facilities for independent testing of products.

Government assistance is fine, but enacting a consumer protection law would be more beneficial.

As for the consumer, they should learn their rights and responsibilities in order to protect themselves from delinquent producers.

Law -- Page 4

Activist -- Page 8