Price cuts fall short of expectations: Legislators
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government's decision to reduce the hikes in fuel prices and to offer discounts to business and industrial electricity consumers fell far short of expectations, legislators said Tuesday.
They also criticized the government for announcing the price cuts without consulting the House of Representatives (DPR).
"If the government considers its decision to have met the public's demands, it will have to confront the protesters by itself," Golkar legislator Baharuddin Aritonang said here on Tuesday.
Fellow legislators Endin A.J. Soefihara of the United Development Party (PPP) and Yusuf Muhammad of the National Awakening Party (PKB) expressed similar concerns, saying that their respective factions would continue to voice the public's opposition to the fuel price hikes.
Bowing to increasing public pressure, the government rolled back fuel price rises on Monday and offered a 2.5 percent discount to business and industrial electricity consumers.
The decision, however, was less than the full cancellation of the utility price hikes as many had been demanding. The government raised electricity and telephone charges and removed fuel subsidies on Jan. 1 so as to help finance the country's 2003 state budget.
The move drew strong protests from trade unions, students, non-governmental organizations and the public at large as it came just after President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a presidential decree granting full release and discharge to business tycoons accused of squandering the wealth of the country.
Alvin Lie Ling Piao of the Reform Faction noted that the new fuel prices were still unjust as the subsidies extended to ordinary people were much smaller than the facilities granted to business tycoons.
"Therefore, the fuel price hikes must be annulled, not reduced," Alvin said.
Yusuf said the PKB faction would continue to voice the people's opposition to the price hikes.
"Our demands are clear. The government must scrap its decision to increase fuel prices and electricity charges," he said.
According to Yusuf, his faction would not only focus on the fuel price issue, but also question the sale of a 41.9 government stake in state telecommunications firm PT Indosat to Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte Ltd (STT) and the government's decision to release big-fish debtors from the possibility of criminal charges.
Although the government has reduced fuel prices, President Megawati Soekarnoputri had not revised Presidential Decrees No. 29/2002 and No.9 0/2002 on the electricity charge and fuel price increases respectively.
"Without the revision of these decrees, the implementation of the new prices lacks a legal foundation as it is based merely on a Cabinet decision," Alvin said.
M.S. Kaban from the Crescent Star Party (PBB) told the government to re-evaluate the assets of state electricity firm PT PLN and crack down on power theft by big business.
As soon as the utility price hikes were announced on Jan. 1, labor activists, students and lower-income people throughout the country began staging almost daily protests.
In some cities, the protests turned violent, resulting in clashes between protesters and security personnel.
The increasing protests forced the House to summon the government to a meeting, during which both sides agreed to delay the increases in telephone charges and review the electricity and fuel price hikes.