Soeharto defends big businesses

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday spoke in defense of the big businesses which dominate Indonesian industry, saying that their critics overlook the major benefits they bring to the country.

Speaking to about 140 students of cooperative ownership at his Tapos ranch near here, Soeharto said Indonesian big business provides the capital and management which neither the government nor the cooperatives can muster, to build some of the giant projects necessary for development.

"You didn't expect us to wait until we're capable to carry out the projects did you?" he asked his visitors during a dialog.

He said critics tend to look at the ownerships of these businesses but completely ignore the benefits they bring, in terms of products, employment and taxes.

"Surely they must have been beneficial. I can't believe that they have not," he said citing the examples of textiles and cement industries in which Indonesia has become self sufficient.

"Let's not look at who owns these corporations. Without them we'd still be dependent on imports," he said. "The plants create job opportunities and if they are profitable, then they are paying taxes."

He gave assurances that the government will make sure that big corporations will not be allowed to hold monopolies. "We have ways of doing this," he said.

Soeharto cautioned against people demanding the enactment of an anti-monopoly law, because the constitution acknowledges that monopolies are permissible if controlled by the government with the intention of bringing benefits "to as many people as possible."

The President however stressed that the government remains committed to the development of cooperatives, which the constitution regards as one of the country's three economic pillars along with public and private enterprises.

It is the task of the cooperative's managers to strengthen their positions before they can be entrusted with big projects, he said.

He said while the constitution allows for the government to acquire anything in the name of the people, there is no plan for the government to attempt to control everything the way communist countries do.

The group of cooperatives students were the latest guests to Soeharto's ranch, itself often the subject of criticism and gossip, as the President himself acknowledges.

He said critics often portrayed the ranch as a luxury place with a palace, helipad, a swimming pool and a golf course.

He said the pool is actually a pond where the cattle drink, the golf course is grazing land and the helipad is actually a place where the ranch operators dry coffee and cocoa seeds.

The palace is actually a Joglo (traditional Javanese house) which he said he bought at an auction after an exhibition in Jakarta.

The President was accompanied during the tour of the ranch by Minister of Cooperatives Subiakto Tjakrawerdaja, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman and acting rector of the Padjadjaran University Tanwir Mukawi.

During the question and answer session, a manager of a student cooperative in East Kalimantan queried the President's initiative to compel companies to hand over up to a fifth of their equity to cooperatives, saying that after the initial massive publicity, the plan has stopped dead in its tracks.

Soeharto responded that the initiative was still much alive but that there are problems.

"It needs more time," he said. (emb)