Soeharto

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)