Tarmizi Taher names culprit for haj mess

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher blamed last month's controversy over the sending of haj pilgrims, which at one time nearly threatened to become a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia, on a leading tour operator.

Yesterday, Tarmizi named Ande Abdul Latief, director of the Tiga Utama agency which organizes upscale haj tours, as the author of last month's chaos.

Latief was summoned to the minister's office yesterday to explain his behavior to him and a group of journalists. Latief was then send over for a press conference with Saudi Ambassador Abdullah Abdurrahman Alim, creating further confusion, the minister said.

He said the journalists were used to set the ambassador against the government.

Tiga Utama is one of the operators licensed by the government to organize the so-called VIP haj pilgrimage, offering more expensive but more luxurious travel than what was arranged by the government. Among its clients were the first family who went on the pilgrimage in 1991.

"I think he has become too big for his own good," Tarmizi said when asked about the high standing of Tiga Utama.

The haj operation was nearly disrupted last month amidst allegations that the Saudi government was rounding up and deporting Indonesians who did not travel under the government's organized program. The controversy then turned into an exchange of words, through the media, between Tarmizi and Abdullah.

Later investigations found that the controversy started with a fake phone call, purportedly from a Saudi official, to the Indonesian ambassador in Riyadh saying that some Indonesian pilgrims had been arrested.

Tarmizi appealed to the 20 tour operators licensed to send haj pilgrims, saying that they too had a responsibility in maintaining the good relations between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto yesterday rejected demands that private airliners be allowed to fly the pilgrims, which is the monopoly of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.

"Managing the haj is not a simple task. A lot of preparations go into it, including leasing the aircraft and working out the flight schedules with the Saudi authorities," Haryanto told reporters yesterday.

The ruling faction, Golkar, had earlier proposed to end Garuda's monopoly on haj flights to help improve the efficiency of the operation.

Haryanto said Garuda had done a good job and that delays that had occurred were to be expected given the scale of the task.

Garuda Indonesia deployed 20 planes, 18 of them leased from foreign airlines, for the task of flying some 160,000 Indonesian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and back. (emb/icn)