Telephone bill or Bulungan Gate?

JAKARTA (JP): "Hallo, Mom. How are you?"

"Fine, see you later!"

"Mom, hold it! It's me. I want to know how everybody is. I want to talk to Dad too."

"Everybody is fine, we love you. Assalaamu Alaikum." With that, Mrs. Bandi put the receiver.

Some people have been reacting strangely to the recent escalation of telephone tariffs. The fear of paying a hefty amount of money for a short call has made them do funny things.

Mrs. Bambang, for instance, spent hours traveling to several places in Jakarta. She wanted to measure the distance between her home and the places which she calls.

"The tariff is determined by the distance," she reasoned. "So I must figure out how much I have to pay before opening my mouth to talk on the phone."

"Mom, you're wasting your time," said her son, Cokro. "You must hire a helicopter if you want to know the actual distance because it is measured in a straight line."

Whatever they do, the announcement of price increases has generated yet more commotion, especially in relevance to the economic situation. The government has picked the wrong condition and the wrong rate of increase.

"The government can't wait to rob people who have been suffering from the crisis," said Mr. Bambang bitterly.

"Maybe it's for the small people," I said, borrowing government officials' favorite statement. "With the increase, Telkom can provide better services, which will result in more foreign investors bringing in their dollars.

"Hence the restoration of the economy and, in the long run, there will be more jobs available. Only then will prosperity be ours."

"In the long run! How long?"

"Well, 10 to 15 years."

"My god! We're having economic problems now! The so-called small people need help right now! In 10 years we will all be broke! And those guys in the government who tango with the tariff will no longer be there to be held responsible."

Mrs. Bambang suddenly looked me square in the eyes. "You are beginning to sound like a government official. I suspect you have joined the party," she said without clarifying which party.

"Hey, I'm only giving you possibilities," I defended myself.

"Your possibilities suck," she said. "The truth is, the price increase is done for the benefit of Telkom business partners who are going to sell their stocks. By increasing the price of telecommunications services, investors will buy the stocks of the companies at high price."

"Talk about collusion!"

"And we, for whom those political campaigners promised to fight for, are sacrificed."

"Well, small people are destined to be sacrificed. You have to accept that fact. Look at what the farmers have to endure. In time of rice scarcity, they were encouraged to plant rice.

"Then the government lifted the subsidy for fertilizers, promising to raise the price of rice and buy all the rice produced by the farmers should the market price get lower than the government-set price.

"Now, as the price of rice plummets, the village cooperatives refuse to buy it. Again, the farmers, have to suffer loses."

"What have the House members done about this?"

"I don't know. Maybe they are busy packing in anticipation of their end of services and making plans on how they are going to spend Rp 200 million in severance pay."

"As for telephone tariffs, as far as I understand, the decision carries their approval."

"Isn't it possible that the government authorities have forged a scheme to make them say yes?" asked Mrs. Bambang. "You know, in our beloved country, with a certain kind of service, you can buy approval."

"Mama, please!" warned her husband in dismay. "Don't start that again. Accusing and assuming will get you to nowhere. You have to know business and politics before making such comments.

"Otherwise, you'll end up in the wrong corner of the courtroom. The best thing to do now is to stop using the phone."

"And stop talking to my friends?" Mrs. Bambang wailed. "No way. I'd rather stop eating. End of conversation."

Later, arriving home from the office, I got a long-distant call from Chaniago, a businessman who has just opened a branch in Padang.

"Is it safe to talk now?" I asked, expecting his reaction on the phone tapping case.

"Are we talking about Bulungan Gate?"

Bulungan Gate is what some people call the phone tapping of a conversation believed to be between the President and the attorney general (whose office is located in Bulungan) which was disseminated by a weekly magazine.

The interesting part of the case is not the tapping, which is a crime, but the reaction of the people on the subject of the conversation. Most people believe the president has cheated them by pretending to carry out a decree by the last Special Meeting of the People Consultative Assembly. The conversation, if it actually occurred between those two people, proves that the government is not serious in implementing the decree, and the people of this country have been fooled.

"Okay, now with the Bulungan Gate, do you think the voice is real?"

"Am I Sherlock Homes?"

"Use your usual and famous professional justification."

"I wouldn't dare think of justifying. Even the President and the attorney general give contrary explanations. I would rather concentrate on anticipating the bombshell of my current phone bill."

"Oops! Talking about the phone bill, I must hang up right now. Sorry, ciao!"

"Hold it, Chan. I have an important message for you... Hallo! Hallo, Chan?"

-- Carl Chairul