Telkom's time to give a little back
Telkom's time to give a little back
From Republika
"Touching the Conscience of the Director General of Post and
Telecommunications" is the headline of an article published in
Republika on May 22, 2000. To me, a layman, a business company
holding a monopoly is practicing extortion when it raises the
rates of its products because subscribers have little other
choice than to comply.
The director general of post and telecommunications must be a
smart person. He may see to it that his argument for raising the
rates will sound natural and reasonable. "To give certainty to
investors and maintain the momentum of telecommunications
development," he argued. Whatever the reason, however, the raise
in telephone rates will be a burden to subscribers. It will also
give the impression that state-owned domestic telecommunications
company PT Telkom is not satisfied with the prevailing rates,
from which it has already reaped hefty profits.
Today a telephone is no longer a luxury. A telephone network
was established in my neighborhood in 1986 and since then I have
become one of Telkom's telephone customers. However, I have found
the telephone bill almost too high for me to pay. I have even
considered terminating my subscription to the service. If the
telephone rates are raised again, I am afraid my family and I
will no longer be able to afford a telephone in our house.
I fear the director general of post and telecommunications has
no conscience. So, then, what should we do? Allow me, therefore,
to suggest a win-win solution. As PT Telkom enjoys big profits
even at current rates, it should not extort from the customers in
an effort to seize the momentum of telecommunications
development. Instead, it should make customers its business
partners.
PT Telkom should consider the percentage of the rate increase
not as its profit but as a deposit of customers' shares. In this
way, Telkom customers will be shareholders of PT Telkom in the
proportion of the percentage of the hike.
On the other hand, Telkom customers should begin to anticipate
this "progress". Allow me again to suggest that Telkom customers
should set up an organization to ensure they would have strong
bargaining power in dealing with the director general of post and
telecommunications. I myself would become a member of the
organization as soon as it was set up.
DEHEN BINTI
Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan