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