Ulterior motive?

Ulterior motive?

From Merdeka

State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom successfully
posted a big profit of trillions of rupiah in the 1997/1998
fiscal year. The company has also stated publicly that
telecommunications rates in Indonesia are relatively low compared
with other countries, ignoring comparisons of the per capita
income in Indonesia with the other countries.

Now Telkom has raised its rates, retroactive to Feb. 1,
despite comments by Telkom's officers referred to above. The new
tariff of zone III, for example, is now Rp 1,545 per minute, an
increase of 3,196.55 percent per minute over the old rate of Rp
145 for three minutes. Of course, Telkom may raise the rates but
it must give plausible arguments for the move and also be
transparent about the increase. It is strange that the tariff
increase on April 1, 1998, was discussed at the Telkom
headquarters and not in the House of Representatives.

Now where did legislators, the government and Telkom officials
discuss the Feb. 1 tariff increase?

Cases of illegal use of customer telephone lines, rampant in
the late 1970s and 1980s, have never been brought to court. The
community remains suspicious that Telkom employees and officials
and private or government companies conspired in the matter, or
that certain Telkom employees or officials were individually
involved to cover for the funds they siphoned off. Maybe relevant
are Law No. 5/1964 on telecommunications and Law No. 3/1998 --
particularly the first and second clauses of Article 36 on
illegal use of a telephone line which states a penalty of four
years in jail or Rp 40 million fine.

In fact, the problem can be solved by using a meter system
like the one adopted by the state electricity company PLN. The
charges incurred on the installation of a telephone meter may be
jointly borne by a customer and Telkom, or perhaps by Telkom
alone. Spending money on the telephone meter installation would
be much better than having to spend money on telephone bills made
much higher because of unknown and untraceable reasons.

Even the late Soesilo Soedarman, former minister of tourism,
post and telecommunications, once suggested the adoption of the
meter system, a practice he learned about during his tenure as
Indonesian envoy in the United States. Unfortunately, rampant
practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism during the New
Order era never allowed his excellent idea to materialize.

HERLINA

Jakarta