Welcome back to Pertamina
Welcome back to Pertamina
Martiono Hadianto, the former short-lived president director
of PT Pertamina, the state oil and gas company (14 months since
1998) has recently been elected as the chief commissioner of this
company, replacing Laksamana Sukardi, the former state minister
of state-owned enterprises (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 2).
The election of Martiono has, at least, two meanings.
Firstly, it shows how serious President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
is about restructuring and rejuvenating state companies and
ensuring they work with their resources for the sake of the
national interest. And secondly, it gives the chance for PT
Pertamina to, as present state enterprises minister Sugiharto
said, raise itself to become a world-class integrated oil and gas
company (Republika, Feb. 2).
Nearly every Indonesian knows that state companies are
normally treated as cash cows by those in power -- for private,
not public, gain -- especially by government ministers.
Years of this abuse of power has made the company grow
unhealthily and it has been slow to develop and compete with
other foreign oil companies, like, for instance, Malaysia's
Petronas.
Petronas, once considered by many to be Pertamina's younger
sibling has now grown to become a world-class company. Since 2002
it has enjoyed remarkable profits; it became the seventh top
world oil and gas company in 2003 and raked a profit of US$5
billion in 2004 (Media Indonesia, Dec. 21). Petronas' strength is
conspicuously shown in its headquarters -- the twin towers in
Kuala Lumpur; one of the tallest buildings in the world.
Meanwhile, one of the important tasks of its board of
commissioners is to direct and supervise the board of directors
on the running of the company.
Martiono, and commissioners Umar Said and Muhammad Abduh, as
industry insiders will know about the good corporate governance
principals applied in Malaysia's Petronas. With this experience,
they will hopefully work to make Pertamina profitable and
internationally competitive.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Pertamina in the
near future in the hands of a new and fresh board of
commissioners and an energetic minister.
M. RUSDI, Jakarta