YLKI attacks consumer protection law
JAKARTA (JP): Consumer protection law that was put into effect last year is still insufficient in protecting consumers as it is largely ignored by the government and businesspeople, says the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI).
"Businesspeople seems to have such a major influence on the government that they just disregard the law," Az Nasution, a member of YLKI's plenary board said on Wednesday.
The fact that the government had yet to issue a regulation on the implementation of the consumer law was another obstacle in protecting consumers' rights. Such a situation had surely weakened the law, he said.
"Consumers' rights here are still ignored, in spite of the law. That is very sad," Nasution told The Jakarta Post.
He said that soon after the government had approved the consumer law, his organization had submitted a draft of regulations to facilitate the law's implementation. But there had been no news about it until now.
Consumer Protection law No. 8/99 stipulates a Rp 2 billion (US$210,526) fine or a five-year jail sentence, in addition to a revocation of the business permit, for any violator.
In a seminar here on Wednesday, YLKI, along with the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) and the Food and Drugs Research Body (POM), gave a reminder about Ajinomoto food enhancer, the investigation into which was halted by the police on June 25, due to lack of evidence.
Last December, MUI accused PT Ajinomoto, a Japanese company that produces monosodium glutamate (MSG), of violating Muslim consumer rights by labeling its products as halal (allowed by Islamic law), despite the fact that they were alleged to contain pig enzymes.
MUI said that it had discovered that the company used pig derivatives in its products.
YLKI said that PT Ajinomoto had violated Consumer Protection law No.8, article 8, point H, which stipulated that a product labeled as halal had to be processed in accordance with Islamic law.
YLKI questioned the halting of the Ajinomoto investigation as it perceived the company had clearly broken the law.
"Our investigation was based on scientific identification methods. Both the forensic laboratories of the Health Ministry and the police declared that Ajinomoto products were free from pig enzymes," said Alex Alim Rewos, the police chief of detectives from the National Police Headquarters for the Ajinomoto case.
"Therefore, we decided to halt investigations into Ajinomoto until there was new evidence," Alex told the seminar.
YLKI cited the Ajinomoto case as a sad reminder of the ineffectiveness of consumer protection law. "The law should be properly implemented in this country," Nasution said at the end of the seminar. (06)