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'Maturity' rules the day at House hearing
The well-publicized dispute between a House of Representatives commission and state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina may have come to an end after an apology was issued — though not by the side many believed had been wronged
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The well-publicized dispute between a House of Representatives commission and state oil and gas firm PT Pertamina may have come to an end after an apology was issued — though not by the side many believed had been wronged.
Pertamina president director Karen Agustiawan was forced Monday to apologize on behalf of the company for sending a letter to Commission VII on energy affairs that questioned the effectiveness of a previous meeting, which triggered legislators' ire in a fashion many described as childish at best.
Karen clarified that the letter was intended to create better and more beneficial hearings between Pertamina and the commission.
“Our intention in sending the letter was nothing more than to make the hearing between Commission VII and Pertamina run smoothly," Karen said.
"We regret that the letter created misunderstanding between Pertamina and Commission VII."
She was attending a House hearing Monday with all Pertamina directors and commissioners, accompanied also by Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and representatives from the State Ministry for State Enterprises.
But Karen’s clarification was not enough, as legislators peevishly asked her to explicitly apologize for the letter.
“Actually, we from Commission VII only reacted to the letter sent by Pertamina. Please just admit that this whole misunderstanding came from this letter, which is under your control," said legislator Hendarso Hadiparmono.
"If I were in your position, I would have said this. Furthermore, in our culture, we normally apologize after we admit having done something wrong."
Several other legislators piped up in unison, with Karen giving up and finally apologizing.
“We admit that the letter was not in line with the existing mechanism, and therefore we apologize for it,” Karen said, to the gleeful applause from legislators.
The clash between Commission VII and Karen began after a hearing on Feb. 10, just days after her appointment as head of Pertamina, during which Karen was largely ridiculed.
During that hearing, Effendi Simbolon from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said Karen had been appointed Pertamina boss only to protect the interests of the existing government in the company, and said she was no different from a satpam (private security guard).
Effendi also questioned Karen’s experience to lead Pertamina, saying she was “not mature enough” for the position.
Pertamina corporate secretary Toharso then wrote to the commission on Feb. 13 that Pertamina was very disappointed with the rude way the legislators had questioned the capacity of its new president director. He considered their questions had deviated from the initial agenda, thus breaking internal House rules.
Toharso’s letter was considered an offense to the House's illusions of self-esteem, with Sonny Keraf, a senior PDI-P legislator and professor of ethics at Atmadjaya University, at the next hearing deeming the letter as “insulting” the representatives of the people.
A seemingly triumphant Effendi then closed his statement with a message for Karen, unaware perhaps of the irony of his words: “Bu Karen, please be mature.” (fmd)
