How Tifatul's first 100 days will `ring'

Winahyo Soekanto ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 11/03/2009 1:06 PM  |  Opinion

Just days after being handpicked by President Yudhoyono, Indonesia's new Cabinet ministers have embarked on what decidedly could be called a race to announce their first 100-day work programs. Some may seem ill prepared, but all are definitely seeking to show the President and the public they are not miscasts.

One minister has vowed to reduce unemployment to 6 percent, while another declared that by the end of 2009 around 25,000 villages would "ring" in his telecommunication program.

One other minister promised to provide billions of rupiah in rewards for sportsmen who do well in the SEA Games, while another spoke of increasing salaries of civil servants, most notably the pay of high-ranking state officials.

But none, unfortunately, has so far divulged to the public pertinent details of their programs including feasibility studies and - more importantly - the sources of funding they plan to use.

Let's study one Cabinet minister's program: that of the communications minister who said he would make 25,000 villages "ring" by the end of 2009. This, in fact, was a program of his predecessor - to include 24,000 villages in the national telecommunications network by the end of 2009. So all Tifatul Sembiring has done is to add 1,000 more villages to bring that total to 25,000.

However, details have been scant, even since the time of the previous minister. What system has been set in place; is it inexpensive and simple; and how much investment has been planned?

Not much has been said either about the fact those villages need telephone lines installed before they could be linked to the network.

And what work has been done to ensure adequate power supplies, because resorting to generators would make the program prohibitively expensive (would villages have to pay for fuel to power their telecommunication systems)?

Will investment for each telephone line be something villagers can afford in the longer term? Internet access in villages? That would indeed be a very costly project for the government.

Tifatul also spoke about obtaining Rp 8 trillion (US$828.5 million) of non-tax revenue (PNBP) by the end of 2010. Could he have forgotten that this has been regulated already, and that what he needs to worry about now is how to ensure that the system and collection mechanism works, and how to operate sanctions against errant telecom operators.

Tifatul should have instead spoken about an estimate of the PNBP his office will be in charge of, and what percentage of collection he will be able to obtain, how great an arrear he thinks he will have to deal with, as well as excuses for the operators being behind in their obligations, and details about calculations of gross incomes and payment due dates.

Allow this writer to just remind the new communication and information minister about one case that would impact greatly on his plans of investment and development of telephone services for the country.

In Badung regency of Bali, telecommunications vendor Samsung has established 24 BTS towers for the interest of a certain telecom operator. Twelve of those have been pulled out - for lack of permits.

Vendor Ericsson has built 50 BTS towers for another telecom operator, and is now set to face the same fate: the felling of its towers for the similar reasons: a lack of either location permit, building permit or operation permit.

How conducive is this situation for the government's plan to increase and speed up investment in the telecommunications sector?

Among the possible ill-effects of this discouraging treatment of investors is the stalling in service expansion, a decrease in investment plans and a decrease in marketing opportunities for SMEs in telecom-related businesses.

Surely Tifatul understands how improving telecom services will stimulate economic activities, which would in turn stimulate economic growth.

Frustrated at the local government's ineptitude in fostering a conducive environment for investment development, some operators have even agreed among themselves to turn off services for a day. If this "retaliation" measure ever takes place, both parties will suffer.

Who can imagine how local government offices of today could exist without telecommunication services?

We also must point out that telecommunication operators are not fairy godmothers either. Should they really carry out their retaliation measure by turning off their networks for even one day, they could be accused of resorting to a cartel tactic. Moreover, they would face potential lawsuits by consumers who fell victims to their unilateral action.

Now that Indonesia has ratified and enacted the the 2009 law on local government taxation and revenue, regency administrations are within their rights to tax towers.

Cases similar to that of Badung regency may soon spring up - unless the government takes action to accommodate and organize those vested-interest groups.

Having said this, we'll have to conclude that Tifatul has indeed not come up with a new, or original plan of action.

He should have thought up, instead, ways to deal with cases such as the above that might hamper his wish to ensure that 25,000 villages will "ring" by the end of the year.

He now basically has around two months to audit: 1) what percentage has been realized out of the planned 25,000 villages, and what is the projected success rate of the program; 2) the details of PNBP and the establishment of reports on the project; and 3) what he can do to sort out problems such as the Badung BTS tower case.

The writer is a Jakarta-based legal attorney and a telecom industry observer.

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