The House of Representatives has asked the government to take a bigger role in helping solve the protracted electricity shortage.
“The government should have clear short-term, middle-term, and long-term action plans to resolve
the power crisis,” House Speaker Marzuki Alie said in a closing ceremony of the House’s first two-month period Friday.
The house is entering a one-month recess during which most legislators will meet their constituents and make a field trips to their regions to observe development programs in different sectors.
“In the short-term, the government must quickly settle the rotating blackout which has lasted for months. This is essential as the power deficit will definitely impact manufacturing and administrative activities,” he added.
He said in the medium- and long-term, it was advisable for the government to develop new and alternative energy sources.
“Alternative energy can be in the form of geothermal energy or any other form of renewable energy, thus ensuring the country will have sufficient power until 2015,” he added, not specifying what exactly will occur in 2015.
Marzuki said the House had received many complaints from various stakeholders regarding the disturbance caused by the power crisis and problems linked to the blackouts.
“Analysts say investment might decrease if the government fails to ensure a sufficient supply of electricity,” he said.
Power shortages have recently led to rolling blackouts in a number of cities across Indonesia. Greater Jakarta has been worst hit following a fire at a power substation in Cawang, East Jakarta, in September.
State electricity firm PT PLN, which has a distribution monopoly in Indonesia, has come under criticism for the blackouts.
The Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) reported Thursday that electricity problems ranked third in the total number of customer complaints in the last 10 years.
It had also recorded 5,800 complaints due to a lack of electricity from 2005 to 2008.
In its attempts to source alternative energy, the government recently renewed a plan to build Indonesia’s first nuclear power plant in Muria, Central Java. State Research and Technology Minister Suharna Surapranata said Thursday blueprints for the plant were being drafted.
A legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Effendi Simbolon, told The Jakarta Post on Friday he expected the government to take seriously its plan to build the plant.
“The idea of having a nuclear power plant has been around since the New Order era. The question now is whether the government is serious in implementing it. I don’t want the government to use the nuclear power plant idea merely as a platform to boost its image,” he said, not mentioning risks posed by terrible safety standards at key facilities.
Apart from criticizing the government for the shortage of electricity, Marzuki also said the House was deeply concerned by the lack of transportation safety in the country.
“We would like to express our condolences to the victims of the Dumai Express 10 ferry which sank off Riau Islands on Nov. 22. In response to a string of accidents, House Commission V on Transportation will establish a working committee to closely monitor the implementation of tranportation-related laws in the field,” he said.
