T

he Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has strongly urged the Jakarta administration to sell its shares in a publicly listed brewery, saying that the government could be seen as a promoter of alcohol, considered haram or forbidden under sharia.

A member of the MUI review commission, Cholil Nafis, said the city administration should not allow profit to get in the way of producing a better policy for Jakarta residents.

“Clearly, alcohol is not good to consume and the city administration is certainly not playing a role in educating the people by supporting a brewery,” Cholil told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said that money from alcohol was of no benefit to Jakarta residents. “It’s better for the city to invest in a nobler business,” he said.

The Jakarta administration announced on Tuesday that it had decided not sell its shares in brewery PT Delta Djakarta (Delta), despite an initial plan to do so.

“We have yet to see any strong reason to get out of Delta and divest. The company caters to a very specific business niche and it has contributed a fair amount of money to city revenue,“ Jakarta Investment and Promotions Board (BPMP) head Terman Siregar said.

In 2006, Governor Fauzi Bowo, then deputy governor, said it would be better for the city to sell its shares in Delta and use the money to build public health centers and repair damaged school buildings.

In 2008, the city government begun muling whether to sell its shares in Delta, and in other companies, saying that it would invest only in businesses that served the public directly.

Selling its shares was also aimed at preventing annual losses caused by share devaluation.

Terman said that Delta raked in Rp 39.93 billion (US$4.47 million) in 2009 and Rp 44.14 billion last year.

The city owns 26.3 percent of Delta. The company lists San Miguel Malaysia (L) Private Limited as a major shareholder alongside the city government on it website, www.deltajkt.co.id.

Delta is a brewer and distributor of well-known beer brands such as Anker, Carlsberg and San Miguel.

Since its founding in 1932 by German firm Archipel Brouwerij NV, Delta’s ownership has changed hands many times.

During World War II, control of the company was turned over to a Dutch firm before being passed to a Japanese company in 1942. A few years later, the Dutch regained control of the company.

In 1970, the Jakarta administration acquired a number of shares in the company and changed the company’s name to PT Delta Djakarta during the tenure of Jakarta’s most controversial governor, Ali Sadikin.