Jakarta won't interfere in any appeal over stakes

By Salim Osman, Indonesia Correspondent
The Straits Times, November 21, 2007


JAKARTA - JAKARTA says it will not interfere if Singapore's Temasek Holdings decides to appeal against Monday's ruling that it violated anti-monopoly laws through its stakes in Indonesia's two biggest mobile telcos.

Indonesian presidential spokesman Dino Pati Djalal, in Singapore for the Asean summit, said that the Business Competition Supervisory Commission or KPPU, which delivered the verdict, was an independent organisation.

He added: 'When it makes a decision, there is an appeal process. Any party that feels disadvantaged can appeal against its decision.'

He also said he hoped the verdict would not affect Singaporean investments in Indonesia: 'We hope more will come. We like Singaporean investors. There is no country that understands Indonesia better than Singapore.'

The Indonesian media has also quoted two ministers with an overview of the telecommunications sector as saying the government did not intervene before the KPPU decided to prosecute Temasek, and would not do so now it has ruled Temasek guilty of cross-ownership in Indosat and Telkomsel.

Communication and Information Technology Minister Muhammad Nuh told Media Indonesia: 'The government will not be proactive nor will it intervene...because this is the domain of the KPPU. We appreciate the KPPU's decision and we respect the rights of the aggrieved party to file an appeal.'

He also denied rumours that he called KPPU chief Muhammad Iqbal to discuss the Temasek case before the verdict was delivered.

'I don't want to intervene. There's no point,' he added. His remarks were echoed by his predecessor, State Enterprises Minister Sofyan Djalil, who said separately that the case was not over 'because Temasek has the opportunity to appeal against the ruling'.

Separately, the secretary-general of the State Enterprises Ministry, Mr Muhammad Said Didu, was quoted by the Bisnes Indonesia daily newspaper as saying the KPPU ruling against Temasek should not be linked to rumours of a government buy-back of Indosat shares from Temasek subsidiary Singapore Technologies (ST) Telemedia.

Nationalist politicians have been saying that Indosat is a strategic asset and should not have been sold to ST Telemedia and that the government should buy it back. But referring to such nationalistic sentiments, the presidential spokesman said: 'In this age of globalisation, our economic policy accepts that there has to be more openness and Indonesia has to be more interconnected with the economy of the region and also with the global economy.'

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHEFALI REKHI IN SINGAPORE