Port Politics

The development of Kalibaru new terminals at the Port of Tanjung Priok, Jakarta, has been officially inaugurated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently. Though the initial civil works have been conducted before the ceremony held, it is however still an important aspect, perhaps the ultimate one, for the project's progress. Ground breaking ceremony by the government chief executive officer in the port development provides a political leverage.

With it the developer maybe able to generate financial back up that is urgently required in accomplishing the construction. For the Indonesia Port Corp II (now popularly abbreviated IPC) fund is a problem right now. The company is actually profitable but the revenue it bags must be transferred to the State as dividend, leaving only small portion of it for business expansion. News reports said the company had secured from Mandiri Bank, around Rp 11 trillions, to finance Kalibaru project. But, that money is still not yet in the firm’s pocket.

The presidential attendance in ground breaking ceremony is not new for IPC. Previously, three presidents, namely the late President Soeharto, the late President Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati Soekarnoputri, had inaugurated the development of Bojonegara port in Banten province.

Unfortunately, it had been dropped. Even, several personnel of IPC in charge of the project had been summoned and questioned by the Attorney General Office with corruption charges. It's interesting that nobody went to the court for this case. We do not expect the development of Kalibaru terminals to end up on such a tragic way.

Political leverage is gained through applicating political maneuver. At certain level, IPC has successfully implimented it in Kalibaru project. The first maneuver was that of the disposal of Kalibaru open bidding. It is certainly not the policy of the company, instead, that was the Ministry of Transportation’s decision. But, it’s believed that IPC was the party behind it.

The maneuver was sealed up by a presidential order, No. 36/2012, appointing the company as the developer of Kalibaru terminals and disqualified all participants of the tender. We must be sorry for this. At the moment, some of them, for instance Maersk and Hutchison, are contesting for right to operate the remaining terminals, 2 and 3. The operator for terminal 1 is already named, that is Mitsui & Co Ltd. This time the host of the bidding process is IPC.

As such the state-owned enterprise transforms to a regulatory body, something contradics with the Shipping Act No. 17/2008. According to the law, the regulatory function is reserved in the hand of the government via the Port Authority (PA) while IPC, as well as its fellows Pelindo I, Pelindo III and Pelindo IV, is only the operator. As the operator all state port companies actually share equal chance with private firms in the business field. However, the later says, all Pelindo are becoming more monopolistic now.

In developing the Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, at some extent, also played political maneuver. The port is located in the northern part of the country where no cargo can be handled since all industrial estates reside around the southern port of Klang. But, Dr. M insisted and keep developing PTP and made it as one of the excellent hub port in Asia.

Port politics is also executed by the Ministry of Transportation in its effort to develop Cilamaya port in Karawang, West Java. Instead of tendering the project, the office manages it alone. News reports said it is seeking US$50 million to finance Cilamaya. The presence of the port is projected to be shifting the concentration of logistics and transport of export-import goods by 40 percent of the total volume of goods from the Port of Tanjung Priok.

So, it’s nothing wrong with the politics in the port;  it’s a normality in business. The problem is only about the position. Pelindo has been plotted by the government as the operator so its room for maneuver already limited. If it still tried to play it, it definitely breached the law. We cannot call everything done by Pelindo in its business activity as a breakthrough anymore. Rule is rule. That’s simple.*****