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JAKARTA: An alliance of Indonesian university students and a labour union have jointly sent a petition to Indonesia's president and parliament calling for the removal of the head of the anti-monopoly watchdog – the KPPU.
The petition also called for the replacement of all members of the KPPU, also known as the Business Competition Supervisory Committee.
It alleged that KPPU members have created uncertainties in the business environment by wrongfully prosecuting state-owned enterprises for alleged anti-competition practices.
The groups that sent the petition are the Nationalist Indonesian Students Alliance (AMNI), which represents students from more than 10 universities in Jakarta, and the National Coalition of Workers Union, which is from one of the state-owned enterprises found guilty of collusion in a tender exercise.
The groups listed three recent cases of mishandling by the KPPU. One of them is the current probe on Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings and its subsidiaries, Singapore Technologies Telemedia and Singapore Telecom.
The KPPU has accused Temasek of violating Indonesia's anti-monopoly laws through its two subsidiaries, which have stakes in Indonesian telecom operators Indosat and Telkomsel.
As the Indonesian government has stakes in both Indosat and Telkomsel, the petition said the KPPU should investigate the government along with Temasek Holdings for cross-ownership.
The two Indonesian groups plan to stage a protest against the KPPU in front of the presidential palace on Thursday.
They have insisted that the government and parliament respond to their petition at the earliest opportunity.
Arnold Gomez, spokesperson of the Nationalist Indonesian Students Alliance, said: "We believe the KPPU has a positive role to play in monitoring corporate activities. However, its performance has resulted in negative consequences. It has made many controversial assumptions."
- CNA/so
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