Legislator urges Gus Dur to drop Baihaki, citing Japanese dislike

Several legislators had asked President Abdurrahman Wahid not to choose ex-president PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia Baihaki Hakim as new leader of state oil and gas company Pertamina, citing the alleged dislike of Japanese LNG buyers to him, Neraca daily reported.

Ramson Siagian of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) and Priyo Budi Santoso of the Golkar party said over the weekend they believed the dislike of the Japanese LNG buyers to Baihaki was one of the reasons behind their recent decision to cut the purchase of LNG supplies from Indonesia.

"The administration of Gus Dur (Wahid's nickname) should give responses to the Japanese threat to cut the purchase of LNG supplies from Indonesia as Japan is Indonesia's number one consumer. Don't think that the cut of supplies was because a slowdown in its industry," Ramson said.

Ramson and Priyo said the future leader of Pertamina should be someone who is a neutral professional, who does not favor Japan or the United States. He or she should not also favor any political parties of the country.

The legislators said they did not believe Baihaki would act as a neutral professional given his background as Caltex's employee.

They said they feared Baihaki would also favor Caltex in its dispute with Pertamina over share ownership in the Coastal Plains Pekanbaru.

Gus Dur has ordered Pertamina's board of commissioners to select names for Pertamina's top job to replace Martiono Hadianto. Thus far, Baihaki has came out as the strongest candidate.

Ramson said of all the names proposed by Pertamina's board commissioners to replace Martiono, only director general of oil and gas Rachmat Sudibyo was considered a neutral and non-partisan figure.

Priyo and head of the House of Representatives' Commission VIII for mines and energy Irwan Prayitno called on Gus Dur to give chances for Martiono to continue doing his job. (*)