Reclaiming Vital Public Services in Indonesia, Is It Possible?
Jakarta. The Indonesian government should think about reclaiming public services in some vital sectors to end abuse by the private sector, and regain control over the local economy and resources, experts and public service union representatives said.
The Transnational Institute (TNI), an international research and advocacy group, and Public Services International (PSI), a global federation of public service unions, held a discussion on Feb. 9 to highlight what Indonesia can learn from other countries whose citizens oppose privatization.
Satoko Kishimoto, head of the public alternatives program at TNI, presented a report that included some global case studies to show how more cities around the world are closing the chapter on privatization and returning essential services to state-controlled entities.
"Creating public companies and initiatives is more feasible than relying on private companies," Kishimoto said, adding that this way, governments are not locked into private contracts, which often span decades.
Indonesia has witnessed a major case involving a massive water privatization scheme in the nation's capital, which ended after being privatized for more than 20 years.
The Supreme Court ordered the Jakarta administration in 2016 to take back water utility services from multinational utility companies Thames Water and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux on the basis that the city's 15 million residents had been inadequately served.
Many also alleged that the privatization of water utility services in the capital, which began during the authoritarian rule of President Suharto, was plagued with nepotism. It took nearly two decades before a coalition of activists, residents and trade unions filed a class-action lawsuit in 2012, accusing the two companies of having failed to meet the people's right to clean water. The companies were also accused of price differentiation, which disadvantaged low-income residents.
"Companies should not profit from public necessities," said Anne Le Strat, former chairwoman of Eau de Paris, a French publicly owned company that succeeded in removing massive conglomerates, including Suez, from water utility services in Paris eight yers ago.
In the report, the TNI showed that there had been 835 examples of remunicipalization in more than 1,600 cities worldwide between 2000 and 2017. The sectors mostly affected are water, energy and local government services, such as security and housing, primarily in Germany, France and the United States.
The research and advocacy group highlighted in the report that in other parts of the world, it is possible to "reclaim or build effective, democratic and affordable public services," especially when consumers are being disadvantaged by poor service quality and unfair price differentiation.
"[Re]municipalization gives power back to the people. In the past, privatization was seen as the only viable option for public utilities," said David Boys, deputy general secretary of the PSI.
Tags: Keywords: