---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ and click banner our sponsor ---------------------------------------------------------- Precedence: bulk >From: FIDEL <email address deleted> >Subject: CABUT MONOPOLI PT TELKOM! >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CABUT MONOPOLI PT TELKOM! Berikut adalah bagian dari diskusi saya dengan seorang kawan dari Amerika, berkaitan dengan kebijakan "gila" PT Telkom yang tetap akan menaikkan tarif berdasarkan hitungan sepihak. Belajar dari kasus Filipina, satu hal yang saya lihat cukup penting diketahui adalah, mungkin, sudah saatnya bagi kita untuk mulai berpikir bahwa segala bentuk monopoli -- acap atas nama kepentingan umum -- harus segera dihapuskan. Apa bedanya antara PT OTAK GILA, yang milik swasta, misalnya, dengan PT TELKOM yang milik negara -- kalau keduanya sama-sama menyengsarakan rakyat? Berikut petikan diskusi tersebut: FIDEL >I think it is on track -- actually, I felt a little sad when I heard about the >plan to have a day where people >refuse to use the telephone because I knew it >probably wouldn't work. > >An activist I know in the Philippines, a former English professor named >Helen Mendoza, succeeded in breaking up, almost single-handedly (hampir >sendiri), the monopoly PLDT had on Philippine phone service. Now PLDT has >two competitors at least, and phone service is much better and somewhat >cheaper than it used to be. The biggest new competitor is Bayantel, owned >by the very wealthy Lopez family. > >The Philippine case offers an interesting lesson for Indonesia. Here's what >Helen did: first she started clipping all the Letters to the Editor in all >the newspapers that complained about PLDT. Then she contacted everyone she >could who wrote them, plus others she knew were interested, and said, do >you want to help me fight PLDT? Most said yes, of course. > >Then they started protesting -- but, as you are suggesting now, rather than >stage a boycott, they began demanding competition. The advantage they had >was that there were already people people like the Lopezes who wanted to >make money from starting a new phone service. These people -- those who >wanted to break up the PLDT monopoly not to benefit consumers so much as to >make money by starting a new company -- began supporting Helen and her >group quietly from behind the scenes. > >In the end, they won, and the government opened up the phone business to, I >think, two new competitors. Of course, the companies cut a deal, and there >is still less competition than there could be (I think there are still >various 'barriers to entry' keeping other new players from entering the >business), but at least now PLDT has competition. > >The US case is good, too, since there is now fairly strong competition for >long-distance service, and in some places there is already competition for >local service. And phone rates have really dropped in the US over the past >15 years (AT&T lost its monopoly in 1984). > >But I think the Philippine case might be a closer model, if you want to >begin the fight at the grassroots level (in the US, MCI fought the battle >alone, with little or no help, that I know of, from consumers). > >So I guess I recommend taking advantage of greed -- the desire of someone >in Indonesia, like the Lopez family in the Philippines, to make money from >a new opportunity that people at the grassroots level can help create. > >Most important point -- the threat of competition often works better than >anything to force a company to either lower its prices or improve its >service. (And boycotts are usually most effective if people can switch to a >different brand or service provider rather than have to give up a >particular product or service altogether.) ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 24 Feb 1999 jam 10:57:00 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
