Soekarno-Hatta airport operator Angkasa Pura II was recently reprimanded by government officials after State-Owned Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan showed up to the airport and shamed the company publicly by stumbling upon a filthy toilet in terminal 2F and proceeding to clean it himself.
On Wednesday, the Director general of Air Transportation, Herry Gumay, said that he had warned Angkasa Pura II to improve its service, especially concerning the sanitation of its toilets. "There are many people who get off the plane and want to use the restroom," Herry told Tempo.co.
The warning was issued after news of Dahlan cleaning the toilet himself before his departure to Surabaya, East Java on Tuesday spread. He was reportedly outraged when he found the toilet grimy and smelly and decided to take matters into his own hands.
"Dahlan helped clean the floor of the bathroom in Terminal 2F of Soekarno-Hatta airport before he left for Surabaya," Faisal Halimi, spokesman of the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise, said, adding that the cleaning service of the airport later helped Dahlan. "He saw it was dirty and fixed it. Cleaning service officers finally helped him because they felt ashamed."
Deputy senior general manager of Angkasa Pura II, Bram Broto Tjiptadi, admitted that their cleaning service may not pay attention to that specific toilet. "We will evaluate it," Bram told Tempo.co.
A day before Dahlan cleaned the toilet, an official of Angkasa Pura II claimed that 323 toilets in Soekarno-Hatta airport were spotless clean after they were renovated. He claimed that every three months the management evaluates the performance of the cleaning service, which is also assessed by the Indonesian Toilet Association and the Indonesian Consumer Foundation.
"There is not a single piece of paper or cigarette butt anymore. We have changed [cleaning service] providers for the bathrooms in every terminal," Mulya told Tempo.co. "Even if a person is holding his or nose, they can smell the fragrance."
Dahlan has a history of publicly disciplining state-owned enterprises that are not functioning properly. Last March, he was heading to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport when his car was stopped in a line of approximately 30 vehicles at a tollgate in the Semanggi area of Central Jakarta.
Clearly annoyed at the blockage, the minister got out of his car and went to the front of the line, where he found that only two of the four booths had attendants working.
He threw a chair from one of the vacant booths, lifted the barrier blocking the way and gestured for drivers to pass through without paying.