Ezra Sihite & Hendro Situmorang – A legislator has demanded that the government retake control of foreign-owned stakes in the country's biggest telecommunications companies, following reports that subscriber communications were subjected to broad surveillance by US and Australian intelligence.

"Indonesia must be firm in limiting foreign ownership of local companies, but that doesn't mean it should be protectionist," Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, a deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission I, overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said on Friday.

He said foreign ownership in the country's two biggest mobile carriers was high – 41 percent for Indosat, which has 55 million subscribers, and 35 percent for Telkomsel, with 123 million subscribers. The government's stake in the companies is 14 percent and 65 percent, respectively.

The 35 percent stake in Telkomsel not controleld by the government is held by SingTel, which in turn is majority owned by Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government's investment arm. "That's why we urge the government to take back ownership of Indosat and Telkomsel from foreign hands," said Agus, from the Golkar Party.

The call comes following a report published in The New York Times last weekend, citing documents leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden, that US and Australian intelligence shared "broad access to the Indonesian telecommunications system."

"The NSA has given the Australians access to bulk call data from Indosat," according to a 2012 agency document, The New York Times reported. It added that Australia had "obtained nearly 1.8 million encrypted master keys, which are used to protect private communications," from Telkomsel, "and developed a way to decrypt almost all of them, according to a 2013 NSA document."

Tifatul Sembiring, the communications minister, has ordered a probe into the allegations and threatened heavy punishment if either company was found to be complicit in the alleged surveillance, including "immediate closure."

Both companies have denied any involvement in the alleged wiretapping or submission of subscriber communications to a third party without a warrant.

The Indonesia Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Forum, a watchdog, said on Thursday that it would launch its own probe into the allegations, but warned that other carriers could also have been breached.