Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – A much-anticipated plan to privatise Indonesia's national television station, TVRI, to save it from bankruptcy has been thwarted by parliament because of concerns that station operators would focus only on making profits.
The decision was made on Thursday evening, when a parliamentary team endorsed the Broadcasting Bill which, among other things, says the state-owned TVRI should remain a public concern.
Team member Djoko Susilo told The Straits Times: "We think that by privatising TVRI, its public mission would be neglected. It is impossible for a profitable company to stick to its social mission."
The move has come as a big disappointment to many Indonesians who believe that selling the moribund station to private investors would be the only way to rescue it from the brink of bankruptcy.
The 40-year-old station's popularity has been on the decline for nearly two decades ever since private TV stations were given licence to broadcast.
The most widely accessible station in the country has been struggling to keep afloat with a government subsidy that covers a mere 10 per cent of its operational cost.
It is supposed to receive 12.5 per cent of gross revenue from the country's private television stations but some stations have not been able to pay their dues since the onset of the economic crisis.
TVRI has been allowed to air advertisements since the beginning of this year but this has brought meagre earnings to the station, which faces stiff competition from the existing nine private stations.
Furthermore, some 35 new regional TV stations outside of Jakarta are set to begin operation by next year, posing a further challenge to TVRI, which has so far dominated the airwaves in remote areas of the archipelago.
A former executive for the station, J. B. Wahyudi, told The Straits Times: "The government only has two choices, either liquidate TVRI or privatise it. But in order to privatise it, it must first purge all the corrupt, status-quo people from it so that a modern management could be applied."
Legislators have argued that TVRI is a national asset that should remain under the government's control. They have also warned that privatising the station would lead to a massive retrenchment programme among its 7,000 employees.
Sources said the latest decision had occurred as the result of severe infighting at the station since veteran producer Sumita Tobing was named TVRI president in 2000. Mr Sumita has been behind a move to privatise the station, causing a stir among other executives who fear they would lose their positions should the plan proceed.
He told The Straits Times: "A lot of people have been benefiting from the opaque management in the station – every project is marked up, and and bribes and kickbacks are expected from news sources in exchange for covering them." But now, others are working at Mr Sumita's removal.