Agus Triyono – The government's $91 million purchase of a new presidential jet has not flown smoothly with a coalition of NGOs, who on Sunday criticized the president and legislature for wasting the nation's money.

With approval from the House of Representatives, the government has ordered a new Boeing 737-800 business jet for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and future presidents. Yudhoyono currently uses a rented plane from flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.

Lambock Nahattands, a spokesman for the state secretary's office, said last week that the new jet arrangement would be safer and save money, since the government would no longer have to pay the rental fees.

But Gunawan, the executive chairman of the Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice, is not convinced. "What is being saved [with the presidential jet]?" he said on Sunday. "Renting from Garuda Indonesia does not cause any loss to the state because it [Garuda] is a state enterprise, so its income is state revenue."

Benny Dikty Sinaga, a lawyer for the coalition of NGOs, added that flying Garuda was more cost-effective than buying a new jet, because the government would not have to spend money on the plane's maintenance.

"If an airplane is purchased, then that automatically comes with maintenance costs," he said. "Whether it's used or not, the plane must be maintained."

The coalition on Sunday called for a meeting with the president, lawmakers, the state secretary and the finance minister to discuss the jet purchase.

Gunawan said Yudhoyono and the government had seven days to cancel the jet purchase and apologize to the public for making the deal in the first place. If they fail to meet the deadline, he said, the coalition will file a lawsuit against them with the Central Jakarta District Court.

The coalition of NGOs said the jet purchase meant more than just monetary losses for the state treasury. They said the deal also hurt state enterprises and the domestic aviation industry.

The government, they added, is financing the jet purchase through debt, pointing to the results of an audit by the state auditing agency, the BPK, on government finances in 2010.

Earlier this month, the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) also criticized the purchase, saying the jet was too lavish and an unnecessary expenditure for a country with so many millions of people mired in poverty.

Fitra accused the government of failing to make public the fact that $31 million in taxpayer money had been earmarked to outfit the jet's interior and pay for its security system.

In a nod to the plane used by the president of the United States, the new jet will be called "Indonesian Air Force One."

Lambock said the purchase made sense because future presidents would use the jet for decades. It is not scheduled to be ready for use until August 2013.