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New minister Freddy calls CGK airport a mess

By Erwida Maulia , The Jakarta post/ANN | Thu, Oct 29 2009

The “messy” management could reflect the “personality of the nation" says Freddy.

New minister Freddy calls CGK airport a mess

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[Photo above: Garuda flight attendants at Jakarta's Soekarno-hatta International airport.]

New Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi did not wait long before making some bold moves to get his portfolio into shape.

Just several days after his inauguration, Freddy harshly criticized the operator of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and removed the head of Kota Station in Jakarta after he inspected the two transportation hubs.

“It’s such a pity. We’re not a poor country and we have many smart people, so why is it that Soekarno-Hatta’s Terminal I is such a mess?” he said on Tuesday after conducting an impromptu inspection of the international airport.

“Next time the toilets must be better and cleaner because they will give foreigners a bad first impression of the country.

“If the toilets are dirty, outsiders will think this nation is unclean,” Freddy told Antara state news agency.

He said the “messy” management of the airport, namely the unclean toilets and scattered cigarette butts, could reflect the “personality of the nation”.

The minister added the airport operator had no reason to let such problems remain unresolved, demanding officers and the public not to act “as they like”.

Responding to Freddy’s critics, Sudaryanto, secretary of PT Angkasa Pura II, the operator of Soekarno-Hatta, said his company would continually enhance its services, including measures to improve the cleanliness of the airport.

He said the company had launched the “Road to Clean Airport” campaign at Soekarno-Hatta early last year, which included the upgrading of 300 toilets at the airport.

The ongoing campaign, which cost Rp 1.1 billion (S$163,205)), won the airport second prize in the recent biennial airport toilet award sponsored by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Sudaryanto said.
Soekarno-Hatta earned fourth place in the 2007 toilet award.

This year’s top place goes to Juanda International Airport in Surabaya.

Soedaryanto claimed that only one or two in every 10 toilets at Soekarno-Hatta was “not quite clean”.

Freddy said he was also disappointed with the sanitation conditions of Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta and Kota Station in Central Jakarta.

“This is a reflection of the quality of Indonesian public services,” he said, blaming the lack of managerial skills at the transportation hubs.

Freddy said he had ordered the replacement of the head of Kota Station, Jatun, following his inspection of the busy and crowded station.

“When I arrived, the station was dirty, and neither the head of the station, nor his deputy was in place,” said Freddy, who served as the fisheries and maritime affairs minister in the 2004-2009 Cabinet.

-The Jakarta Post/ Asia News Network

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