'Attacked' By Rizal Ramli About Garuda Indonesia, Peter Gontha: Don't Be Like That, I'm Also Excommunicated By The Board Of Directors

JAKARTA - Former Commissioner of PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk. Peter Gontha responded to the statement of former Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramli regarding the condition of the country's proud airlines. Peter mentioned that what RR was accusing, Rizal Ramli's nickname was not quite right.

"That's the link to Rizal Ramli's post, my friend. He asked why I'm just talking now, maybe Rizal never reads my post," said Peter via Instagram @petergontha on Sunday, October 31 while sharing a link from Rizal Ramli.

According to Peter, RR is actually a person who is quite familiar with him. In fact, the closeness has been going on for a long time when both of them led a business entity.

"I know Rizal very well, I know the person very well, when I was the main commissioner and Rizal was a member of a company," he said.

Peter also revealed that he was actually on the same side as Rizal, who dared to criticize Garuda Indonesia's policies if they were deemed to have inappropriate policies. This is proven by the boss of Java Jazz through his consistent uploads and comments.

"They didn't know from the first time I said that being a Garuda commissioner was a sacrifice for me, no benefit. So I suggest reading all my statuses. I have spoken for a long time, so Rizal, don't say that, right, during the first period as a commissioner, I was also excommunicated by the board of directors, because I strongly disagreed with the board of directors' decisions regarding the purchase of planes," he explained.

In fact, Peter is open to involving other parties to prove his words are true.

“Ask Garuda staff and former directors when I was a commissioner, they were all still there. After all, the digital footprints are all there," said Peter.

Even though there were disagreements, the former Indonesian Ambassador to Poland still did not forget the figure of RR who was a close friend to him.

“Anyway, Rizal is still my friend. He's a good person, in my opinion," said Peter.

For information, Rizal Ramli previously highlighted Peter Gontha's openness regarding the condition of the national airline Garuda Indonesia.

Rizal poked Peter with the intention of questioning the government's attitude in opening the option of closing Garuda as a state-owned business entity that serves the people.

"Now Peter is open. How come it's good, want to find an easy way for Garuda to be bankrupt. Sopo the criminals?” call RR via Instagram @rizalramli.official on Saturday, October 30.