Exposing The Ugliness Of Garuda Indonesia From The Side Of The Cabin Crew

Garuda Indonesia aircraft in the sky of Indonesia (Syamsul Ma'arif / VOI)

JAKARTA - The leadership seat of PT Garuda Indonesia has been vacant after I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra or Ari Askhara was fired because he was involved in smuggling Harley-Davidson components and Brompton bicycles.

This case was only revealed a few days ago. However, this kind of depravity has been going on for a long time in this state-owned company. This was disclosed by the Garuda Indonesia Cabin Crew Association (IKAGI) at a press conference in the Cilandak area, South Jakarta, Friday, December 6.

Chairman of IKAGI Zaenal Muttaqin said that there were indications that games occurred in almost all areas related to budgeting. So, it should be suspected that some of the leadership of the board of directors of PT Garuda Indonesia were involved in fraud.

"What is certain is that the game is in the budgeting area," said Zaenal in Jakarta, Friday, December 6.

The purpose of the game is the emergence of policies that benefit certain parties. Some of the things Zaenal highlighted were cheating, from equipment to employee rotation.

"Like our clothes, uniforms," said Zaenal who explained that this was a new uniform. In fact, the uniform procurement has been done some time before.

Another example, said Zaenal, is about switching flight routes. For example, he said, flights from Jakarta to Amsterdam, Garuda aircraft are required to transit in Kuala Namu and Denpasar.

In fact, flights from Jakarta to Amsterdam can be reached without having to land at these two locations. In this way, it has an impact on the length of travel time and employee work hours, which ultimately adds to costs and becomes a burden for the company.

"So the journey is so long that our working hours exceed the normal limit as workers. That is up to nearly 19 hours of our journey," said Zaenal.

IKAGI Press Conference which conveyed the depravity of the Garuda directors (Rizky Adytia Pramana / VOI)

He considered Ari Askhara's dismissal by Minister of BUMN Erick Thohir as the right step.

"There were quite a lot of strange policies of Ari Askhara during his tenure as President Director of Garuda Indonesia that really hurt the cabin crew. Therefore, we are very grateful that Pak Erick fired him," said Zaenal.

Previously reported, the scandal about the smuggling of a Harley Davidson motorbike and two Brompton bikes has become a public spotlight. Apart from being carried out by the President Director of PT Garuda Indonesia Ari Askhara, the smuggling was carried out using the new aircraft unit belonging to the red plate airline.

The Airbus A300-900 Neo aircraft flown from its factory in France to Indonesia did not only carry passengers, but also carried a white and red Harley Davidson.

This motorbike is also not a new motorbike but a used motorbike, which has been regulated by the Minister of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 76 of 2019 concerning Provisions for Import of Capital Goods in a Not New Condition (BMTB). Director General of Customs and Excise Heru Pambudi conveyed the assurance that this motor unit was a used motorbike.

"This motorbike is a used motorbike which from the regulations clearly cannot be imported. And I think the passengers on the plane of course we consider people who understand the problem of how to bring goods from outside into Indonesian territory," Heru said in Jakarta, Thursday , December 5.

Harley Davidson smuggled via Garuda Indonesia plane (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

This used motorbike, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, costs up to Rp. 800 million. As for the folding Brompton bike, the price is around IDR 50 million per unit.

As a result of Ari's actions to smuggle motorbikes and two units of bicycles, the state was also said to have lost up to IDR 1.5 billion. "The total state loss, potential or if there is no declaration, is between Rp. 532 million to Rp. 1.5 billion," said Sri Mulyani.