The Jakarta Post | Editorial | Sun, January 11 2015, 9:41 AM
The Dec. 28 crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has set off an overall review of Indonesia’s civil aviation industry, prompting a series of forensic audits on airline operations and the aviation regulatory system, placing the country’s airline safety in the international spotlight.
Several heads have rolled within the civil aviation directorate general, the state-owned airport management and other related operating bodies. Even the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has hinted at the possibility of joining the fray as allegations of bribes have surfaced regarding the flight route and slot designation process.
Findings of investigations that suggest that the flight had not been properly licensed further strengthened the perception that Indonesia is one of the world’s most hazardous places in terms of civil aviation safety.
The government immediately suspended AirAsia’s permit to operate the Surabaya-Singapore route and promised to take equally harsh measures against other airline companies failing to comply properly with the whole process of flight and route permits.
Since 2007, the US has effectively barred Indonesian carriers from increasing flights to American destinations. The EU currently has Indonesia on a “blacklist” with substandard safety records; only the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is permitted to fly into the continent
The EU and US have implicitly acknowledged that their great concern is no longer limited to the safety of individual airlines but is also focused on the competence of the civil aviation regulatory body, especially its air safety certification directorate, which is in charge of issuing pilot licenses, aircraft operation certificates for new airlines and safety approval, a function that can make or break an airline.
Deeply rooted in the issues over the country’s air safety standards is the integrity and technical competence of the air safety certification directorate.
In sharp contrast to these air safety concerns, the full-fledged liberalization of civil aviation has spurred high growth in the industry. There are about 400 planes carrying more than 50 million travelers annually. Air traffic has been growing at annual rate of over 15 percent.
As of last May, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s audits assessed Indonesia’s air-safety oversight system as inadequate, even below Pakistan and India. Likewise, the EU noted late last year that the air safety oversight system in Indonesia still needed substantial improvement.
Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan promised an overall reform of the whole civil aviation regulatory and operating bodies, covering such aspects as route licensing, slot allotment, air traffic control services allotment, airport management and navigation and aircraft inspection.
The Transportation Ministry went further to even intervene in the flight fare structure by fixing the minimum ticket prices of scheduled airliners to as high as 40 percent of the mandated ceiling (maximum) fares. This boils down to an increase of 10 percentage points in the lowest fares allowed for all scheduled services, including those of low-cost or budget airliners.
The ministry argued that the higher fare structure would give airline companies adequate financial space for maintaining reliable flight safety standards.
Even though analysts argue that such a market intervention appeared to be an overkill as there was no direct link between ticket prices and safety, civil aviation officials still think that such tough measures are required to maintain public confidence in the industry.
Hopefully, this “air safety turbulence” will not affect the implementation of the ASEAN Open Skies policy, set to be fully effective by the end of the year, because this policy will boost connectivity and people’s movements in the region and in turn spur regional economic growth.
Under the new policy, Southeast Asia’s skies will be transformed into a single aviation market as part of the ASEAN Economic Community commitments.
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Indonesia, a country with the world’s largest Muslim population, has joined other nations in condemning the brutal shootings at the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris that killed 12 people, including three cartoonists, the chief editor and two police officers.
No form of violence can be accepted and Indonesia supports France’s efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said.
Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman for international relations, Muhyiddin Junaidi, said the international community should not generalize the attack as a part of Islam but he conceded that the shootings could strengthen anti-Muslim feelings.
In Banda Aceh, Rosnida Sari, a Muslim lecturer at Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, has been intimidated and threatened by Acehnese clerics and fellow lecturers and bullied in social media after she invited a number of her students to visit and hold dialogues in a church in Banda Aceh last week.
Rosnida said she had been accused of “Christianizing” her students and had been temporarily suspended by the university.
She defended her initiative, arguing that the church visit, conducted voluntarily, was part of her creative teaching method to make Muslim students understand other faiths and build mutual understanding and religious tolerance.
An alliance of NGOs have called on the government to protect Rosnida and uphold academic freedom.
— Vincent Lingga -
