Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government`s decision to immediately withdraw nine million substandard 3-kg gas cylinders from circulation in response to a string of canister blasts in the country is highly appreciated.

The decision would at least prevent faulty gas canisters from doing more harm to people while the government is taking steps to ensure the safety of household gas apparatuses, Dr Sofyan Siregar, an political analyst at the Islamic University of North Sumatra, said in an email on Thursday.

The policy to withdraw substandard gas cylinders, according to him, would help minimize the possibility of gas cylInder blasts in the future.

In his view, it was also important for the government to give the public a clear and firm guarantee of the safety of the new gas cylinders it is distributing to replace the ones it has withdrawn.

Frightened by the many gas cylinder explosions that have already happened across the country, people in Lampung province are now demanding a government guarantee that no more gas cylinder blasts will happen after the old pnes have been withdrawn, Sofyan said.

Sofyan was of the opinion that the guarantee was just aimed to cure the trauma of many people who had watched and experienced gas cylinder blasts .

The need to have the government guarantee was echoed by Sugeng S and Yanti Handayanti,residents of Teluk Betung and Labuhanratu, Lampung Province, because like many other gas cylinder users, they were also afraid of such accidents.

Sugeng said the TV news bulletins about gas cylinder-related blasts that he frequently watched had scared him. He had even felt afraid every time he saw the 3-kilogram gas cylinder either at home, in restaurants, and shops selling gas cylinders.

The same trauma was also felt by Yanti Handayani who said that she was reluctant to buy a 3-kilogram gas cylinder due to frequent blast accidents though it was cheaper than the 12-kilogram type.

The fear of such ordinary Indonesians as Sugeng S and Yanti Handayani is quite understandable because, as revealed by the Center for Public Policy Studies (Puskepi), at least 189 LPG blasts had happened in Indonesia over the past two-and-a-half years.

"Therefore, the government`s decision to withdraw bad quality gas cylinder and a guarantee on their safety is one of the ways to soothe public trauma," Yanti said.
Puskepi had even found that the number of blasts increased from 61 in 2008 to 79 in the first seven months of 2010.

This reality meant the gas cylinders had become as deadly a threat as time bombs that could explode at anytime without warning, Puspeki coordinator Sofyano said.

Since the government implemented its kerosene-LPG conversion policy, at least 70 million 3-kilogram gas cylinders have been made available in local markets. But the recurring LPG blast cases have made the public gravely concerned.

In response to the public fear, Indonesia`s leading news channel, Metro TV, for instance, carried a tag line saying "No More Gas Canister Blasts, Please!" Radar Bogor Daily also had the same cynical tag line: "Watch Out for In-House Bomb!" and "Beware of the LPG Bomb Terror!"

To avoid the LPG-blast risk , many households in the country have returned to using kerosene and fire wood to meet their energy needs.

Ordinary Jakartans show their protests to the continuing blasts by giving their 3-kilogram gas cylinders to a complaint center, initiated by local student and youth activists.

Adrian Napitupulu, an activist of the Fortress of People`s Democracy (Bendera), said the Bendera volunteers received complaints from tens of LPG blast victims from the greater Jakarta area since their complaint center was opened last week.

Napitupulu said the compensation state-oil company Pertamina was paying to LPG blast victims was not equal to the material and immaterial losses they had suffered.

Due to the continuing gas canister-related blasts and in response to public requests, the North Sumatra provincial government had asked Pertamina to put off its program to withdraw subsidized kerosene from the market in five North Sumatra cities and districts.

Governor Syamsul Arifin recently said kerosene would continue to be used by residents in Medan and Binjai as well as Deli Serdang, Serdang Bedagai and Langkat districts who were traumatized by the unpredictable and ongoing gas cylinder blasts.

"We have asked Pertamina to delay the withdrawal of subsidized kerosene from the markets until the people feel secure and confident about using gas in canisters," he said.

Syamsul said the North Sumatra people`s demand for kerosene was sound not only due to the ongoing LPG blasts but also due to the bad quality of gas cylinders and their accessories currently available in the market.

This condition was also being worsened by irresponsible people`s corrupt acts by reducing or mixing the volumes of LPG cylinders for their own benefits but by ignoring consumers` safety, he said.

The government is responsive to the ongoing tragic accidents by pledging to withdraw bad quality gas cylinder and helping three-kilogram gas cylinder consumers get good quality gas pipes and valves with affordable prices since July 6.

The availability of good quality gas pipes and regulators is a must because, apart from the discovery of faulty three-kilogram typed gas canisters in markets, the LPG blasts are closely related to gas leaks caused by improper use of accessories.

To meet public request for the withdrawal of bad quality gas cylindeer, Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Laksono said the gas cylinders would be pulled out when they were refilled at state oil and gas company Pertamina`s depots.

The government had ordered Pertamina to hold the distribution of the gas cylinders in the community, he said.

Actually, the gas cylinders imported from Australia and Japan had no low quality but they did not meet the Indonesian National Standard (SNI), he said.

"Only those which do not meet SNI will be withdrawn. Their number is about 9 million," he said.

He said the government had no plan to improve the quality of gas cylinders which met the SNI.

Under the kerosene-to-gas conversion policy introduced in mid 2007, the government provided the poor with 3 kg-gas canisters plus stoves free of charge. The move is aimed at slashing kerosene subsidy in the state budget.

The number of 3-kg cylinders distributed so far had reached about 60 million. (*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli
COPYRIGHT © 2012

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