Management turmoil leads to mass exodus at `Sinar'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Management discord at the six-month-old Sinar
\nweekly centering around former youth minister Abdul Gafur, has
\nled to a walkout of over 20 of its editorial and marketing staff.<\/p>\n
In a meeting with the media on Saturday, the departing
\nemployees registered their discontent with the current state of
\naffairs and explained hat they strongly objected to the
\nuncompromising position taken by the current management.<\/p>\n
Recent management restructuring moves have left almost all the
\nstaffers at the magazine upset with the hasty removal of general
\nmanager and chief editor Aswin Jusar together with three of his
\ndeputies.<\/p>\n
Djoenaedy Siswo Pratikno, one of the deputy editors, said they
\nwere removed without sufficient explanation and replaced by
\npeople at lower levels in the company hierarchy.<\/p>\n
Among the most severe discrepancies was the installment of
\nSjam Alamsyah, who had previously been dismissed by Aswin, as
\ngeneral manager, he said. Another notable contradiction was the
\npromotion of a junior reporter to deputy editor.<\/p>\n
Sinar was launched in September to embrace the country's
\nethnic Chinese minority. One of its primary stockholders is
\ntycoon Sudwikatmono.<\/p>\n
Early reports of circulation reaching 30,000 gave the new
\nmagazine cause for hope before a decline in readership to less
\nthen 12,000 began to worry investors.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union
\n(SBSI) said they would provide legal council should the former
\nemployees at Sinar wish to take the matter to court, but
\nDjoenaedy said he they had not yet decided whether to do so.<\/p>\n
The root of the predicament can be traced back to November
\nwhen Abdul Gafur, as publisher, placed himself as an advisor to
\nthe editorial board, using the drop in circulation to justify the
\nneed for his presence.<\/p>\n
Soon thereafter a sequence of events began which culminated in
\nthe exodus of its employees.<\/p>\n
\"We are disappointed that they promote and fire people without
\nproper reasons as well as their (management's) demonstrated lack
\nof desire to discuss matters with employees,\" Djoenaedy said.<\/p>\n
'Merdeka'<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Merdeka daily, one of the nation's oldest
\nnewspapers, has also been hit by a dispute between management and
\nits senior editorial staff.<\/p>\n
Five staff, including chief editor Agus Salim Suhana, have
\nbeen fired from their jobs by B.M. Diah, the newspaper's
\nproprietor who also owns the English language Indonesian
\nObserver.<\/p>\n
Diah has accused his editorial staff of going overboard with
\ntheir reporting of the loan scandal at Bank Pembangunan
\nIndonesia. But the journalists said the action was taken to
\npreempt their plan to demand that the newspaper comply with the
\ngovernment's regulation requiring newspapers to hand over at
\nleast 20 percent of their equity to employees.<\/p>\n
The Merdeka management also demoted 13 members of the
\neditorial board to become reporters, according to a press
\nstatement issued by the affected journalists. (07\/emb)<\/p>",
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