Akbar: Government should continue disseminate information
Akbar: Government should continue disseminate information
JAKARTA (JP): House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar
Tandjung, facing disgruntled employees from the abolished
Ministry of Information, said the government should consider
establishing a lower level agency which could take over the
important task of public information dissemination.
Akbar was speaking on Monday before some 2,000 employees of
the phased-out ministry who jammed the DPR building to protest
the loss of their ministry.
"Among the solutions which must be carried out, among other
things, is to establish a National Information Body or a similar
agency so the function of dissemination can continue, even though
the department no longer exists," said Akbar to a roar of
approval.
Those words were just what the protesters wanted to hear as
they quietly disbanded their protest.
The protests were a continuation of last weeks' demonstrations
by Ministry of Information employees who were unhappy with the
government's decision to dissolve the ministry.
Nearly 5,000 marched to the House on Monday from the
Ministry's office in Central Jakarta. They rowdily entered and
waited inside the lobby of the complex as the Director General
for Public Information IGK Manila and the Director General for
Radio, Television and Film went to meet with Akbar.
Later, Akbar himself came to address the protesters inside the
House's Commission I meeting room.
There seemed to be some satisfaction with Akbar's explanations
especially after he told them that the House would soon summon
President Abdurrahman Wahid to explain his decision.
During the meeting the head of the Forum of Solidarity for
Information Employees, Eddy Noor, submitted a seven point demand
to the House.
Among their demands were that a new agency be formed to carry
out the task of information dissemination, that the House summon
the president and the government present a credible argument on
why it dissolved the ministry.
"Our demands must be met within two weeks," Eddy asserted.
Despite guarantees from the government that as civil servants
none of 55,000 employees of the ministry would be sacked, rather
transferred to other departments, employees from the ministry
across the country continued their wave of protests.
The ministry was formed on Aug. 19, 1945.
Similarly, hundreds of Ministry of Information employees in
Medan, North Sumatra, took to the streets in protest.
They descended on the local council building to question the
decision and to implore the government to pay attention to their
welfare now that the ministry has been dissolved.
They chastised Abdurrahman and called the decision an act of
vengeance. (39/mds)