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)