Apjati urges Gus Dur to fire Bomer and Din

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Labor Export Companies (APJATI) has called on President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid to sack Minister of Manpower Bomer Pasaribu and Director General of labor placement Din Samsuddin, saying it is displeased with the performance of the two officials.

Apjati's chairman Abdullah Umar claimed that Bomer and Din had not created a conducive climate to gear up labor export or provide better legal protection for workers.

"The President should know about the two officials' bad performance. Both are unable to coordinate with labor exporters, other government departments and foreign countries to accelerate labor export and legal protection for our workers," he said in a news conference here on Wednesday.

He added that Apjati had sent a letter to the President on the matter.

Abdulla argued that Bomer and Din had also failed to coordinate their work with the immigration office and Indonesian embassies to help troubled workers and curb the sending of illegal workers.

"Presently, the Ministry of Manpower is involved in a new disagreement with the immigration office over the issuance of special passports for workers," he said.

He also attacked the apparent lack of action by the government to curb the illegal export of workers, pointing to about 300 workers which he claimed recently departed via Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to work overseas without proper documents.

Separately, Din refuted Apjati's allegations saying the labor export association's claims were a camouflage of their own problems.

He conceded that many of the problems were related to poor coordination within the government but "the problem is really whether labor exporters are committed to complying with the existing law and official export procedures, not whether the minister and I are capable or not," he said.

Din also deplored the immigration office's criticisms which he said discredited the manpower ministry's service to workers.

Mursanuddin Ghani, spokesman for the immigration office, criticized the manpower ministry on Tuesday for "misusing" the immigration office in putting a US$20 sticker on workers' passports. He also said the ministry was apparently unprofessional in tackling troubled workers. (rms)