Apjati urges Gus Dur to fire Bomer and Din

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)