Banning of play about Marsinah criticized

Banning of play about Marsinah criticized

SURABAYA (JP): The Surabaya Legal Aid Institute and Indonesian
Islamic University Students' Movement (PMII) decried Thursday a
police banning of a play about the life of slain labor activist
Marsinah.

"It's a blatant shackling of intellectual creativity," Adnan,
coordinator of PMII's social and political studies here, told The
Jakarta Post. "It's outrageous."

PMII is affiliated with the 30 million-strong Moslem
organization Nahdlatul Ulama.

Separately, the foundation's Andik Hardiyanto said: "The
banning is a show of power abuse and disrespect for citizens'
rights by security personnel."

Police banned Wednesday Marsinah Menggugat (Marsinah Accuses),
a monologue play which is a tribute to the activist -- who was
murdered in East Java in 1993 -- by playwright and actress Ratna
Sarumpaet and her Satu Merah Panggung theater group.

The show was sponsored by the foundation to mark its 27th
anniversary.

First Lt. Muchid from the Genteng police precinct prevented
the performance from going ahead, saying he was doing so on
orders from the East Java Police because the play was not
authorized.

Hundreds of disappointed members of the audience remained in
the Cak Doerasim Arts building singing patriotic songs until they
were pushed out of the foyer by the police.

Ratna protested the ban, given that the play had already been
performed in seven cities, albeit under tight police security.

"I wonder why Marsinah, who is dead, is still feared by
security officers here," she said.

Ratna's first performance of the play was in September 1994.
It is based on the then unpublished manuscript of a book called
Marsinah, Nyanyian dari Bawah Tanah (Songs from the Underworld),
which was to have been launched Wednesday.

Marsinah was found dead after she had organized a workers'
strike at PT Catur Putra Surya, a watch manufacturer in Sidoarjo,
East Java.

Her badly mutilated body was found on May 9, 1993, in an
abandoned shack near Nganjuk in East Java.

Police charged nine people with the murder -- owners, managers
and security officers of the company.

They were subsequently convicted in the Surabaya District
Court although they all claimed they were innocent.

They claimed they had been framed because the government was
getting so much flack about labor conditions and the murder from
labor organizations and human rights campaigners at home and
abroad.

The Supreme Court acquitted all nine in 1994, ruling that the
trials were inconclusive, and that much of the evidence was
extracted from the accused by force.

After their release in 1994, police insisted the nine were
still their chief suspects and that DNA tests would provide
sufficient evidence to support a new trial.

But police closed their investigation into the murder last
September after their last lead, the DNA test, failed because the
blood sample had been contaminated.

The DNA test was the last and probably only lead the police
had to sustain their investigation into the murder which had
stirred public outcry at home and abroad. (nur/aan)