Court dismisses suit against Pertamina

Court dismisses suit against Pertamina

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court dropped on
Wednesday a civil lawsuit filed by five former employees of state
oil and gas company Pertamina who were dismissed from the firm in
1968 because of their alleged involvement in the Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI).

Presiding judge Ali Akmal Haky said in the pretrial verdict
that the district court did not have the authority to try the
case.

"A person or an institution can file a civil lawsuit with the
Jakarta State Administrative Court against a state institution's
decision, which has considerably caused the plaintiff to suffer
losses.

"And the authority to examine such cases lies with the State
Administrative Court," said Ali, while referring to Article 53 of
the 1986 State Administrative Court Law.

Ali added it was the administrative court which would also
rule whether the plaintiff would be compensated or reinstated.

The five former Pertamina employees are Ali Basir, Abdul
Haris, Parta bin Karyadi, Ahmad Saudi and Satriya. They named
former president Soeharto, President Abdurrahman Wahid, Pertamina
and Pertamina's former president director Ibnu Sutowo as
defendants in the lawsuit.

The five were represented by lawyers Otep Ginanjar and
Hendrikus Kuntag, while the defendants were represented by, among
others, Syamsul Hadi and Victor R. Sulaiman.

Judge Ali said the dispute centered around Pertamina's
decision from Aug. 6, 1968, to dismiss the five employees, who
were identified as members of the now defunct left-wing Oil
Workers Union (Perbum).

Perbum was supervised by PKI, which was blamed for an abortive
coup on Sept. 30, 1965.

Right after the verdict, lawyer Hendrikus announced that they
were considering filing an appeal.

"We are considering an appeal. The judge has neglected the
principles of impartiality as he only quoted testimonies from the
defendants, but ignored the plaintiff's statements in the
verdict," he said.

In response to the lawyer's statement, Ali said: "The
plaintiff can file an appeal with the Jakarta High Court. But our
verdict is final!"

The lawyer then approached Ali to shake Ali's hands, but Ali
refused.

In the lawsuit, the former employees demanded the defendants
pay some Rp 5.75 billion (US$714,300) in compensation for their
dismissal.

The former employees filed a lawsuit against the company at
the same district court in 1981, but the court ruled that it did
not have the authority to try the case and suggested they present
their case to the Ministry of Manpower.

Soeharto, one of the defendants in the case, was mandated in
March 1966 by then president Sukarno to restore order in the
country after the PKI's abortive coup. One of his steps was
dissolving all organizations associated with PKI, including
Perbum.

But the steps reached beyond the mandate years after. It was
not a secret that even friends or relatives of convicted PKI
members were prevented from entering the Indonesia Military or
the bureaucracy of Indonesia. Those found guilty during the coup
were often prosecuted and put to death without legal grounds.
(asa)