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)