Detention of labor activist suspended

JAKARTA (JP): The detention of labor activist Ngadinah, who is being tried at Tangerang District Court, was suspended on Tuesday after serving one month in jail.

The court granted the suspension upon the guarantee letters filed by State Minister for the Environment Sonny Keraf, Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) Deputy Director Munir and Chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Munarman.

Ngadinah, 29, is a worker of PT Panarub, which holds a manufacturing license from Adidas, and secretary-general of the shoe factory's trade union.

She was tried on charges of inciting people to resist public authority and unpleasant conduct toward others.

The woman was arrested due to a complaint filed by PT Panarub executive Slamet Supriyadi representing company director Bernard, and had been detained since April 23 at the Tangerang women's penitentiary.

Supriyadi had told the police that Ngadinah was the mastermind of the four-day massive strikes conducted by 8,000 workers at the company's compound in Tangerang from Sept. 8 to Sept. 11 last year.

He claimed the strikes that were provoked by Ngadinah had caused Rp 500 million in losses to the company.

Ngadinah, who had been working for the company since December, 1995 had a salary of Rp 18,060 per day plus daily lunch allowance of Rp 2,000 prior to her detention.

"After thinking deeply during my detention at the penitentiary, there are three things that I need to say in connection with the struggle of Indonesian laborers for their rights, as I myself have encountered," she told The Jakarta Post at the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (GSBI) office on Wednesday.

She criticized the government for its failure to protect the rights of laborers.

"From what I have seen, the government has even taken the role of protector of specific groups. It can be proven by examining their policy, either in the form of laws, government regulations or ministerial decrees, which all tend to defend business interests," she said.

She said the government's policy and the patterns of businessmen's behavior that treat laborers as robots was one of the New Order regime's characteristics that still applies in the era of reform.

"The government's failure to ensure the rights of laborers to live a proper life is a form of crime against humanity," she said.

Since the initial processing of her case, Ngadinah said, the government had also adopted a criminal approach against striking workers in a bid to protect business interests.

"I found two forms of violence in my case. Businessmen criminalize laborers' activity through the flexible interpretation of articles of the Criminal Code such as Article 160 on inciting resistance against public authority and Article 335 on unpleasant conduct toward others," she said.

In the other form, she said, businessmen hired hoodlums to torture workers. "I still remember that when we went on strike, PT Panarub hired some hoodlums to beat up my friends," she said.

She also made the accusation that there had been collusion among PT Panarub executives, the prosecutors' office, police officers and the manpower office in Tangerang.

"PT Panarub may think that by sending me to court, other workers will no longer dare to struggle for their rights," she said, adding that it was so easy for police and prosecutors to drag her as one of the "little people" who demanded laborers' rights to court and jail.

"My struggle for laborers' rights is not only for myself or Panarub workers, but is more to arouse moral indignation among workers all over the country to wake up and fight suppression against laborers," she said.

Ngadinah hoped that the court would exonerate her from all charges so that she could resume working at the company.

She would also testify about the violation of laborers' rights by the Indonesian government at the International Labor Organization session in Geneva from June 5 to June 12.

She also planned to campaign in Europe for fairer working conditions for laborers after the session.

However, Ngadinah's trial at the Tangerang District court will continue. Next Tuesday, the court will hear several witnesses from PT Panarub presented by the prosecutor. (01)