Drivers protest colleague's killing
Drivers protest colleague's killing
JAKARTA (JP): Most Metromini bus drivers on the Kampung Melayu-Stasiun Cakung route went on strike on Saturday in protest at the killing of their fellow driver by six of his passengers two days earlier.
Only three of the 36 bus drivers were willing to return to work after a long debate with executives of PT Metro Mini, a cooperatives for owners of the minibuses, and local authorities at the cooperatives' office in East Jakarta on Saturday.
Local authorities, including the police and military officers, are afraid that the drivers would go on strike until today, when most people in the city return to work after celebrating the week-long holidays of Idul Fitri.
"Who would want to work under such circumstances?" asked a driver, who decided to stay at home with his bus.
The drivers were angry after one of their colleagues, Edison Tampubolon, 30, was mobbed and killed by at least six men, who had refused to pay the official fare.
The incident took place on Jl. Sentra Primer at Cakung in East Jakarta on Thursday evening.
The six men got angry when Tampubolon's conductor, Parulian Munte, 20, asked them to pay Rp 1,800, instead of the Rp 500 they had given him.
At the height of the argument, Tampubolon got out of his car and pleaded with the recalcitrant passengers to pay up. But his pleas fell on deaf ears, and the six men vented their anger on the driver who found himself on the receiving end of a brutal beating.
Tampubolon died when one of the six passengers hit him with iron bars and wooden blocks. His conductor survived as he managed to escape from the angry assailants. He suffered several bruises in the face.
Another driver, Zainuddin Purba, was also attacked at the same site in October last year.
If the strike on this busy route continues, hundreds of people will be stranded today.
The local Cakung police have already questioned at least five people, but none of them had been named as suspects in the case by Saturday evening.
Reliable sources believe that the suspects are local residents. (bsr)