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)