Ex-Pertamina employees sue former president Soeharto

JAKARTA (JP): Five former employees of state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina filed a lawsuit on Friday demanding three defendants, including former president Soeharto, pay some Rp 5.75 billion (US$714,300) in compensation for their dismissal from the company in 1968.

The lawsuit was filed by the plaintiffs' lawyers Otep Ginanjar and Hendrikus Kuntag at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Pertamina fired Ali Basir, Abdul Haris, Parta bin Karyadi, Ahmad Saudi and Satriya on Aug. 6, 1968, after they were identified as former members of the left-wing Oil Workers Union (Perbum).

Perbum was controlled by the now outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The lawsuit accuses the company of dismissing the employees without proper grounds.

"The company tipped the five former workers as Perbum members after they found their names on Perbum's charity list," according to the lawsuit.

The three defendants in the lawsuit are PT Pertamina, the company's former president director Ibnu Sutowo and Soeharto.

Soeharto, then an Army major general, was mandated in March 1966 by then president Sukarno to restore order in the country. One of the steps taken by Soeharto was the dissolution of all organizations associated with PKI, including Perbum.

The lawsuit claims the former workers were not involved or associated with PKI.

"They were merely mentioned as members as Perbum .... The company could not provide evidence that the five former workers were involved in the abortive coup attempt believed to have been sponsored by PKI," the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, Perbum was a legal organization before it was dissolved in 1966.

"The former members could not be found guilty of joining such an organization, which was declared illegal by the government," the lawsuit says.

The former employees filed a suit against the company at the Central Jakarta District Court in 1981, but the court threw out the case.

At the time, the court ruled it did not have the authority to prosecute the lawsuit and suggested the former employees present their case to the Ministry of Manpower.

The lawsuit filed on Friday accuses former president Soeharto of being responsible for the employees' dismissal because it was a policy he introduced as president which led to their being fired.

"The policy was against the Constitution. It is the responsibility of the president," the lawsuit says.

Those found guilty of involvement in PKI's abortive coup attempt received tough sentences, some being sentenced to death and others to life imprisonment. They also had their identity cards stamped "ex-tapol", or political prisoner.

It was a widely known secret that friends and relatives of convicted PKI members were prevented from entering the bureaucracy or the Indonesia Military.

The former workers demanded Rp 752 million in material losses for their lost salaries from August 1968 to December 1999.

They also demanded Rp 5 billion in non-material losses. (asa)