Garuda Indonesia recruits 19 Timorese technicians

Garuda Indonesia recruits 19 Timorese technicians

BANDUNG (JP): Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia yesterday
recruited 19 East Timorese who have just completed a one-year
training course on aircraft maintenance with the Air Force.

East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares welcomed the
Garuda's decision to hire East Timorese because he felt it has
helped to strengthen East Timor's integration with Indonesia,
especially for youth.

The 19 youths would be employed by the national carrier in
various cities throughout Indonesia with a starting salary of Rp
127,000 a month. Before coming to Bandung, they were graduates of
a polytechnic in Dili, capital of East Timor.

"By assigning them to places outside East Timor, these youths
will feel they are part of the Indonesian people. They will feel
truly integrated," Abilio said at the induction ceremony.

The last thing these youths want is to be sent back to their
home province because then they would feel that they are not
needed outside East Timor, he added.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Irawan Saleh, deputy of the Air Force
technical college in Bandung, said these East Timor graduates
received no preferential treatment while training at the college
and had proven that they were just as good as participants from
other provinces.

There was a language problem initially but this was overcome
after a while, he said.

"Our doors are always open to East Timorese who want to study
here," he said.

Abilio was more humble in his assessment of the education
situation in his province, saying that it is still in the process
of catching up with the national standard.

"One of the way of doing this is by sending them to study in
other provinces," he said.

Since 1976, the year of East Timor's integration with
Indonesia, some 1,000 East Timorese have been sent to study
outside their home province, about 500 of them on grant from the
provincial government. Many of them returned to help develop
their province.

The governor said he has been talking with other state
companies about the possibility of providing vocational training
and recruitment of East Timorese youths.

"In general, they welcomed the idea and promised to arrange
something," he said.

This year Garuda also recruited 14 other East Timorese youths
who were high school graduates, 10 of them as stewardesses and
the other four being assigned jobs at their subsidiary, PT
Aerowisata. (yac/pet)