Hari urged to step in on Kampar case
Hari urged to step in on Kampar case
Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau
Riau Governor Rusli Zainal said on Sunday he could ask Minister
of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno to intercede in the dispute between
Kampar Regent Jefri Noer and thousands of teachers and students
who are demanding the regent's resignation.
Despite the increasingly strident demands for his resignation,
Jefri is adamant that he will not step down.
Speaking to reporters in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau
province, Rusli said the Kampar Regency Council was setting up a
special committee to investigate the case.
The councillors will then convene a plenary meeting to discuss
the outcome of the investigation, after which they will decide
the fate of the regent.
"If there is a deadlock in the plenary meeting, we will ask
Minister (Hari) to step in," he said as quoted by Antara.
The minister of home affairs has the authority to order an
election to find a new regent if the council becomes deadlocked.
The governor also asked teacher and student protesters to stay
off the streets and go back into the classroom, as their demand
had been heard and was now being considered.
Besides confirming that he would not resign as regent, Jefri,
who ended up in this position because of his allegedly poor
treatment of a local teacher, said he would fire all teachers
involved in the protests unless they immediately resumed their
classes.
"I will not resign. These protests have been engineered by
provocateurs and do not represent the true wishes of teachers and
students in the regency," he said during a meeting on Saturday
with Kampar councillors.
All 45 councillors attended the meeting, which was guarded by
a large contingent of police and military personnel.
The regent was responding to protests by thousands of students
and teachers that began last Tuesday, five days after Jefri
reportedly ordered a teacher to leave a meeting between the
regent and teacher representatives. According to witnesses, the
teacher was kicked out after questioning the regent's budget
allocation for education.
The protesting students and teachers maintain that Jefri's
outburst was an insult to the teaching profession.
Outside the council building on Saturday, thousands of
teachers and students stepped up the pressure on the regent, as
most of the schools in the regency were closed for the fifth day
in a row.
The protesters said they would not back down from their demand
for Jefri's resignation because, according to them, not only did
the regent insult the teaching profession, but he also ignored
education in his budget.
Five percent of the regency's Rp 700 billion (US$82.8 million)
2004 budget was allocated for education. The Constitution
requires all levels of government to allocate at least 20 percent
of their total budgets for education.
The speaker of the Kampar regency council, Syarifuddin
Effendi, said the council would establish a special committee to
discuss the protesters' demand.
"The committee will also assess a report by the regent. They
will release the results of their work either Tuesday or
Wednesday," he said.
After the committee completes its task, the regency
councillors will convene a plenary meeting to discuss whether to
dismiss Jefri.
Separately, the chairman of the Kampar branch of the All-
Indonesian Teacher Association said the teachers would continue
their protest until the regent resigned or was removed from
office.