Management turmoil leads to mass exodus at `Sinar'

Management turmoil leads to mass exodus at `Sinar'

JAKARTA (JP): Management discord at the six-month-old Sinar
weekly centering around former youth minister Abdul Gafur, has
led to a walkout of over 20 of its editorial and marketing staff.

In a meeting with the media on Saturday, the departing
employees registered their discontent with the current state of
affairs and explained hat they strongly objected to the
uncompromising position taken by the current management.

Recent management restructuring moves have left almost all the
staffers at the magazine upset with the hasty removal of general
manager and chief editor Aswin Jusar together with three of his
deputies.

Djoenaedy Siswo Pratikno, one of the deputy editors, said they
were removed without sufficient explanation and replaced by
people at lower levels in the company hierarchy.

Among the most severe discrepancies was the installment of
Sjam Alamsyah, who had previously been dismissed by Aswin, as
general manager, he said. Another notable contradiction was the
promotion of a junior reporter to deputy editor.

Sinar was launched in September to embrace the country's
ethnic Chinese minority. One of its primary stockholders is
tycoon Sudwikatmono.

Early reports of circulation reaching 30,000 gave the new
magazine cause for hope before a decline in readership to less
then 12,000 began to worry investors.

Representatives of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union
(SBSI) said they would provide legal council should the former
employees at Sinar wish to take the matter to court, but
Djoenaedy said he they had not yet decided whether to do so.

The root of the predicament can be traced back to November
when Abdul Gafur, as publisher, placed himself as an advisor to
the editorial board, using the drop in circulation to justify the
need for his presence.

Soon thereafter a sequence of events began which culminated in
the exodus of its employees.

"We are disappointed that they promote and fire people without
proper reasons as well as their (management's) demonstrated lack
of desire to discuss matters with employees," Djoenaedy said.

'Merdeka'

Meanwhile, the Merdeka daily, one of the nation's oldest
newspapers, has also been hit by a dispute between management and
its senior editorial staff.

Five staff, including chief editor Agus Salim Suhana, have
been fired from their jobs by B.M. Diah, the newspaper's
proprietor who also owns the English language Indonesian
Observer.

Diah has accused his editorial staff of going overboard with
their reporting of the loan scandal at Bank Pembangunan
Indonesia. But the journalists said the action was taken to
preempt their plan to demand that the newspaper comply with the
government's regulation requiring newspapers to hand over at
least 20 percent of their equity to employees.

The Merdeka management also demoted 13 members of the
editorial board to become reporters, according to a press
statement issued by the affected journalists. (07/emb)