Mob ransacks PLN office in Lampung over outages

Mob ransacks PLN office in Lampung over outages

Oyos Saroso, The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

Incensed by continued power blackouts in the Lampung capital of
Bandarlampung, a mob of at least 50 people ransacked the city's
Tanjungkarang branch office of state-owned electricity firm
Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

The attackers, dressed in orange and black uniforms, stormed
the building's complaints' office on Sunday night, destroying
equipment inside and shattering windows.

Two PLN staff members were injured during the attack at 7:30
p.m. on Sunday. There were no deaths.

Problems began after electricity was cut during the closing
ceremony of a Koranic recital contest held in Kokarang, West
Telukbetung subdistrict.

The mob from a security task force affiliated to the Pancasila
Youth, in turn affiliated to the Golkar Party, was angered by the
outage in the Kokarang area, which was made without any prior
notification.

An official at the attacked office had tried to explain the
reasons for the power cut, but the mob ignored it and immediately
broke windows and beat another official and a security guard
there.

Saharudin, a 56-year old security guard based at the PLN
building, admitted the attackers forced him to abandon the
building and threatened to kill him.

Though he fled the office, the mob stoned him. "Fortunately, I
managed to evade the stone-throwing," he said.

Bandarlampung police officers arrived a few minutes later to
quell the violence and arrested only one attacker.

Local government officials said Bandarlampung Mayor Suharto,
who officially closed the recital contest, had actually asked the
local electricity office not to cut power to the venue. But the
PLN office apparently ignored the request without giving a
reason.

Tanjungkarang's PLN distribution division head Joko claimed he
had ordered his staff to inform the contest organizers of the
planned outage, but they failed to do their jobs properly.

"So there was a miscommunication between us and the contest
committee," he said on Monday.

In a response to the attack, Suharto ordered the local police
to take firm action against those involved in the violence.

Several people have been questioned as witness in the attack
and no suspects have been named. "We don't know yet who is behind
the destruction. The investigation is underway," Bandarlampung
Police chief Sr. Comr. Bung Djono said on Monday.

Bandarlampung has long suffered daily power blackouts that
usually occur for at least 2.5 hours in the evening. Outages have
often lasted for 24 hours.

The Lampung branch of the Indonesian Consumers' Association
(YLKI) is preparing a class action suit against PLN over the
outages, which it said have damaged many electronic appliances
belonging to residents.

Its leader, Subadrayani Moersalin, said PLN had provided poor
service to its customers and was not serious in dealing with
their complaints.

She could not say when the class action would be filed.

For people in Lampung, outages have been a normal occurrence
since 1991.

Many major projects, including the planned development of a
steel plant by giant business group Bakrie Brothers -- which
required a regular supply of electricity -- were canceled due to
the blackouts in the province.

With the recent failure of the damaged Way Besai water
generated electricity plant to resume its supply of 90-megawatts
of energy, the electricity crisis has deteriorated.