Mudrick clashes with officials

SURAKARTA, Central Java: The chief of the United Development Party's (PPP) local chapter, Mudrick Sangidoe, clashed with public order officials over the party's banners Wednesday.

Mudrick tried to snatched a PPP banner from the officials in a main street. The officials had been removing the banners, which carried messages on cleanliness.

Officials said the banners, erected by the PPP and the mayoralty, had to be replaced with ones on the city's 51st anniversary.

No one was injured in the incident because PPP supporters and bystanders quickly intervened.

Mudrick said the PPP had erected 300 banners in public places in the ancient city to help the mayoralty's cleanliness drive.

The party's supporters put up their own banners because the city's streets were dominated by yellow ones. Yellow is the color of the government-backed Golkar party.

"We erected the banners because we need to express our love for the city like people from other political groups do. Why should they take them down?" he said.

City officials have stopped removing the banners since the incident. (22)