Police question drivers over three-day strike

JAKARTA (JP): Police are still conducting preliminary investigations of a three-day strike of M09 bus drivers in the Tanah Abang, Kebayoran Lama and Kebun Jeruk areas in Central, South and West Jakarta. Several drivers have been questioned for their alleged involvement.

Governor Surjadi Soedirdja expressed concern yesterday over the strikers who tended to destroy public facilities.

The drivers have the right to express what they want but they should not do that by destroying the facilities, he said.

City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said most of the drivers who began their strike Monday had resumed work yesterday, but the police would keep questioning three drivers of M09 Kijang vans which serve the Tanah Abang-Kebayoran Lama route.

Two of them were questioned for their involvement in a beating of a fellow driver who chose not to join the strike, Aritonang said.

At least 2,000 drivers of M09 buses which serve the Tanah Abang-Kebayoran Lama route, and also drivers of the Kebon Jeruk route, had been involved in strikes since Monday.

The strikes were to protest new buses ran by the Koperasi Wahana Kalpika (KWK) cooperative which they said had violated permits by passing through Kebayoran Lama.

Head of the City Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ), J.P. Sepang, said conflict and competition between drivers often happened along crowded routes, "particularly in bottle neck areas where buses serve similar routes."

Head of the city branch of Organda, the organization of public transport company owners, Aip Syarifuddin, said the organization usually conducts a survey on proposed routes before recommending it to DLLAJ.

He said sometimes the number of new buses serving a new route turned out to be higher than limits set by the agency and other offices.

The M09 drivers said earlier that they decided to strike because they felt authorities had not heeded their complaints.

Head of the KWK cooperative Laode Djeni Hasmar has been told by the agency to warn his drivers to stick to the permitted route between Grogol River and Kreo, South Jakarta.

Djeni Hasmar said it was normal for drivers of older routes to protest new bus services.

Aritonang reiterated an earlier remark by City Traffic Police Chief Col. Ansyar Roem about the City Police's willingness to be a mediator between drivers and their counterpart, DLLAJ, if needed.

Drivers met with agency officials on Monday and again on Tuesday. They also met with legislators on Wednesday.

Most M09 and M11 drivers had resumed services by noon yesterday. Earlier, police had provided trucks to help transport passengers for free.

Meanwhile, drivers of several M12 buses, which serve the Senen-Kota route, started a strike yesterday.

The drivers protested the deployment of 150 additional buses to the existing 750 vehicles.

They claimed the new buses would only worsen already tough competition.

Aritonang called on bus owners to organize drivers more carefully in anticipation of similar chaos in the future. (cst/10)