Police question drivers over three-day strike

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)