Protests mar council ceremony

Protests mar council ceremony

TANGERANG (JP): Noisy protests staged by three different
groups marred the swearing-in ceremony of the 45 newly installed
legislators for the Tangerang council on Tuesday.

The situation was tense particularly when some of the
protesters forcibly tried to get into the council building, which
was heavily guarded by scores of police and military.

However, no clashes were reported during the protests. The 45
legislators from nine parties and representatives of the Armed
Forces took their official oaths in the ceremony and the process
ran smoothly as scheduled.

Two of the protesting groups were supporters of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and students of Al Islahat
Islamic junior high school, demanded legislator Gian Sugiharsono
resign due to his alleged role in a land scam and the apparently
illegal way he obtained his job.

The other group, said they were Tangerang Savior Front members
and wanted to remind all the newly elected legislators to carry
out all programs on the Tangerang reform agenda.

According to the Al Islahat students, Gian was allegedly
involved in the unlawful deal of 2,000 square meters of land that
belonged to their school.

"He also rented out the remaining school property without
notifying the owner, the Nurul Kuncung foundation," said Anton,
one of the school teachers who joined the protest.

The demonstration caused heavy traffic congestion on the
avenues of Jl. Nyimas Melati and Jl. Ahmad Yani. Security
officials quickly blockaded the roads.

The PDI Perjuangan supporters said that Gian's appointment was
illegal.

"We proposed 15 names of prospective legislators but only 3
were appointed and the rest (of the councilors) are not familiar
to us at all," Ribka Ciptaning, deputy chairman of PDI-
Perjuangans' chapter in Tangerang said. (41/edt)