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)