PT DI workers march to Jakarta
BANDUNG: Some 4,000 employees of ailing state aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) marched to Jakarta on Monday to attend a hearing of the company's labor dispute at the manpower ministry.
"We would like to ensure that the hearing will free from government intervention," said labor union secretary A.M. Bone.
The first hearing of the industrial dispute settlement between 6,000 laid-off employees and PT DI is scheduled for Tuesday.
The government approved the company's decision last year to lay off the employees in order to save the cash-strapped company and allocated US$50 million for severance pay.
The employees have persistently challenged their dismissal. -- Antara
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Kwik to attend multiethnic meeting
PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: State Minister of National Development Planning Kwik Kian Gie is expected to attend a multiethnic meeting here on Tuesday.
The meeting is part of several events to mark Chinese New Year, which fell on Jan. 22.
Event organizer Paulus Mursalim said on Monday that the meeting at Sultan Syarif Abdurrahman Stadium aimed to develop solidarity among ethnic groups.
The West Kalimantan towns of Sambas and Pontianak were the site of bloody ethnic conflicts between Dayak tribes and Madura migrants in the late 1990s, which claimed hundreds of lives.
The gathering is to feature the Chinese lion dance, known locally as barongsai, as well as traditional Dayak and Melayu dances.
The province has adopted "harmony in ethnicity" as its motto. -- Antara
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Hasyim avoids cash, donates cow
SURABAYA: The chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), has donated a cow to the East Java branch of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Head of PKS East Java Rofi Munawar said on Monday that the donation showed NU's support for the party's poverty platform in the upcoming elections.
"God willing, the elections will produce clean and empathic leaders who will lead this nation to prosperity," Rofi said.
Unlike the National Awakening Party, the United Development Party and the Nahdlatul Umat Party, the PKS is not affiliated with the NU.
NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi has been touted as a candidate in the July 5 presidential election, but he has not been nominated by any of the 24 contesting parties. -- Antara
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No pressure from PDI-P: KPU
JAKARTA: The General Elections Commission (KPU) denied on Monday allegations that the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) had pressured it to intervene in a row that involved the ruling party's East Kalimantan chapter.
"There was no such pressure... I will put my reputation on the line if we conceded to pressure," KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said.
He was referring to a meeting between the KPU, the East Kalimantan Provincial Elections Commission (KPUD) and local party leaders over the weekend, at which the KPUD decided to revoke its ban against the party's contesting the provincial legislative election.
The East Kalimantan KPUD had earlier dropped the PDI-P from the legislative election, as the party failed to submit its revised list of candidates by the Jan. 19 deadline, claiming internal conflicts.
Ramlan said the KPU annulled the East Kalimantan KPUD's decision and accepted the PDI-P's original candidacy list, which was valid because it was signed by both the head and secretary- general of the party's East Kalimantan chapter.
The secretary-general had earlier said he had never endorsed the list, which led to intra-party bickering. -- JP