Residents stage another protest to pressure central govt

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau

Some 1,000 civil servants, teachers and community leaders staged a protest on Wednesday in front of the teacher's council building in Kampar regency, to demand that the central government endorse the dismissal of Kampar regent Jefri Noer.

The number of people who joined the protest was far fewer than was announced on Tuesday by protest coordinator Idris, who said that tens of thousands of people would turn up.

Despite the much smaller number of people, the protest was able to paralyze the wheels of bureaucracy in the regency.

The protesters began flooding the compound of the teacher's council building at 9 a.m. Most of them were civil servants from various sections of the Kampar regency administration. Classes in the regency were largely not disrupted, because the teachers did not mobilize their students to join the protest.

The protesters accused the central government of sluggishness in responding to a recent decision by the Kampar Regency Council that dismissed regent Jefri Noer.

The dismissal can only take effect when President Megawati Soekarnoputri endorses it.

Ilyas Harun, the head of the Kampar government's personnel administration section, said that the protest was staged to pressure the central government to endorse Jefri's dismissal.

"The protest is aimed at showing to the central government that the people of Kampar have lost faith in the regent.

We urge the central government to endorse the dismissal, so that the situation in the regency can return to normal," said Ilyas.

Community leader Donal Datuk Majokayo said that the protest, which was attended by many elements of Kampar community, had shown that distrust was widespread.

Separately, Idris, the coordinator of the protest, said that several Kampar community leaders would go to Jakarta on Thursday to meet Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno to convey the wishes of the Kampar people.

Idris said that they would also give an ultimatum to the minister to push President Megawati to endorse the dismissal soon.

"If the central government fails to endorse it by Saturday, another massive protest by students, teachers and civil servants will be held on Monday," he said.

Students and teachers demonstrated for two weeks last month after the regent threw a principal out of a meeting, an act they said was an insult to the teaching profession.

The principal was thrown out of the meeting after questioning the low amount of funds that the regent had allocated for education in the regency's 2004 budget.

The series of protests by students and teachers last month had led to a plenary meeting by the Kampar council, which resulted in the dismissal of the regent.