Several buses hijacked during massive strike

JAKARTA (JP): Monday's mass student rally was marked by the hijacking of several buses with their drivers being forced to transport protesters to the scene of the demonstration.

Some of the bus drivers told The Jakarta Post that their vehicles were hijacked near the campuses of, among others, the University of Indonesia in Salemba, Central Jakarta and Depok, and the Syarief Hidayatullah State Islamic Institute in Ciputat, South Jakarta.

Some of the buses belonged to private firms Mayasari Bhakti and Himpurna.

A driver, Karsiman, said the students asked passengers on the Mayasari Bhakti bus he was driving to comply with their call for a national strike and threatened to force the passengers who defied the call off the vehicle.

"We were stopped by the students in front of the University of Indonesia campus in Salemba as we were passing with a full load of passengers. All the passengers opted to get off the bus and leave it to the students," Karsiman said.

Another driver, Burhan, said several traffic police officers stopped his Himpurna bus plying the Pulogadung-Kalideres route at Jl. Pintu II in Kalideres, West Jakarta and ordered him to take students and a group of other people to Merdeka Palace, where the rally was being staged.

He said the officers threatened to suspend the operation of his bus for 10 days if he refused.

Both Karsiman and Burhan claimed they received no payment from the students.

Other drivers said the students promised to pay between Rp 250,000 and Rp 300,000 for the use of their buses.

Marihot, a Metromini bus driver, said he was stopped by Jakarta State University (UNJ) students when passing in front of their campus in Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

A female student, he said, gave him Rp 50,000 and promised to pay him the full rental fee after the demonstration was over.

"We hope the students will soon leave the state palace and return to their campus, so that we continue operating for the rest of the day," he said.

Drivers who carried students from outside the capital said they were asked by their managements to take the students to Jakarta.

Students from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) rented 20 Limas buses, while a group of students from Bandung calling themselves Formasi chartered 15 Duta Pengarang buses.

Undeterred

In general, the capital was relatively unaffected by the rally.

It was business as usual in elementary, junior high and senior high schools as it also was in the city's shopping and commercial centers, such as the Mangga Dua and Glodok areas of West Jakarta and Blok M in South Jakarta.

Transportation and the distribution of staple foodstuffs to and from traditional markets across the capital, such as Kramatjati market in East Jakarta, Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta and Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta, continued undisturbed with the markets appearing no less crowded than usual.

The city's public order office announced after an inspection across the city that about 70 percent of a total of 6,000 buses were on the road serving the public, while the rest were being used by protesting students and students on their school vacations.

"The predictions of some of the print media that the city would be paralyzed today have been proven wrong," the office's head Raya Siahaan told reporters at City Hall.

He said most of the bus drivers who had previously been touted as among those going to join the national strike, particularly those from the Mayasari Bhakti and Metromini companies and the KWK and Wahana Kalpika cooperatives, had, in fact, reported for work as usual.

No disturbances were reported at the city's major bus terminals, including Senen in Central Jakarta, Pulogadung in East Jakarta, Kalideres in West Jakarta and Blok M in South Jakarta, he said.

The Navy had also made 100 buses available in anticipation of a public transportation shortage following the student's call for a national strike, Navy spokesman Col. Arie Zulkarnaen said.

He said the buses were standing by at Navy headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, the Western Fleet Command headquarters on Jl. Gunung Sahari in North Jakarta and the marine corps headquarters on Jl. Prapatan in Central Jakarta.

Raya also said that workers in the city's major industrial estates in Pulogadung and Cakung in East Jakarta and Cengkareng in West Jakarta had not heeded the strike call.

But heavy traffic jams occurred along Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl. MH. Thamrin, Jl. Veteran and Jl. Majapahit throughout most of the day. (01/jun)