Sri Bintang fired from UI

Sri Bintang fired from UI

JAKARTA (JP): Rebel politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas,
currently serving time for defaming President Soeharto, has lost
his job at the prestigious state-run University of Indonesia.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro
confirmed yesterday that Bintang, a staff lecturer at the School
of Technology since 1971, has been discharged from the university
starting May 12.

The dismissal came eight days after Bintang, a former member
of the House of Representatives, officially began his 34-month
jail term.

Wardiman said the measure was warranted under a regulation on
dismissing civil servants.

Asked by reporters if President Soeharto was consulted before
the dismissal, Wardiman said: "It's none of your business."

Under the 1979 regulation, any civil servant can be
dishonorably discharged if convicted for an offense punishable of
up to four years imprisonment. Bintang stands to lose his pension
and other entitlements under the regulation.

Bintang was found guilty by the Central Jakarta District Court
in May 1996.

He was convicted for defaming the head of state -- an offense
punishable of up to six years in jail -- during a series of
lectures he gave in Germany in 1995. The Jakarta High Court
upheld the sentence in January as did the Supreme Court in April.

Separately, Suharta, the head of the civil servants'
administration bureau at the Ministry of Education and Culture
said the university's rector and Bintang's family had been
informed of the dismissal.

Bintang's wife, Ernalia, denied that she had been contacted by
the government. "I don't know anything about my husband's
discharge," she told The Jakarta Post.

Bintang lost his seat in the House of Representatives in 1995
after his United Development Party (PPP) faction disowned him for
repeatedly criticizing the Armed Forces' role in politics.

Bintang had been undergoing another investigation, this time
for subversion, when he was moved to the Cipinang Penitentiary on
May 4 to officially begin his prison term.

His latest brush with the law came because of his activities
in the Indonesian Democratic Union Party, a party he founded with
other activists last year. Among the new charges brought against
him was a call to boycott the May 29 general election which he
inscribed in his Idul Fitri greeting cards sent out to many
people, including government officials. (11)