Students' role in strike defended
JAKARTA (JP): Legal and student activists came out in defense on Saturday of students' support for last week's massive labor strike in Surabaya that was met with harsh military response.
Lawyer Munir and student activist Petrus H. Hariyanto said that the students were helping workers obtain information on their rights and press their demands on the materialization.
"The military has been trying to corner the students by accusing them of fanning and masterminding the protests," Munir said.
Student activists from various universities led thousands of workers from 10 factories in Surabaya onto the streets on July 8 and July 9 to press their demand for higher wages.
The workers demanded that their daily wages be raised to Rp 7,000 (US$3). The minimum daily wage for Surabaya, set by the government last April, is Rp 5,200 (US$2.26).
More than two dozen students were rounded up during the protests. Three have been named as suspects in masterminding the protests.
There have been reports that the three students -- M. Sholeh, Dita Indah Sari and Coen Husen Pontoh -- will be charged with violating articles 154 and 160 of the Criminal Code on disturbing public order which carry maximum penalties of six and seven year imprisonment respectively.
Chief of the East Java military command, Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo, earlier threatened to bring the student activists to court on charges of subversion, which carries a maximum penalty of death.
Imam has pointed his finger at activists of the Democratic People's Party for the two-day protests in which dozens of demonstrators were reportedly hurt as they clashed with security officers.
Munir said that giving and receiving information is guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution and neither the government nor the military has the right to monopolize information.
Munir, who was a former operational director of the Surabaya chapter of the Legal Aid Institute, said that the law has become an effective tool of the government's to serve its political interests.
"Law should become, otherwise, the people's instrument to control the government because those holding power tend to misuse it. Power should be controlled by law," he said.
Munir, a Brawijaya University law school graduate who once studied the economical aspect of industry in Surabaya for his thesis, also said that the majority of protesting workers were of shoe and cigarette factories, which were paid lower than the minimum standard set by the government.
"The salaries of shoe company workers constitute about 4 percent of total production costs. And the cigarette company workers' salaries are only 2 percent," Munir said.
Petrus H. Hariyanto, the secretary-general of the Democratic People's Party, said that the labor law restricts workers from conducting political activities.
"The right to politics is included in the 1945 Constitution, chapter 28 on freedom of association and freedom of expression," he said.
Petrus said that the students' advocacy was prompted by concern that Indonesia still lures foreign investors with cheap labor. (16)