Students' role in strike defended
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)