Workers to sue government for banning their play

JAKARTA (JP): Workers plan to sue the city administration for banning their play last month mainly because the drama, about exploitation of workers, used the word buruh (laborer) in its dialog.

The city administration refused to issue a permit for Teater Buruh Indonesia (Indonesian Laborers' Theater) for fear that its play could spark social unrest.

The theater's lawyers said they would soon file a law suit, with the state administrative court, against the city's director of socio-political affairs, R. Bagus Suharyono.

"Suharyono, in his capacity as director of socio-political affairs, has no authority to do this," lawyer Pardomuan Simanjuntak told a press conference.

In his letter addressed to theater members Suharyono said that the message contained in the drama could jeopardize the city's stability.

"The government will issue the permit only if the play is renamed, the scenario changed, and players replaced," he said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post.

The play, entitled Senandung Terpuruk dari Balik Tembok Pabrik (Sad Songs from behind Factory Walls) describes the misery of over-exploited, low-paid Indonesian workers.

The National Commission on Human Rights has condemned the government's banning, saying that the action was in violation of human rights.

The lawyer also ridiculed the administration's rejection of the word buruh because the term is widely used in Indonesian labor laws.

Simanjuntak said he could not understand why the government considers it derogatory and associates it with communism simply because the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party used it in the past.

He acknowledged that in the Indonesian language, buruh refers to low-paid workers, but there is no reason to consider it derogatory. (rms)