INDONESIA: Saying 'Long live the workers' gets you a prison sentence

BY MAX LANE

Normalinda, an activist from the Indonesian National League of Students for Democracy (LMND) and Fransiscus "Black" Farneubun, an activist from the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD), were each sentenced to three months in prison by a Bandung court on February 7.

Normalinda and Black were arrested on June 13 with 10 other activists. They were leading a demonstration of tens of thousands of workers demanding the repeal of a new labour regulation which would abolish most redundancy payments. The other 10 defendants expect their sentences to be handed down this week.

In the judge's summing up, he found that Normalinda was guilty of causing a public disturbance by crying out: "Long live the workers!" He claimed it was this cry that lead to a clash between workers and police.

Lawyer Habib Rahman from the Peoples Legal Aid Institute (LBHR) accused President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government of being more extreme than General Suharto's regime because it bought to trial activists charged with small incidents.

"These activists were also imprisoned and tortured for months", Habib Rahman told Green Left Weekly. Rahman pointed out that there are still two leaders of the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI) on trial in Semarang in Central Java.

In Surabaya, the trial of Eusebius Purwadi, the head of the East Java PRD, is also proceeding.

From Green Left Weekly, February 27, 2002.

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From GLW issue 482