Monday saw the widespread shutdown of services along Jakarta’s busway system due to an employee strike, with several hundred protesters going to the headquarters of PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta), the state-run enterprise that operates the bus-based mass transit system, to demand that part-time contractors be made into full-time employees.
The strike ended on Monday but negotiations over the employees” demands continue and remain tense, as evidenced by an attack on the home of Budi Kaliwono, the president director of PT Transjakarta last night.
Jakarta Police public relations head Argo Yuwono said the incident took place at 8:40pm at Budi’s home in Pulogadung, East Jakarta. According to him, Budi’s home was hit with a Molotov cocktail.
“When the victim was inside the house, there was a blast like a small explosion,” Argo said in a written statement on Wednesday picked up by Kompas.
Argo said Budi went out and found the fire burning on the porch of his house, beside his parked car. He and his wife then extinguished the fire with a damp cloth and reported the incident to the police.
Earlier on Tuesday, Budi had told the media that his company had already been working to fulfill some of the protesters’ demands and that much of the strike was due to employees ‘misunderstanding’ the company’s policies. He also said that they were working with the government in order to meet some of the demands that the company could not fulfill on its own.
Meanwhile, the Jakarta Transportation Department has said they are prepared to deploy 1,500 of their own staff to maintain regular busway services should another strike occur.
