JAKARTA: Indonesian government on Friday said the situation at a dry dock, where thousands of local workers attacked their Indian colleagues after being called “dumb”, was under control, even as one of the four Indians injured in the incident remained in critical condition.
Around 41 Indians working for PT Drydock World Graha in Batam island were evacuated to the Barelang police station yesterday by a police patrol boat after some 10,000 Indonesian workers attacked them and torched 38 vehicles.
The local workers went on the rampage after an Indian supervisor allegedly called them “dumb.”
Four of the Indian workers were hurt in the brawl, with one of them reported to be in critical condition, the official Antara news agency said, without identifying them.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa said the riot at PT Drydock World Graha in the industrialised island of Batam was an “internal incident” and the company’s management had taken steps to localise it.
“It is merely an internal affair of the company. It was not a problem caused by a regulation,” Hatta said.
The situation returned to normal after hundreds of police and military personnel were deployed at the scene.
Hatta said the management of the dockyard company had taken steps to prevent the riot from spreading.
“At our meeting with a number of officials, including those from the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry earlier in the day, we came to the conclusion that the incident did not have a significant impact (on the region’s security conditions),” he said.
Hatta said the government must clarify the cause of the incident to the public. “We must clarify it transparently.”
He appealed to the media, especially the electronic media, not to repeatedly broadcast the incident so as not to create the impression that the unrest had not yet been resolved.
“I call on them not to repeatedly broadcast it,” he said.
Hatta said the dockyard company was employing 8,000 to 10,000 workers mostly through the outsourcing system.
“The number of regular workers is 2,000, including 100 expatriates of whom 28 are Indian nationals,” he said.
All the expatriates were legal workers who held work permits, he said.
Some police and military personnel have been stationed at the location to ensure public order and security, the report said.
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