Candra Malik, Batang, Central Java – Thousands of local officials and civil servants staged a protest in Batang, Central Java, on Thursday to demand the sacking of local chief prosecutor Jhoni Manurung, whom they accuse of terrorizing development project contractors and officials by playing it too straight.

The protesters claimed that Jhoni's proclivity for bringing criminal charges against corrupt contractors and officials was setting back the district's development and costing valuable jobs, adding that even when an issue could be "resolved amicably," Jhoni still preferred to throw the book at them.

"His heavy-handed actions are making our jobs harder because we fear we may be next to face criminal charges," said local bureaucrat Bustanul Arifin. "He's already had one head of office arrested."

Jhoni has mounted an intensive campaign against fiscal and procedural irregularities in development projects, which are often rife with allegations of bribery and markups.

He denies that he is being unduly harsh on project contractors and local officials, and says that his campaign is saving money for the local administration.

"We found that nine out of 13 projects currently under way may be in breach of work specifications and execution," he said. "Our investigations into all of these cases have always abided by the presumption of innocence."

Jhoni added that he would continue his campaign in spite of the bureaucrats' protests.

The most prominent of the investigations centers on the construction of a health clinic. On Tuesday, prosecutors arrested local health office head Budi Utomo Raharjo for allegedly embezzling Rp 55 million from the project's Rp 1.3 billion budget.

That move prompted contractors of the 12 other development projects in the district to suspend their operations indefinitely, in turn leading to the bureaucrats linked to them taking to the streets in protest.

On Tuesday, 168 civil servants certified as National Procurement Experts, which is a qualification required by officials working on development projects, handed in their certificates, in a symbolic protest against Jhoni's strict adherence to the rules.

"We don't want to be the next target of Jhoni's prosecution," Bustanul, one of the officials, said at Thursday's protest. "We'll only go back to work once we receive guarantees from the district head that we have immunity against prosecution."