Indonesia-opposition growing against Omnibus bill
Indonesian activists rejected the omnibus bill on job creation
The Indonesian People’s Faction (FRI) an alliance of forty
labour and civil society organizations have rejected deliberations on an
omnibus bill on job creation. They rejected this bill as undemocratic and
colonial in nature. They also criticised
the drafting process which only “involves businesspeople” and the bill
“resembles the Dutch colonial administration’s attitude”.
The coalition argued that the employment system stipulated
in the bill resembled the labour system used during the Dutch colonial era, in
which businesspeople were allowed to employ workers on tobacco plantations
for low wages and with no employment protections.
The colonial-era regulation, which was issued at the end of
the 19th century, threatened workers with heavy punishment if they were found
in violation of its terms, while businesspeople were punished with only light
fines, the coalition said in a statement issued on Thursday.
The statement further said that “the bill returns to the
national agrarian politics of the colonial era because it has as its goal the
facilitation of foreign investment to open land for business as much as
possible, while taking away local and indigenous people’s rights to their land.”
The coalition also criticized President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo
for dispatching law enforcement and intelligence agencies to approach
organizations that rejected the bill and communicate with them about it. “This
practice is similar to that of the colonial police, who were tasked with
arresting and torturing common people.”
The government is preparing an omnibus bill on job creation,
which, if passed, would amend more than 1,000 articles in various prevailing
laws, including the Labor Law, whose rigid provisions have been blamed for
hampering investment in the country.
The civil society groups presented 12 reasons why people
should reject the omnibus bill on job creation:
1. The bill will legitimize investments that lead to
environmental destruction, while the government tends to ignore existing
investment by the people and indigenous communities, which is more
environmentally friendly and bring more prosperity to the people.
2. There have been defects in the bill’s deliberation
process because it was drafted in closed-door meetings without any
participation from civil society organizations. It also included
unconstitutional provisions.
3. The bill is elitist and does not accommodate the
interests of citizens affected by the regulation.
4. It will concentrate authority within the central
government, which is in contrast to the spirit of reform.
5. The threat of corruption is increasing due to a lack of
monitoring and supervision as well as the elimination of citizens’ rights to
sue.
6. It will lead to the seizure and destruction of the
people’s living space.
7. The bill will worsen the environmental crisis due to
unsustainable investments that lead to pollution, man-made ecological disasters
and further destruction.
8. It will create modern slavery through the flexible
manpower system as shown by provisions allowing workers to be paid under the
minimum wage standard, allowing hourly-rate wages and an expansion of
outsourcing working contracts.
9. It will create massive lay-offs and worsening working
conditions.
10. [It will establish] an education system to create cheap
labor for industry in-line with the massive number of investments.
11. The bill will threaten farmers, fishermen, indigenous
communities, women and children, disabled people and other minority groups of
faith, gender and sexuality.
12. It will create the potential for criminalization,
repression and excessive force by the state apparatus against the people while
the state provides legal immunity and privileges to businesspeople.
Kharishar Kahfi ( Kharishar is an Indonesian journalist working with Jakarta Post)
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