Laborers need solid political party to fight for their rights<\/p>\n
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja
\nand A'an Suryana
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
As no single faction in the House of Representatives is truly
\nfighting for labor rights, it is high time for Indonesian workers
\nto unite and build a strong political party that could win
\ninfluence in the decision making process in the country.<\/p>\n
According to Harris Rusli Moti, the chairman of People's
\nDemocratic Party (PRD), the failure of labor-based parties in the
\n1999 elections should awaken labor activists to the importance of
\neducating workers about their political rights.<\/p>\n
\"From now on, the workers should not rely on the political
\nelite. They must enter real politics and be prepared to govern
\nthis country,\" Harris told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
PRD, which has been fighting for workers' interests since
\n1994, failed to secure any seat at the House in the 1999 general
\nelection.<\/p>\n
Four other labor-based parties also failed to secure a seat at
\nthe House.<\/p>\n
They are the Workers' Solidarity Party, the National Labor
\nParty, the All-Indonesian Workers' Solidarity Party and the
\nIndonesian Workers' Party.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, blue-collar workers are estimated to account for
\nsome 25 percent of the 110 million eligible voters in 1999.<\/p>\n
If they had managed to unite and vote for a single party, they
\nwould now have a strong say in the country's affairs.<\/p>\n
As a result of their inability to unite, they are now almost
\ntotally unrepresented in politics.<\/p>\n
\"They have a hard time fighting for their welfare,\" political
\nanalyst J. Kristiadi said.<\/p>\n
Labor activists said that they felt the five biggest political
\nparties did not really care about workers' rights.<\/p>\n
Those five are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle,
\nthe Golkar Party, the United Development Party, the National
\nAwakening Party and the National Mandate Party.<\/p>\n
Altogether they control 419 of the 500 seats in the House.<\/p>\n
World renowned labor activist and former political prisoner
\nduring the New Order regime, Dita Indah Sari said that the
\nreality in the House, which was not supportive of the labor
\nmovement, had prompted her and her colleagues to consider
\nestablishing a single, strong labor party.<\/p>\n
Her aim, however, was not the general election in 2004, but
\nrather the one in 2009.<\/p>\n
She said she did not want to repeat the mistake the labor-
\nbased parties made last time, failing to securing any House
\nseats.<\/p>\n
The failure of the labor parties, according to Dita, was that
\nthey were competing during a time when political awareness among
\nworkers was still very low.<\/p>\n
\"This lack of political awareness should be improved before we
\ngo further to form a strong political party, representing
\nlaborers' interests,\" said Dita who won the prestigious Ramon
\nMagsaysay Award from the Philippine government in the Young
\nEmerging Leaders category.<\/p>\n
Her short term goal now is to educate workers about their
\npolitical rights as a foundation for a strong labor party.<\/p>\n
In the history of Indonesia, labor parties have never won any
\nelections, nor have they even gained a significant number of
\nseats.<\/p>\n
The only time that a labor party won seat in the House was in
\n1955, when they managed to get two seats.<\/p>\n
During the New Order administration under Soeharto, labor
\nparties were non existent in the mainstream, as anything related
\nto labor was often brandished as communism, and this meant
\nillegal.<\/p>\n
Only after the fall of Soeharto in 1998, did labor groups gain
\nsome of the lost rights to form unions and to strike.
\nNevertheless, laborers are still under represented in the
\npolitics.<\/p>\n
In addition to the lack of political awareness among workers,
\nIndonesia laborers do not have a truly inspiring leader who could
\nunite them and lead them to enter the political arena.<\/p>\n
\"They need one leader who is sincere enough to teach them how
\nto enter the political game in the country, for laborer's
\ninterests,\" Kristiadi remarked.<\/p>\n
PRD's Harris said Indonesia was actually a fertile ground for
\na strong labor party to grow, considering the huge number of
\nlaborers and their sub-par living conditions.<\/p>\n
He said workers in Indonesia should learn from their
\ncounterparts in the United Kingdom and Australia, where labor
\nparties play an important role and even govern the countries.<\/p>\n
\"If labor parties can gain control to govern in those
\ncapitalist countries. Why can't we do the same thing here?,\"
\nHarris wondered.<\/p>",
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