DEKOPIN protests minister's decree
DEKOPIN protests minister's decree
The systematic takeover of the Indonesian Cooperatives Council
(DEKOPIN) by the State Minister of Cooperatives and Small-Medium
Enterprises (UKM) has culminated with the issuance of Decree No.
176/Kep/KUKM/XII/2005 dated December 12, 2005 on the holding of
DEKOPIN's Occasional Members Meeting (RAS).
DEKOPIN strongly rejected the RAS that was held by the state
minister. What has been done by the minister is an arbitrary act
of taking over the most essential rights of DEKOPIN.
The decree is nothing but a despotic act of the minister
against DEKOPIN management that was legally elected in the annual
meeting of the DEKOPIN members in 2004. The illegal transfer has
violated Law No. 22 of 1992 on cooperatives, particularly
paragraph 50. The DEKOPIN management has reported this matter to
President Bambang Yudhoyono.
The more crucial thing is that the minister's decree made no
mention of Presidential Decree No. 24, of 1999 on the amendment
of DEKOPIN's statutes which is still valid to date.
Therefore, DEKOPIN has appealed to the President to stop the
abuse of power by the cooperatives minister so as to avoid it
becoming a bad precedent in our democratic life and cause
disgrace in the cooperatives movement. It should be noted that
the provincial cooperatives offices had put pressure on the
district cooperatives to attend the above mentioned RAS.
The DEKOPIN management is of the opinion that the cooperatives
minister's measure is part of a systematic program (openly or
illegally) to remove Article 33 from the 1945 Constitution, which
was followed up by trying to paralyze DEKOPIN as an institution
to promote the people's economy.
Considering that DEKOPIN is a member of the International Co-
operatives Alliance (ICA) which highly respects the values of
independence as well as cooperatives identity, ICA will likely
bring the case to the attention of the alliance.
DEKOPIN also has to forward this case to the National
Commission of Human Rights and bring it to the State
Administrative Court.
SRI-EDI SWASONO
DEKOPIN Chairman
Jakarta