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