For whom the bell tolls

The government will soon begin labor-intensive projects to employ several thousand unskilled workers needing to earn an income during the Christmas, New Year and Ramadhan season.

President Soeharto called for the state-funded labor program because, in his words, blue-collar workers are suffering from the severe economic turmoil as many private-industry projects, especially in the construction sector, have been rescheduled or terminated due to cash-flow problems.

In response to the President's directive, the government is developing flood-prevention projects -- such as the construction of drainage ditches, the renovation of dikes and water canals and the rejuvenation of slum areas -- primarily for Jakarta and Surabaya. Similar projects are being designed for regencies hit hard by the prolonged dry season throughout the country.

The Jakarta city administration announced last week that it would employ an additional 5,000 unskilled workers per month starting in January. The program, it said, would last at least three months when it would then be reviewed. By then, 15,000 workers would have been offered employment.

The government did not mention the number of construction workers nationwide who have lost their jobs since the beginning of the monetary crisis, but it has been estimated at two million.

The government step is, of course, most welcome. However, since unemployment figures were alarmingly high before the start of the economic crisis, one wonders why the projects have only begun now.

Indonesia has been sending a significant proportion of its workforce abroad for some time now to ease the country's unemployment rate. The fact that a large majority of those are unskilled domestic workers has not helped our nation's image. The recent forced repatriation of tens of thousands of these workers and reports that many were abused in their host country has not helped improve the situation.

In Jakarta, the unemployment situation has also become worse lately, aggravated by an influx of unskilled people from poorer rural areas. The United Development Party (PPP) faction in the city council reported in October that there were between 100 and 500 people looking for employment, and between 500 and 1,000 cases of underemployment in each of the city's 265 districts. In a city of nine million people, the level of unemployment had already increased from 4 percent last year to 6 percent before the current crisis started.

The government's effort to temporarily employ a few thousand workers will not solve the fundamental problems responsible for the economic crisis. It may, however, help to prevent open protests resulting from unemployment before the People's Consultative Assembly elects a new president and vice president in March.

Besides its economic problems, the nation needs to immediately respond to acute noneconomic challenges to which the government has so far only answered with old promises.

Behind an economy that has made tremendous progress until recently, there also has lurked the dark shadow of monopoly, favoritism, nepotism, public distrust of the rupiah, institutionalized inequality and a weakness of supervision. Politically, Indonesia lacks transparency, an uncertain succession scenario, increasingly weak legislative and judicial bodies, rampant corruption and a freedom of expression which has been turned into an art of whispers.

People here could predict the current leaders of neighboring countries as long as 15 years ago, while today they still find it a mystery as to who will be their vice president three months from now.

Some said this had been made possible by the concept that freedom grows from prosperity, and not the other way around.