INI YANG DIPAKAI

INI YANG DIPAKAI

Military intervention

We were surprised by the statement of the Armed Forces Chief of Staff
for Social and Political Affairs, Lt. Gen. R. Hartono, before a labor
seminar on Tuesday that the military would again take part in
coordinating the resolution of labor problems. The new policy came about
just three months after the government revoked in January a ministerial
decree allowing the Armed Forces to break up strikes.

Hartono cited the need to maintain stability, the weak organization
of the All Indonesian Labor Union (SPSI)-- the only trade union
recognized by the government-- and the lack of labor rules to
accommodate the aspirations of all parties involved in labor issues as
the main reasons for the reinvolvement of the military in labor
problems. The Armed Forces apparently now sees labor unrest as one of
the major threats to national stability. Hartono, however, warned that
the involvement should not bee seen as military intervention into the
labor movement.

The new policy seemed to have been prompted by the labor-related
riots in North Sumatra which had turned into acts of vandalism against
Indonesian Chinese during the last two weeks of last month. The incident
once again shows how vital stability and security are not only for
economic activities but for the further existence of our nationhood.

Highly-agitated workers, a high frequency of labor strikes and street
demonstrations can easily be turned by irresponsible persons into riots
and vandalism. These types of situations do not help solve our labor
problems. Instead, such scenes will scare away investors. In fact, the
labor riots in North Sumatra have caused some potential investors to
reconsider their plans to invest in Indonesia as the incident showed how
vulnerable our stability could be.

Businessmen, either domestic or foreign, will sink their capital in
the country only when we can maintain a sense of stability and security.
Without their investments, the economy will stagnate and no new jobs
will be created for the estimated three million unemployed and 30
million under-employed as well as the 2.8 million new entrants to the
labor market annually.

The question, though, is whether the high rush of labor strikes has
really required direct military involvement. We fully agree that it is
the fundamental task of the Armed Forces to prevent labor protests or
strikes from degenerating into riots and acts of vandalism. But we
wonder if that task should be executed by directly intervening into
labor issues.

We think we should instead focus our attention on the roots of the
labor unrest, that is the need for humane treatment of workers. The
trigger of most labor strikes has been the failure by employers to
adhere to the minimum wages, which are already among the lowest in the
world. We should also realize that the greater prosperity the country
has gained from its high economic growth over the past two decades has
led to rising expectations among the people. The mood of our labor has
also changed significantly in recent years as an increasing number of
blue-collar workers are graduates or dropouts of secondary schools who
are much more vocal and outspoken and more aware of their basic rights
than those who have only primary schooling. Obviously, the authoritative
management style which was effective in managing meek workers in the
past is no longer suitable now.

We think labor protests or unrest can be prevented by the strong
enforcement of the minimum wage levels and other manpower regulations to
protect the workers' rights. The mechanism for company or plant-level
labor management has been established in the requirement for companies
to have a collective labor agreement. What is quite lacking though is
the quality of the tripartite negotiations and consultations for such an
agreement.

We have learned that in many companies such negotiations are in fact
no more than a formality because the management has made up its mind
before consulting with the workers' representatives. Given the weakness
of the SPSI trade union and the weak bargaining position of the workers,
it is the responsibility of the officials of the manpower ministry to
help workers strike mutually beneficial labor agreements.