Laborers need solid political party to fight for their rights

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and A'an Suryana The Jakarta Post Jakarta

As no single faction in the House of Representatives is truly fighting for labor rights, it is high time for Indonesian workers to unite and build a strong political party that could win influence in the decision making process in the country.

According to Harris Rusli Moti, the chairman of People's Democratic Party (PRD), the failure of labor-based parties in the 1999 elections should awaken labor activists to the importance of educating workers about their political rights.

"From now on, the workers should not rely on the political elite. They must enter real politics and be prepared to govern this country," Harris told The Jakarta Post.

PRD, which has been fighting for workers' interests since 1994, failed to secure any seat at the House in the 1999 general election.

Four other labor-based parties also failed to secure a seat at the House.

They are the Workers' Solidarity Party, the National Labor Party, the All-Indonesian Workers' Solidarity Party and the Indonesian Workers' Party.

Meanwhile, blue-collar workers are estimated to account for some 25 percent of the 110 million eligible voters in 1999.

If they had managed to unite and vote for a single party, they would now have a strong say in the country's affairs.

As a result of their inability to unite, they are now almost totally unrepresented in politics.

"They have a hard time fighting for their welfare," political analyst J. Kristiadi said.

Labor activists said that they felt the five biggest political parties did not really care about workers' rights.

Those five are the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the Golkar Party, the United Development Party, the National Awakening Party and the National Mandate Party.

Altogether they control 419 of the 500 seats in the House.

World renowned labor activist and former political prisoner during the New Order regime, Dita Indah Sari said that the reality in the House, which was not supportive of the labor movement, had prompted her and her colleagues to consider establishing a single, strong labor party.

Her aim, however, was not the general election in 2004, but rather the one in 2009.

She said she did not want to repeat the mistake the labor- based parties made last time, failing to securing any House seats.

The failure of the labor parties, according to Dita, was that they were competing during a time when political awareness among workers was still very low.

"This lack of political awareness should be improved before we go further to form a strong political party, representing laborers' interests," said Dita who won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippine government in the Young Emerging Leaders category.

Her short term goal now is to educate workers about their political rights as a foundation for a strong labor party.

In the history of Indonesia, labor parties have never won any elections, nor have they even gained a significant number of seats.

The only time that a labor party won seat in the House was in 1955, when they managed to get two seats.

During the New Order administration under Soeharto, labor parties were non existent in the mainstream, as anything related to labor was often brandished as communism, and this meant illegal.

Only after the fall of Soeharto in 1998, did labor groups gain some of the lost rights to form unions and to strike. Nevertheless, laborers are still under represented in the politics.

In addition to the lack of political awareness among workers, Indonesia laborers do not have a truly inspiring leader who could unite them and lead them to enter the political arena.

"They need one leader who is sincere enough to teach them how to enter the political game in the country, for laborer's interests," Kristiadi remarked.

PRD's Harris said Indonesia was actually a fertile ground for a strong labor party to grow, considering the huge number of laborers and their sub-par living conditions.

He said workers in Indonesia should learn from their counterparts in the United Kingdom and Australia, where labor parties play an important role and even govern the countries.

"If labor parties can gain control to govern in those capitalist countries. Why can't we do the same thing here?," Harris wondered.