Muchtar Pakpahan tries again to win workers' support

Muchtar Pakpahan tries again to win workers' support

Anton Doni, Head, Research and Development Unit,
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Freedom of expression following the fall of the New Order
government led to unprecedented strikes among civil servants,
employees at state-owned companies, bank employees and other
white-collar workers. Unions popped up everywhere, finally
joining those developed since the 1980s in the manufacturing
sector and others among blue-collar workers.

So far only a few political parties seem to have used this
potential for new activism, such as the Indonesian Association
Party (PSI) relying on the network of unions (Gaspermindo) led by
its founder and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) whose
activists are seen among those advocating for the desperate
workers of state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara
Indonesia.

Less prominent on the scene is the party of Muchtar Pakpahan
-- the country's labor movement icon. He founded the Indonesian
Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI) in 1992 in the days when only one
union was allowed.

SBSI activists were often harassed and Pakpahan was imprisoned
in August 1994 after leading demonstrations in Medan, North
Sumatra. Workers had protested mass dismissals amid demands of an
investigation into the death of a worker at a rubber company.

As an expression of support for the suppressed labor movement,
Pakpahan gained several international awards. In 1997 alone, he
secured three, including one from the American Federation of
Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO). Even
former United States' president Bill Clinton had urged Pakpahan's
release from prison.

Now Pakpahan leads the Social Democratic Labor Party (PBSD)
declared on May 1, 2001 as the political arm of the Confederation
of the Indonesian Prosperity Labor Union (F-SBSI). It is a party
with its origins in the former National Labor Party (PBN) which
flopped in the 1999 polls with a mere 0.13 percent or 140,980
votes. Two other workers' parties also gained equally
insignificant votes.

Thus, increased boldness among workers to unionize across more
sectors than before, did not automatically translate into support
for a political party originating from the renowned SBSI.

After the New Order, under which labor activists were always
threatened with the stigma of being communists and the threat of
losing their jobs, the setting up of new unions was already a big
step forward. Affiliation with parties would take a higher, rare
level of trust in politicians -- even within the F-SBSI,
Pakpahan's PBN was only able to secure the support of 10 percent
of the federation's membership.

Pakpahan himself faded from the limelight along with other
reformist figures. Worse, he was implicated in a scandal
involving social security funds (Jamsostek).

The results of the upcoming polls will indicate how far
Pakpahan and his colleagues have been able to learn what went
wrong and strengthen the leadership, the organization's solidity
and drive and mainly its appeal to workers.

At least one clear lesson expected from the leadership is its
ability to control internal squabbles that occurred in SBSI, the
party's parent organization supposedly based on "class
consciousness" and solidarity.

The party now seems eager to consolidate support from its
networks of 11 unions in 28 provinces, spread throughout the
manufacturing, transportation, mining and energy, construction,
trading and banking sectors in some 1,500 companies.
Manufacturing and transportation are the party's strongest
sectors, from where most of its 1.7 million individual members
come.

An early sign of bad luck is that PBSD was the party with the
most legislative candidates disqualified by the General Elections
Commission (KPU).

Pakpahan said he expects total support from the membership of
the F-SBSI, but estimates that 10 percent of the members might
not vote for his party.

The party's overall potential "market" lies in the country's
25 million workers according to the 2002 figures of the Central
Statistics Agency (BPS). These include 10.5 million production
workers, 4.3 million clerical workers, and 2.1 million
agricultural workers.

Perhaps given the party's weaknesses and the legacy of the New
Order, Pakpahan himself is realistic. No workers' party nowadays
would be able to come anywhere near the achievements of the
banned Indonesian Communist Party, which came fourth in the 1955
elections with 15.4 percent of votes.

There are now 83 labor unions but only 11 are under F-SBSI.
Some others are more attracted to parties that workers can
identify with more closely, such as those based on religion,
rather than an inexperienced party claiming to represent them.

The provinces where PBSD is fairly optimistic of its chances
are North Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, West Java, Jakarta, Banten, East
Kalimantan, and North Sulawesi.

The party retains Pakpahan's long struggle for freedom of
association as it perceives that the labor movement still faces
many challenges. However it recognizes the stress on productivity
repeatedly raised by the government and the business circle, as
reflected in its goal for "peaceful industrial relations" to
create "a conducive climate for investment."

The party's long list of goals also reflect its social
democratic label, aiming for the state to provide access for all
to education, housing programs and unemployment benefits.

Sources of funding, the party booklet says, would include
recovered money stolen from state coffers and increasing
government shares in contracts related to the exploitation of
natural resources.

At least it has worked out where all the money would come
from. For all those social democrat advocates, the scholar
Anthony Giddens has this reminder: "Political life is nothing
without ideas, but ideas are empty if they don't relate to real
possibilities".