Rising prices may lead to rampant crime: SBSI
JAKARTA (JP): Activists warned the government on Saturday that the worsening labor situation would spark a nationwide breakdown in law and order unless effective measures are taken to defuse the economic and political crisis.
Muchtar Pakpahan, chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), said looting, rioting, murder, robbery, theft, rape and other crimes were to be expected since the majority of people, including workers, could no longer afford costly basic commodities.
"More and more people in urban and rural areas every day face food shortages because of crop failure, the prolonged drought, skyrocketing prices of basic commodities and the economic crisis," he said in a seminar on labor conditions.
He cited at least 60 riots in the past three months marked by massive looting and killings in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.
"Low-income people, including dismissed workers, no longer abide by the law and loot and commit other crimes to survive the crisis. And who should be held responsible for the crimes?"
He said the majority of workers could no longer cover their daily needs with their monthly minimum wages because prices of basic commodities continued to rise.
"How can a worker survive with a monthly minimum wage of about Rp 225,000? The problem will certainly be worse for married workers because they have to feed their wife and children."
He also noted how many people had been forced to take their children out of school because of economic constraints.
He estimated that the number of the jobless had reached 25 million amid "economic growth" of minus 15 percent.
"An estimated 15,000 workers are dismissed every day," he said, quoting a recent report from the International Labor Organization. "Next year, two-thirds of the Indonesian population is expected to be living below the poverty line."
Tarmono, chairman of the Labor Development Foundation, concurred and said his foundation was active in providing information on job opportunities in the greater Jakarta area.
"The foundation is also carrying out training programs for unskilled job seekers and supplying them to companies in the region."
Pakpahan said SBSI needed Rp 26.5 billion (US$2.4 million) to help supply low-priced rice to workers and also create job opportunities.
The funds will be used to purchase cheaper subsidized rice from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) for sale to workers in industrial plants across the country.
"With Rp 105 million, we will be able to supply cheap rice to about 6,000 workers and create 67 job opportunities."
SBSI has established more than 100 rice depots in North Jakarta and East Jakarta, employed about 150 workers, to supply cheap rice to workers in industrial zones in the two mayoralties.
SBSI purchased the rice for Rp 1,800 per kilogram from Bulog and resold it for Rp 2,000 per kg, he said.
Its market price ranges from Rp 3,000 to Rp 3,500.
Tjeppy Alwi, the director of labor standards at the Ministry of Manpower, said the ministry would launch labor-intensive projects nationwide worth Rp 3 billion to provide jobs to 1.5 million workers. (rms)