Ulemas appeal five-day work week to thank God its Friday

Ulemas appeal five-day work week to thank God its Friday

JAKARTA (JP): A group of ulemas (Moslem scholars) has appealed
to President Soeharto to reconsider the five-day work week, which
will get a trial run at government agencies next month, and make
Friday, instead of Sunday, the national holiday each week.

The Board of the Association of Moslem Boarding Schools in
Madura (Bassra), a predominantly Moslem island off East Java, has
written to the President arguing for a Friday holiday in place of
Sunday to restore the meaning of the day for the Moslem people.

In Middle East countries, Sunday is usually a working day and
Friday is a day off.

Bassra chief coordinator K.H. Kholil AG was quoted by the
Republika daily as saying yesterday that the group had decided to
intervene now before the planned trial of the five-day working
week goes into effect in some government agencies beginning on
Aug. 17.

The group is also arguing against the plan because, in their
opinion, the work ethic among the Indonesian people is still
poor. If employees are given two days holiday, national
productivity will fall, Kholil said.

The inefficiency still prevailing in the government will
defeat the original purpose of the five-day working plan to
improve efficiency and save government spending.

The ulemas agreed that the plan would create inefficiency
rather than improvement because the government had also intended
to extend the employee's working time to compensate for the
holidays.

Consequently, the government should provide the employees with
meal allowances, said the ulemas, adding that the money spent
could reach Rp 1.8 trillion annually.

Regarding their suggestion that Friday be declared a holiday
instead of Sunday, the ulemas argued that naming Sunday as a free
day was the legacy of the Dutch colonial rulers. "This is of
course not suitable with the culture of the Indonesian people,
the majority of whom are Moslems," said the ulemas.

Kholil explained that another consideration was the fact that
the meaning of Friday, the day when Moslem perform their mass
afternoon prayers, has been lost among many Indonesians.

He said he even heard of a ridiculous proposal by an
industrial estate operator that Moslem workers conduct their mass
prayer on Sunday instead of Friday, so that their work do not get
disrupted on Friday.

There are others proposing to limit the break for Friday's
prayer to only 15 minutes, he said.

First Assistant to the Minister of Administrative Reform H.
Waluyo Ratam, said the minister's office would study the
suggestions made by the ulemas.

He said that the proposal to switch the holiday to Friday is a
sensitive issue.

The decision to make Saturday a holiday was made to comply
with the present globalization era, he said, adding that the
decision could still be revised, Republika reported. (par)