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The government expects the measure to attract investment, but opponents say the resolution to regulation will harm staff and the environment.
By Dera Menra Sijabat and Richard C. Paddock
Jakarta, Indonesia.
In villages and villages in the vast Indonesian archipelago, tens of thousands of people took part on the third day of a national strike opposed to the law of deregulation. Workers walked and took part in motorcycle parades while noisy trucks transmitted protest messages. Union leaders denounced Parliament and President Joko Widodo for approving the measure.
In central Jakarta, the capital, protesters piled up defying the ban on collecting the pandemic and tried to march to the presidential palace, some threw stones at police and set fire to the city centre, set fire to a police station and two police said police arrested more than 800 people in Jakarta , while national strike leaders distanced the war from the violence and said the city’s protests were not related to union action.
Across the country, the strike was largely peaceful, protesters clashed with police in some cities. Organizers said protests had occurred in more than 60 locations, from Aceh province in the west to Papua province up to more than 3,000 miles to the east. . They estimated that around one million people joined the strikes every day, this figure may not be verified.
Opponents of the new law, a 905-page general measure that amends more than 75 laws, say it benefits the wealthy elite by allowing corporations to reduce staff salaries, days off, and renting contracted staff instead of permanent employees.
“The president reimburses the financiers who helped him win the election, not the other people who voted for him,” said Ermawati, 37, leader of a strike at a factory in East Java who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name. they’re killing us with the bus law. “
Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, has Southeast Asia’s largest economy, but has found it at a disadvantage over some of its neighbors for foreign investment, especially Vietnam, a centralized communist state that can act temporarily to provide land for investors and incentives.
Indonesia, which has been a democratic country since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship more than two decades ago, holds the world’s largest direct presidential election every five years. But his decentralized government is notoriously bureaucratic and difficult to navigate.
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the country harder than any other in the region, infecting more than 320,000 people and expelling some six million unemployed, over the most sensitive of the seven million who are already unemployed. first time since the Suharto era.
Bahlil Lahadalia, head of the government’s Investment Coordination Council, said the new law would make it less difficult for job seekers to find work, adding another 3 million people entering the workforce each year.
He said 153 companies were in a position to invest in Indonesia once the law came into force, creating many new jobs.
“It’s a law for the future, for the past, ” he said. “Entrepreneurs complain that it’s hard to get permits because of overlapping regulations, expensive land and dear workers,” he said. “This task creation law is to answer that. “
President Joko, a former furniture manufacturer and mayor, presents himself as one of the other people who has his interests at heart. As president, he focused on economic development, i. e. the structure of roads, ports and airports.
But many parties to the conflict of deregulation feel betrayed because Joko, who won a term last year, suggested that he factor a regulation that would repeal the most harmful provisions of the law.
Workers say their prospects were not taken into account in the deliberations.
The deregulation law is also being challenged by environmentalists who say it will exempt many projects from environmental review, derailing efforts to prevent the burning of tropical forests and expanding carbon emissions that fuel climate change.
The sadness evident after Parliament passed the law, and the word #pindahnegara, short for “moving to another country” in Indonesian, used on Twitter. Major media outlets have published recommendations on how to emigrate.
Last year, the warring parties staged massive protests against the blanket bill that allegedly criminalized sexual relationships between other single people, banning same-sex relationships, and succeeded in getting Joko to withdraw this measure.
But persuading the president to withdraw this year’s bill is unlikely, because Joko and his government lobbied for the law to pass, which ended with its simple passage on Monday. Opponents urge Joko not to sign the law or use his force to prevent contentious provisions from taking effect.
If Mr. Joko surrenders, the union will go to court and seek to block the implementation of the law, said Said Iqbal, president of the Indonesian Confederation of Trade Unions and leader of the strike.
On Batam, an island near Singapore, Djafri Rajab, a machinist, helped lead a three-day strike of 60 workers, nearly a third of PT Djitoe Mesindo workers, who manufacture cigarette making machines.
He is involved in the possible loss of his task as the economy collapses and a provision in the law that would allow corporations to pay compensation of 32 months to 19 months’ salary.
“He’s not afraid of layoffs, especially at this point in the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Djafri, who has three children, adding a 5-month-old baby. “Indonesia is in recession. Getting a new task is very important. “difficult. “
These are also young staff who may not find jobs that provide pensions and other benefits when they enter the labour market.
“We also expect every imaginable investor to come to Indonesia, but let’s not let them stand up for workers’ rights,” he said. “The government exists to guarantee the rights of each and every citizen to have a dignified life. “
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