COURT HITS BUS BRAKES

 

The Omnibus has changed routes      

 

    

Image:  Kompas       

In an unexpected win, Indonesian labour unions’ protests against new laws corroding workers’ rights have been trounced by the Mahkamah Konstitusi (MK) Constitutional Court.   But the ruling also threatens the government’s hopes to make the Republic a safe place for venture capital.

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A year ago academics were labelling the passing of President Joko Widodo’s signature legislation on employment and administrative reform as his ‘political dream come true’.  Now he’s scrambling to reassure that the court’s unappealable decision doesn’t mean international lenders should scrub the archipelago off lists of places to park their money.

The Omnibus Law, named because it puts many laws in the same carriage, raced through the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR-People's Representative Council) in eight months last year making no stops to pick up workers and greenies waving placards and fists on kerbsides across the nation. 

The name above the windscreen read Undang-Undang Cipta Kerja (Job Creation Law).  It was furiously driven by Widodo determined to reach his goal of business and workplace reform by scrapping 43,000 regulations on hiring and firing which were said to be roadblocks frightening overseas bankers.

The government predicted the changes would deliver three million jobs for school-leavers and graduates, plus six million for those who have lost work through the pandemic. No sources for these calculations were revealed.

Widodo has long complained that his country’s ranking in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index has stuck in the 70s – far from his aim for position 40. (Singapore =2, Malaysia and Australia = 14.)

Unions argued the law slashed job severance pay-outs and crushed wage increases.  As in Australia, the shift to the gig economy is generally welcomed by the top end of town because it gives more space to hire and fire.

 

Image: Beritakini

Environmentalists complained that impact studies on mines and land clearing for oil-palm plantations would be restricted to major projects allowing smaller development proposals to avoid scrutiny.

Before the new law was signed sacked workers got 32 months’ salary – that was cut to 19 months. The minimum wage also vanished.

Omnibus allowed wages to be linked to business productivity, not the employees’ education, skills and years of service. Holidays were cut from two days a week to one; long-service paid leave was also farewelled.

Big business labelled the changes a ‘breakthrough’ for shredding Indonesia’s notorious red-tape blockages, clearing the way for an online single submission licensing system.  However, they were worried the rush meant many route details hadn’t been well considered.  Four different drafts, varying from 812 pages through to 1,035, were circulated.

The government promised to make repairs along the way but didn’t imagine being pulled over by nine robed judges. They said the drafting process was handled badly because the Constitution doesn’t recognise an Omnibus Law, particularly one driven over the limit.  It ignored well-established rules on making new laws and regulations, nor did it give time for outside interests to get on board.

Then a weird insertion: The DPR must start the lawmaking process again within two years otherwise all laws run over by the Omnibus will be reinstated.  So although the new law is unconstitutional it stays in place.

Widodo told the media: ‘In a democratic nation that is based on the rule of law, the government respects and will immediately implement what has been ruled by the Constitutional Court

‘I have instructed the coordinating ministers and other related ministers to immediately follow up on the ruling as soon as possible… I assure you that the Government guarantees investment certainty and security in Indonesia.’

Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto reinforced the President’s position by explaining the court’s decision didn’t nullify regulations made before the MK ruling.

So four special economic zones, which have apparently attracted commitments to invest Rp 90 trillion (AUD 8.6 billion) will still go ahead. Almost 400,000 licenses issued under a law deemed a crock by the highest legal authority in the land will still be honoured.

Singapore-based Australian lawyer Bill Sullivan has written that the Omnibus Law had been presented to the world as Widodo’s plan to boost recovery from the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic through encouraging more foreign investment.

He fears it’s now a public relations disaster revealing a government ‘so careless and, frankly, inept’ that it didn’t bother to follow proper law-making procedures:

 ‘The next two years is likely to be a difficult time for Indonesia as the government desperately tries to convince investors that they don’t have any reason to doubt the continuity of the Job Creation Law’s reforms much less the competency of the government in providing a reliable legal, policy and regulatory environment.’

There is a plus - the MK has shown a streak of independence. The unions were pessimistic of their chances, expecting the court to back the government.  Their success has been applauded by the International Trade Union Confederation.

The mess could be the result of Widodo getting too impatient and cocky, losing touch with his worker base – as Indonesians say, kacang lupa kulit (the peanut has forgotten its shell).  After his second win in the 2019 presidential elections, he built a coalition of parties to neutralise opposition.  Some academics reckon this ‘appears to his critics to have made him beholden to business interests, especially those businesses owned by members of his own inner circle’.

From now till late 2023 the Republic has a conditionally unconstitutional law.   Investors seeking certainty won’t find it in Indonesia.

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First published in Australian Outlook, 3 December 2021:  https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/the-omnibus-has-changed-routes/

HATE STIRRER THREATENS JOKOWI

 

               Return of the dangerman preacher

It was a full-on snub to history and a challenge to the social and business reforms of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo.  More worrying is the likelihood of a return to faith-based hate politics in the world’s most populous Muslim country. 

November 10 is Indonesia’s Heroes’ Day commemorating the 1945 Battle of Surabaya, a bloody clash in the East Java city between war-hardened allied forces backing the return of the colonial Dutch and young revolutionaries armed with bamboo spears.

But the thousands who gridlocked Jakarta on that day this month cutting off car and bus access to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and delaying flights for hours were not brave revolutionaries. They were the pliant followers of a Muslim priest with a criminal record who wants to turn our giant neighbour into an Islamic state and away from its two-decade journey towards full democracy.

Rizieq Shihab – self-styled Great Imam for life of the Front Pembela Islam (Islam Defenders’ Front) – returned to his homeland last Tuesday after three years exile in Saudi Arabia.  He fled to the kingdom after police alleged offences involving pornography (nude pictures on his cellphone) and insulting Pancasila.

This is the nation’s five-point ideology - religious devotion, humanitarianism, nationalism, consultative democracy, and social justice.  Pancasila was devised by first president Soekarno and his colleagues as a foil to zealots demanding an Islamic state. Although taught in schools so all citizens can chant the words, it’s still considered by extremists to be too secular.

The charges have reportedly since been dropped.

Shihab, regularly tagged ‘firebrand’ by the Indonesian media and involved in ‘hatemonger rallies’, told the welcoming mobs ignoring social distancing rules that his objective was ‘to fight with the people for the moral revolution’.  This was left undefined.  However his real aim is to make mischief which he’ll most likely do in spades.

 Earlier he said his mission was fighting the Omnibus Law.  This is being heavily promoted by the government and corporates as red-tape shredding legislation to create jobs and attract foreign investors.  It also reduces some green-tape environment protections to speed developments.  Although the law has been passed, fist-shaking continues outside government buildings ringed by barbed wire.

Overseas businesspeople watching the FPI’s kerb-to-kerb whitecapped herds crippling the capital might well reconsider plans to put their money into Indonesia.  The Republic suddenly appears heading for division after some earlier clever quelling of disunity following last year’s presidential election.

Before the return of the demagogue, the usually peaceful demos against the new law were running out of energy.  The placard-waving students and unionists were also leaderless. Shihab has refuelled their tanks by stirring religion into an industrial relations row largely concerned with the cropping of employees’ rights so bosses can make hiring and firing easier.

The father of seven and son of an Arab-Indonesian family, Shihab, 55, studied in Malaysia before working as a teacher in a madrasah (Islamic boarding school).  He created the FPI in 1998, the year when second president Soeharto was felled by student riots after 32 years in power. 

Members formed vigilante gangs, notorious for their ‘sweeping’ of hotels during the holy month of Ramadan, seeking people allegedly breaking Islamic laws on dress and behaviour. They also trashed and firebombed businesses they claimed were offending religious norms.  Targets were often ethnic Chinese.

In 2003 Shihab was jailed for seven months for inciting violence.  In 2008 he was convicted on a similar charge and put behind bars for 18 months.  Being labelled a criminal burnished his credentials among his troops and enlarged his status.

The FPI’s biggest triumph came in December 2017 when he led a half-million strong protest again the Christian and ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta.  Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama was accused of blasphemy – and later jailed for two years.

Shihab claimed he then went to Mecca as a pilgrim and could not return because he’d been ‘exiled’ by the government.  The charge was denied although it’s clear the administration wanted him out of the way during last year’s presidential election campaign.

Shihab supported Widodo’s rival, former general Prabowo Subianto, now the Minister for Defence.  The surprise invitation to join the ministry neutered much opposition to the government and gave Subianto the chance to busy himself on arms-buying sprees abroad while Widodo concentrated on domestic affairs.

That was before the pandemic which has so far infected 444,000 and killed almost 15,000, though these figures are widely believed to be under-estimates.  With the country in recession, there’s nothing in the kitty to purchase bang-bangs, so the ambitious billionaire Prabowo has nowhere to go and little to do.

Whether he’s prepared to side with Shihab again in the hope of contesting the presidency in 2024 when he’ll be 73 – or even scheming to dethrone the president - is the worry that’s now returned with the preacher.  

First published in Pearls & Irritations, 13 November 2020: 
https://johnmenadue.com/duncan-graham-return-of-the-dangerman-preacher/