Spotlight on Indonesia
Right to form unions
The Indonesia House of Representatives passed a bill on July 10 easing restrictions on workers' right to form unions.
The law also allows public servants to form and join unions; for decades they were obligated to join the state-controlled Indonesian Civil Servants' Corps. The law reduces from 25 to 10 the number of workers needed to form a union and recognises that one of the functions of a union is to organise, execute and be accountable for strikes.
However, the law also allows for the dissolution of a union by a court order if it is considered to have "endangered security". Chairperson of National Front for Indonesian Workers' Struggle (FNPBI), Romawati Sinaga, told the July 11 Jakarta Post, "Only members should be allowed to dissolve a union".
Government sanctions Sony sackings
The Indonesian Legal Aid Institute has described the planned government-sanctioned sacking of around 1000 Sony workers as a "political scandal, brought about by Sony's threat to flee the country".
The institute's Surya Tjandra told the independent news service Detik on July 7 that the sackings at the company's television and stereo production plant in Jakarta set a bad precedent with implications for all Indonesian workers.
Workers at Sony Indonesia, 80% of whom are women, went on strike on April 26 over changes to production which required them to stand instead of sitting while working. The case was handed over to the Ministry of Labour which, on July 5, gave Sony the go-ahead to fire the strikers.
Farmers' nationwide protest
Some 1 million farmers plan to stage mass protests in 11 cities on July 17 to demand the inclusion of agrarian reform in the agenda of the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly scheduled for August.
Muslich Ismail, head of the Consortium for Agrarian Reform, which is coordinating the action, told the July 12 Jakarta Post that the legislators has gone back on last year's pledge to take up the issue. The issue of agrarian reform is very important, he said, as it touches the lives of up to 70% of the population.
Audit implicates Suharto's top brass
The State Audit Board and independent auditors appointed by the International Monetary Fund have implicated senior members of the former Suharto administration in siphoning off billions of dollars of state funds.
Sources told the Business Times on July 5, "It is a damning report of a lot of past government officials and private bankers who helped bankrupt the Central Bank and empty the government's coffers ... The report is so obvious that the government has no choice but to investigate the individuals implicated in it."
Sources say that the 3000-page report clearly identifies billions of dollars that went missing during the last five years of Suharto's term, which ended in May 1998. The individuals allegedly involved include former ministers, heads of state-owned enterprises, finance officials and high-level civil servants.