The Lede: Laying Down the Law | Indonesia Intelligencer
Hello Coconauts!
This is our first-ever standalone email for the Lede. Every Tuesday, Indonesia Intelligencer will dig a little deeper into the one-story making waves in Indonesia over the last week. Think of it as a cheat sheet to behind the headlines.
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This starts, fittingly, with one of the biggest stories of the year: law reform. Changes to the labor law have been hinted for months but now we have a much clearer idea of what it will include. And then there’s the Family Resilience Bill.
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Enjoy!
No love lost
A draft of the so-called Family Resilience Bill leaked last week, unleashing both a torrent of memes and fierce rejection from Indonesians who say many of the potential laws overstep into personal freedoms. The law in its leaked form has been pushed by Gerindra and the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and National Mandate Party (PAN).
Coconuts Jakarta took a look at the most controversial aspect of the law — the governing of sexual acts. Indonesia has never previously attempted to legislate sexual acts between consenting adults. “Should the bill pass, those who partake in the unspeakable activity that is S&M will be required to undergo social rehabilitation, psychological rehabilitation, spiritual counseling, or medical rehabilitation,” Coconuts Jakarta reported, adding that it is not known how the government would monitor such acts.
Families will also be required to separate mixed-gender children and parents when sleeping, no doubt a large ask for many families in the country who are short on space at home. “It turns out that seven-year-olds are capable of molesting their five-year-old siblings. Why? It starts from the family. They’re not separating the bedrooms of parents and children in the house,” says PKS’ Netty Prasetiyani.
Wait a moment, says the Commission for the Protection of Children (KPAI). “Not all families own houses in Jakarta. Some families rent a 3-by-3 meter space with a kitchen and a bed in the same room. Can cases like this be addressed [by the bill]?” KPAI Commissioner Jasra Putra said, as reported by Coconuts Jakarta.
LGBT Indonesians and women worry that provisions within the bill will target their freedoms further. Women must “take care of household-related matters” and “treat the husband and the child well,” Reuters reports, while LGBT Indonesians will fall under “sexual deviance” and be forced to undergo rehabilitation.
Getting to work
Reforms to the labor laws have attracted fierce criticism from the country’s robust unions and worker groups who fear gains won in the post-Suharto years will be abandoned in the name of economic growth. Relax, the government has said for months, wait until you see the full omnibus. Now, with the full omnibus tabled and a goal to finalize within 100 days, critics are preparing to take to the streets again.
The Jakarta Post combed through these new laws to identify the most sweeping of changes. Many of the larger changes had been hinted to in the process for months, such as the relaxation of environmental protections. Further detail on how this will be administered will require additional government regulation. Changes to severance packages and returning some licensing powers to the central government from provincial leadership is also on the cards.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto told the newspaper in a separate interview that the reforms will be a win for Indonesian workers. “We are targeting 3 million new jobs in the manufacturing sector, start-up companies and part-time workers,” he said, which would be an additional million jobs a year for the overall workforce.
Recommended reads:
Bedroom bill: Silly in the streets, unenforceable in the sheets(The Jakarta Post)
A number of politicians from nationalist parties have raised their objections to the bill, saying that it goes too far into people's private lives. The Golkar Party even went so far as to retract its support for the bill, claiming that the Golkar lawmaker who had proposed it had not read the draft.
But these same parties were on the verge of passing the revised Criminal Code (KUHP) last September, which would have made sex between two consenting single adults a crime.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's government has yet to make a firm statement on the bill, but it was the Jokowi administration that drafted the KUHP bill in the first place. In addition, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy has been in the spotlight for suggesting that "rich" people should marry "poor" people to reduce the country's poverty rate and doubled down on his statement when asked again.
Indonesia's Jokowi must use popularity to remake the economy (Nikkei Asia Review)
It is a familiar pattern. As political squabbling in Jakarta stymies efforts to boost growth and competitiveness, central bank governor Perry Warjiyo's team prepares yet more stimulus. Such short-termism, though, explains why the economy is underperforming.
Last year's 5% growth rate was the slowest since 2016, and a far cry from the 7% Jokowi targeted in his first presidential campaign. Though government officials blame the U.S.-China trade war, foreign investment has underwhelmed too. This is a direct result of the glacial pace of progress cutting bureaucracy, modernizing labor laws and increasing innovation.
These upgrades could be Jokowi's for the taking if he exercised greater political courage. Last year, the government missed several deadlines for a so-called omnibus reform bill aimed at creating new jobs. Another bill to cut corporate taxes also has seen more talk than action.