By : Anindira Putri Maheswani )*
The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions plans to hold a demonstration against the Job Creation Law on June 5, 2023. Of course, this action needs to be watched out for because it is vulnerable to being infiltrated by provocateurs and it actually ends in anarchy which harms society a lot.
The Job Creation Law was passed on March 21, 2023. This law regulates many fields, including employment. This law allows employees to work overtime. When you have worked for many years, you will receive an annual bonus from the company. If laid off, they can get severance pay at least 1 times their salary.
Unfortunately, the Job Creation Law was rejected by many people, especially workers and students. They consider that the other articles are detrimental, because there is no longer a City Minimum Wage, even though it still exists, only the term has been changed to Provincial Minimum Wage. They are demonstrating against this law, even though the public does not sympathize because they are prone to being ridden by provocateurs.
At the Job Creation Law demonstration some time ago in Bengkulu, 4 people were arrested during a demonstration. The Field Coordinator (Korlap) of the Arca Wijaya action stated that they were M Riski Zaidan, M Akmal Hidayatullah, Tri Mutaqim, M Rizky.
Meanwhile, the Bengkulu City Police Chief, Kombes Pol Aris Sulistyono confirmed that someone had been secured after the rioting occurred. He said the trigger was suspected to be a misunderstanding between students and outsiders who infiltrated. In a sense, those who were arrested were intruders alias provocateurs, not students.
Demonstrations of the Job Creation Law are very prone to provocateurs. Neta S Pane, Chairman of the Indonesian Police Watch Presidium, said that provocateurs are enemies in labor demonstrations. In a sense, the workers must be aware that there are provocateurs who infiltrate and they intentionally ride the event, with specific purposes.
The provocateur will deliberately incite the workers to do damage, for example by burning tires and destroying public facilities. Demonstrations that start peacefully can end in chaos, and can even trigger riots. If there are riots and brawls, provocateurs can use them to rally the masses even more and move them closer to the DPRD building.
It is feared that there is a provocation like this which will lead to ‘nostalgia’ for the events of 1998. Even though the situation is very different. If in the past the masses demonstrated and overthrew power because the New Order had been established for too long, now the theme is protests over workers’ wages. However, the theme of the demo could have been diverted because of devilish whispers from the provocateurs.
Provocateurs can fish in murky waters and continue to incite demonstrators to blaspheme the government and then destroy public facilities. If chaos ensues, there are also fears of mass theft, because the situation is already full of emotions. The city can be on fire because of the labor demonstrations that are continuously instigated by evil provocateurs.
Therefore, the authorities take care not to have a bad possibility like this. The reason is because it will be very detrimental to the community and also the government, because there will be many damaged public facilities. In fact, to rebuild it requires a very large cost, but the workers do not want to be responsible at all.
In order to prevent riots from occurring because of the workers’ demonstration, from the start the authorities made it clear that they would not give permission for the demonstration. If the demonstrators are still reckless then they will be driven away. Aside from the fact that it was a crowd and had to be dispersed, the crowd had to be broken up so that the demonstration was cancelled.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Public Relations Division of the Indonesian National Police Inspector General Pol Dedi Prasetyo stated that the public must be wary of the Job Creation Law demonstration because there could be a provocateur who infiltrated and provoked many people during the demonstration.
All parties should be able to convey their aspirations without having to demonstrate. This is because currently the Indonesian economy is recovering as a result of being hit by the Covid-19 Pandemic so security stability is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, demonstrations are prone to being infiltrated by provocateurs who can actually trigger unwanted things.
The community supports the arrest of the provocateur because he incites the masses to move forward and continue the demonstration. Even though it was clear that there was no permit, so it was natural for this event to be disbanded. If the provocateurs are not arrested, it is feared that the situation will escalate and riots and stone-throwing will occur.
Therefore, the provocateurs are immediately arrested, for preventive action. It is possible that those who were the instigators were not students, but individuals who had disguised themselves, causing the situation during the demonstration to escalate. Don’t let demonstrations be accompanied by other parties who have certain political interests, because this could be turned into a dangerous action.
The provocateurs are still being interrogated as to whether they are students or are they just messengers. Interrogation is important to find out who is behind the action. Don’t let anyone become the mastermind and laugh while the demonstrators are carrying out the action. This action is certainly not right, because it will abolish peace in Indonesia.
Demonstrations of the Ciptaker Law are prone to being infiltrated by provocateurs who can actually complicate the situation and prevent the message of action from being conveyed. Plans for demonstrations should also be canceled and channeled through legal channels that have been available so far.
)* The author is a contributor to Persada Institute
