By: Alif Fikri )*
The planned demonstration by the workers’ group against the Perppu Cipta Kerja on February 6 2023 deserves to be rejected because it is prone to intruders and hinders people’s traffic. Dissatisfaction with the Perppu Ciptaker should be channeled through the Constitutional Court (MK).
As it is known that one of the bases for issuing Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation (Ciptaker) is that in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia which mandates that the aim of forming a Republic Indonesia’s goal is to realize a prosperous, just, prosperous and equitable society, both in material and spiritual terms.
In the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution it is stated that every citizen has the right to work and a decent living for humanity, therefore the state needs to make various efforts or actions to fulfill the rights of citizens to obtain a decent job and life.
Apart from that, it is also undeniable that efforts to fulfill the right to work and a decent livelihood are, in principle, one of the important aspects of the national development goals which are carried out in the context of developing the Indonesian people as a whole.
Therefore, the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) itself has also made various efforts to be able to create and expand employment opportunities in order to reduce the number of unemployed and accommodate new workers and encourage the development of Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with the aim of improve the national economy, which in the future will also be able to improve people’s welfare.
Even though the open unemployment rate in Indonesia has also continued to decline, the country still really needs quality job creation. In order to truly guarantee the creation of quality jobs, the Government immediately issued a Job Creation Perppu to replace the existence of the old Ciptaker Law which had been deemed conditionally unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court (MK) Decision.
Regarding the issuance of the Job Creation Perppu itself, the Main Expert for the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Fadjar Dwi Wisnuwardhani in his statement firmly denied the existence of the notion that it was as if Perppu Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation only represented the interests of one party, namely businessman.
On the contrary, according to him, the regulation that was officially signed by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo on December 30, 2022, actually stood for the interests of all parties, including workers and MSMEs. Fadjar Dwi added that the issuance of the Job Creation Perppu was an attempt to synchronize existing regulations.
For him, the existence of the Job Creation Perppu is also able to simplify the bureaucratic process which may have previously been too long and complicated so that it can more optimally encourage the creation of job opportunities and is also able to accelerate the recovery of the national economy.
The KSP Key Expert explained that the Job Creation Perppu had accommodated the aspirations of all parties and presented solutions. One example is a number of issues that workers have complained about, in which they complain that the minimum wage is considered low in PP Regulation No. 36 of 2021.
Then a minimum wage formula was made in Perppu Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation. This is proof that the Government of Indonesia has a strong desire to moderate, listen to the aspirations of the people so that they stand above all parties and interests.
With all the interests of many parties including the workers themselves having been accommodated in the Job Creation Perppu, in fact there are still pros and cons to the ratification of this Perppu and even the workers’ group plans to hold a demonstration on the upcoming 6 February 2023.
Responding to the plan for the workers’ demonstration action, the Head of Public Relations Division of the Public Relations Division of the National Police, Kombes Nurul Azizah asked the workers to be more vigilant about the entry of intruders. The reason is, with the presence of intruders in demonstrations, it is not impossible that it will cause chaos.
The police advised the workers to be able to continue to guard their groups so that the actions taken would not be backed up by groups that would actually take advantage of the crowd to create anarchic things. In addition, he appealed to the masses who will express their opinions to comply with the applicable regulations in accordance with Law Number 9 of 1998 concerning freedom of expression in public.
Of course, the potential vulnerability of intruders who deliberately ride on when there is an opportunity in a crowd of demonstrations and make the situation escalate by provoking chaos and anarchism must be really watched out for. The reason is, actually the Job Creation Perppu itself is already very profitable for workers or laborers.
)* The author is a contributor to the Nusa Bangsa Institute