By Max Lane
Twenty-one people were detained for several days following demonstrations on May 1 in Jakarta and Semarang. The demonstrations involved at least 1500 workers and students organised by the Centre for Working Class Struggle (PPBI) and Student Solidarity for Democracy (SMID).
Several of the workers detained were severely bashed during their detention. At least one had to be hospitalised. The May Day actions launched a joint student-worker campaign for an increase in the official minimum wage to Rp7000 ($4.50). These were the first actions on May Day since General Suharto seized power in 1965.
Hostile statements have been made by the Suharto dictatorship's puppet union, the All Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI). Quoted in the news weekly Gatra, SPSI secretary general Bomer Pasaribu, said that the PPBI actions on May 1 were "not legitimate".
Bomer told Gatra that the PPBI demonstrations used a "communist pattern" and seemed to be aimed at "agitation in the May Day style". The millionaire minister of labour, Abdul Latief, backed up Bomer's statements that the May Day actions were organised by a "third force", although no details were forthcoming.
The SPSI also condemned the demand for a wage rise to Rp7000 as "irrational". The dictatorship recently increased the national minimum wage form Rp3000 to Rp3800. The PPBI argues that Rp3800 falls well below what is needed to meet minimum physical needs.
The Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBH) on May 8 condemned the SPSI's attack on the PPBI demand as exhibiting a desire that "workers remain at a subsistence level". This kind of statement was not unusual coming from a "corporatist workers control body such as the SPSI" and reflected efforts to gain further favour with those in power.
The LBH argued that the many strikes — 1130 in 1994 — were a response to inadequate wages. It said that even the new official minimum wage was below workers' actual expenditures for survival.
The LBH also noted that Indonesia has the lowest wages in the region. According to a recent report by the private research agency, Crosby Research Ltd, hourly wages are: Indonesia 28 US cents per hour, China 54 cents, Philippines 68 cents, Thailand $1.17, Malaysia $1.80, Hong Kong $4.21, South Korea $4.93, Singapore $5.12, Taiwan $5.46, Japan $16.91.
LBH pointed out that many employers had gone on record that they could pay higher wages if other costs could be reduced, in particular bribes that have to be paid to the bureaucracy. Most businesses estimated that such costs amounted to 30% of overall production costs, compared to 10% for wages.