Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Hundreds of workers in Medan are camping out in front of the North Sumatra provincial council building to protest alleged abuses at the furniture company they work for.
The employees of PT Cipta Mebelindo Lestari began their protest March 16, accusing the company of intimidating workers and denying them their basic rights under the Labor Law.
Jakarta – About 5,000 workers from one of the country's largest trade union organizations swarmed the streets Wednesday in Jakarta and Surabaya to reject the government's proposal to revamp revisions to the labor law.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The business community and labor unions agreed Tuesday to support the government's plan to insure dismissed workers through state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek.
Jakarta – It could have been fueled by an overreaction to fears of authoritarianism making a return, or fanned by eager-to-please businesspeople posturing before political leaders.
Jakarta – About 300 hard-line Indonesian Muslims vandalized a building housing the office of Playboy magazine on Wednesday in a protest against its publication in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
B. Herry-Priyono, Jakarta – For a few months in 1981, I was a casual worker at a pharmaceutical factory in Central Java. Then between 1992 and 1995, I had the privilege of working among the urban poor, including industrial workers, in Greater Jakarta. It was a period when the confidence of the New Order regime was at its peak.
After triggering a wave of protests, the government's version of the draft revision of the labour law has been canceled.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A rift within the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), which used to be dubbed "locomotive of democracy" has peaked with its chief being fired last week.
This time the conflict is between executive chairman Munarman and veteran lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, who chairs the foundation's powerful supervisory body.
Jakarta – The business community warned Monday the government's decision to review proposed changes to the labor law at the urging of workers would jeopardize investment prospects amid still high labor costs.
Jakarta – Protesting government policy, around 200 students are planning a hunger strike in front of the State Palace – although they will not be doing anything dramatic like sewing their mouths shut.
Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Hundreds of people vandalized and set fire to the Labuapi Police station in West Lombok regency Sunday, injuring two officers.
The incident was caused by news that police had shot and killed a resident of Karang Bangkot, which is located about 15 kilometers from the West Nusa Tenggara provincial capital Mataram.
Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Blontank Pour, Malang/Surakarta – Thousands of Muslims staged a rally in Malang, East Java, strongly opposing the publication of the Indonesian edition of Playboy on the grounds that it would promote pornography in Indonesia.
Rendi Akhmad Witular, Jakarta – The government has officially postponed its plan to submit the controversial draft of the labor law amendment to the House of Representatives following waves of massive, rowdy street protests across Indonesia.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Welfare-based job security could be a win-win way of settling the current the industrial conflict between workers and employers and repairing the investment climate in the country.
Ellen Nakashima, Singapore – A Singapore timber trader boasted that the cargo he had sent to India was a hardwood known as merbau, prized for its use in elegant flooring and door and window frames. The species has been so heavily logged in Southeast Asia that conservationists consider it threatened.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government is sticking to its guns in the debate over whether the military court should be the only court to try soldiers.
The Australian Government's latest responses to the problems of West Papua and asylum seekers contain an ugly echo of previous times when the underlying causes of human suffering were ignored for reasons of brutal political expediency.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The many poverty reduction programs the government implemented in 2005 took only a million people out of absolute poverty, a survey reveals.
Hera Diani, Jakarta – In a village in West Kalimantan, a patient's relative threatened a nurse with a traditional sword because she was reluctant to treat him, a discussion heard on Friday.
"It was not even a nurse's job, it was a doctor's," Achir Yani S. Hamid, the president of the Indonesian Nurses Association, told a forum on Indonesian public health.
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Eighteen-month-old Citra stares vacantly up at the ceiling of her parents' small house in Dadap village in Serpong, Tangerang. The malnourished child was sickly at birth.
"I don't have the money to take her to hospital for treatment," said her father Nurhasan, who is a farmer.
Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – While smokers are being held accountable for air pollution, it is not clear what the consequences are for car owners who fail to get an exhaust emissions test done.
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Pasuruan – A small shop damaged by a passing Navy tank has sparked anger among hundreds of residents of four villages of Grati district in Pasuruan, East Java.The residents protested Thursday by blocking the major Pasuruan-Probolinggo route using bamboo trees. The blockade led to heavy traffic jams along 20 kilometers of the busy road for nearly two hours.
Jerry Norton, Jakarta – Playboy magazine may no longer rate on the sexual cutting edge in some places, but the first edition in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, caused a stir on Friday.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – People from religious groups readying to protest the first edition of Indonesia's Playboy, which hits newsstands Friday (today), might want to read the magazine first.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The attorney general has questioned police for failing to investigate Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former deputy chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), in connection with the murder of human rights campaigner Munir.
Ruslan Sangadji, Palu/Jakarta – Representatives of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama are calling for a stay of execution for three Poso death-row convicts until the men's claims of innocence can be fully examined.
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Indonesia's economy is expected to continue slowing down this year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Thursday, with high inflation and interest rates still battering consumption and private investments.
Ridwan Max Sijabat – Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno gathered with top aides in a daylong meeting Thursday, amid increasing signs the government may bow to pressure to scrap planned revisions to the 2003 Labor Law.
Hera Diani, Jakarta/Serang/Chiang Mai – For nearly three decades, Slamet Rahayu, 58, has worked in the fight against tuberculosis by finding and monitoring TB patients in neighborhoods in Central and East Jakarta.
M. Azis Tunny, Ambon – Three thousand workers of Djayanti Group's Seram Plywood employed at PT Artika Optima Inti in Seram regency, Maluku, staged a rally for a second day Thursday to protest against the management's decision to lay off 2,589 of its workers.
Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – Dozens of illegal sawmills around Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in West Lampung, which had stopped operating during the past several months, are again processing timber from the park and nearby community-owned resin plantations, environmentalists say.
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) called participation of the commander of Indonesia's Kopassus Special Forces in a US military conference a bad precedent and a setback for efforts at reform and accountability. Major General Syaiful Rizal is in Hawaii this week to attend the Pentagon's annual Pacific Area Special Operation Conference (PASOC).
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Labor unions pooled their resources Wednesday in stepped-up protests nationwide against planned revisions to the labor law, with worker absenteeism due to demonstrations of the past two weeks causing mounting losses to industry.
Jakarta – Thousands of workers in the country's main cities took to the streets Wednesday to voice their objection to the proposed revisions to the 2003 Labor Law.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla adopted a soothing approach Wednesday to a seething labor protest outside his office in Central Jakarta.
Kalla sat down with 10 labor union representatives after an estimated 60,000 protesters gathered to denounce controversial changes to the 2003 Labor Law.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Of the more than 100,000 state officials nationwide required by the Anticorruption Law to report their personal wealth to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), only half have complied, the commission says.
John Birmingham – What was Bill Leak thinking last weekend? There he was, a senior diplomat, respected authority on Australian foreign relations, widely known to have the ear of John Howard and the autonomy to pronounce on government policy without fear of contradiction, and in a fit of madness he throws it all away just to... Oh, sorry. That's right. He's none of those things.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The recent memo-writing scandal involving Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi shows that a culture of corruption is still deeply rooted in officialdom, despite the efforts of the government to rid itself of the scourge, observers say.
Jakarta – The National Police signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with Britain to increase police cooperation between the two countries to combat transnational crimes and terrorism.
Cartoonists might make light of it, but the view from Jakarta of separatist unrest in Papua is anything but funny. Papua is many times larger than East Timor and Aceh combined.
Peter King – The fracas between Indonesia and Australia over West Papuan refugees may blow over, but the underlying issues won't go away anytime soon.
Jakarta, Palu, Kupang – The government should delay the execution of three men on death row for inciting sectarian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, to ensure justice was done, legal experts say.
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Bogor – The massive illegal logging of Papuan merbau timber is being fueled by five giant international flooring companies, which are neglecting to check whether they have bought legal timber, a new report says.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – A leading corruption watchdog lambasted the government Tuesday for its failure to recover the bulk of taxpayer money stolen by corrupt businesspeople and officials.
Coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki rated as poor the performance of each agency enlisted to pursue people accused of corruption and seize their assets.
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said Tuesday he simply followed orders in the decision to drop criminal charges against several delinquent debtors from the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) program.
He said his office implemented the directive of Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in March.
Conflict is mounting in Indonesia over proposed changes to the country's labour laws. A bill to amend the current manpower act is due to be tabled in the House of Representatives next week. The changes would allow investors to put workers on limited contracts and would reduce severance payments for sacked employees.
Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesians rallied across the world's fourth-most-populous country on Wednesday to protest against a parliamentary move to revise employment laws.
Jakarta – Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto said military cooperation between Indonesia and Australia would remain normal despite the souring of Indonesia-Australia relations following Canberra's action in granting temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum-seekers.
The Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) is to join the annual Pacific Area Special Operation Conference for the first time since a military embargo was imposed on the country by the United States in 1998.
Bandung – Hundreds of pedicab drivers in Bandung protested outside the office of civilian guards on Monday after the alleged beating of a driver on Saturday.
Pedicab driver Agus Sarifudin said the protest had not been planned. "It's spontaneous," he said.