* Indonesia the longest, and thus where memories and fear are strongest too.
Trade union demands
While the independent SBSI labour union has been allowed to work freely, the economic crisis has created greater insecurities among workers who still have jobs and who fear dismissal for unionising. The reported membership of the SBSI is now
30 000, a tenth of what it had claimed four years ago.
The preoccupation of all workers is now their survival. When they are unsure from week to week whether they will retain their jobs and how to manage on the already low wages which are a fraction of its previous value, it is unrealistic to expect them to play an independent political role for some time to come.
Worker activists have continued to agitate combining political and economic issues in the best possible way. One protest outside the Labour Department in Jakarta had the following demands:
• Stop military intervention and violence in labour, women and civilian problems.
• Reject the draft law on demonstrations.
• Abandon Labour Law number
25/1997 which harms workers' rights.
• Stop corruption and collusion between employers and the
Ministry of Labour.
• Free workers activist Dita Sari and other political prisoners.
• Freedom of speech and organisation.
• Remove discrimination against women in the workplace.
• Lower prices.
• Raise wages by 100% or Rupiah
11,500/day.
• Stop the firing of workers and pay wages during temporary layoffs.
• Financial transparency of companies before its workers. Poverty and debt
The Government has admitted that 40% of the population (80 million people) are now under the official poverty line as compared to the 1996 estimate of 11% before the economic crisis. The spiralling cost of basic staples makes three meals a day a luxury for all but the middle class. The poorest skip a mid-day meal and look for substitutes to rice.
The government has announced the distribution of subsidised rice but it will take months before all those in need receive adequate supplies. The value of the rupiah has not recovered measurably from its 80 per cent depreciation of its value in June last year and the economy remains in the doldrums.
The Habibie regime has been the beneficiary of credit and loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and continues to implement an austerity programme which nationalises the US$80 billion private debt of a handful of Suharto's cronies and family members and passes on the cost of repayment to the poor. A further package of US$7.9 billion was agreed by the Consultative Group on Indonesia at the end of July.
On September 22nd the Paris Club of donor countries to Indonesia will finalise details of the "restructuring" of Indonesia's sovereign debt. The World Bank which chairs this meeting has acknowledged that it knew that at least twenty per cent of its loans to Indonesia during the Suharto regime were diverted into private purses, and thus it colluded with those corrupt practices. Yet it continues to demand
There is no strategy to restore the purchasing power of the people, to generate the jobs that are needed, to write off the (public or sovereign) debt that is almost as large as the private debt and which was incurred by an illegitimate regime financed by banks and international financial institutions who should bear the costs of their irresponsible lending decisions and the whip of the 'market' they are so keen to flex on others. Army atrocities exposed
In Aceh, East Timor and West Papua, families of the 'disappeared' and human rights groups have come forward with details of those believed killed by ABRI in its counter-insurgency operations and 'dirty war'. Extra-judicial executions, 'disappearances', torture and long terms of imprisonment for political 'crimes' on trumped up charges were rife. General Wiranto made a public apology for ABRI atrocities in Aceh and has announced that 'non-organic military units' will be with-
All these 'provinces' too shared the status of 'Military Operational District' (DOM), which is blamed by locals for legitimising the militarisation of their societies and exacerbating the poverty-stricken conditions as military authorities and their activities frustrate and hinder employment and investment projects.