Labour Party (Indonesia, 2021)
The Labour Party (Indonesian: "Partai Buruh") is a political party in Indonesia founded on 5 October 2021. The party is reformed from and a continuation of the defunct 1998 Labour Party founded by Muchtar Pakpahan. The party formed after the 4th Labour Party congress on 4-5 October in Jakarta. The party has espoused a somewhat stronger left-wing foundation compared to the original Labour Party and is described as "pro-labourer and pro-worker". Despite that, Chairman Said Iqbal has not made clear if the party really follows left-wing politics, despite stating social democracy  as the party ideology. To add much further confusion, Said Iqbal himself also a right-wing activist and politician formerly from Prosperous Justice Party. Such unclear position also raised confusion to Indonesian political experts about the party alignment and commitment in labourism politics. History. In the aftermath of the passage of the Omnibus Law on Job Creation (Law No. 11/2020) by the People's Representative Council, many Indonesian labour unions felt disillusioned with the new law they deemed threatening to laborers and workers rights and protection they enjoyed prior the passage of the omnibus law. During the 4th Congress of  the Labour Party, Said Iqbal, Chairman of KSPI and sole candidate of the Labour Party's chairman said that the passage of the law was a defeat for Indonesian labour unions. He realized that pressure tactics by using labour unions and mass organizations as pressure groups against government, general strike tactics, and employment of political demonstrations in Indonesia omnibus law protests are useless to stop the passage of the law. Due to this, he now seeks a democratic way to take down the law, by putting pro-labour union and pro-workers politicians to join parliament. At the Congress, Said  Iqbal was elected Chairman of the Labour Party. The party is currently seeking a way to participate in 2024 Indonesian general election. Founding organisations. The 2021 Labour Party formed through the merging of the Labour Party and 10 other founding organizations: Beyond these founding 11 organizations, more than 50 Indonesian Labour unions also expressed their support to the party, according to Said Iqbal. Main program. The party program proposes the following changes: Responses. Both parties from ruling and opposition side of the current Joko Widodo administration congratulated members on the formation of the party, with the Great Indonesia Movement Party  congratulating the party formation from the side of the ruling coalition and the Prosperous Justice Party congratulating the party formation from opposition side. Many political experts see the party as having potential to grow quickly to having considerable grassroot basis from laborers, workers, farmers, fishermen, educators, and honorary employees. Despite that, experts also said that the new party also has a challenge in consolidating all labour movements in Indonesia as their source of power, particularly because current large parties in Indonesia also have their own affiliated labour unions and mass organizations which are much larger and more established compared to  the new party. Additionally, labor movements in Indonesia are currently fragmented and lacking strong figures to unite all laborers and workers. In political history of Indonesia, there were numerous labour-based parties formed since the Reformasi period but all the parties performed poorly and lacked strong figures, causing their impact to be negligible. Not all labour unions welcomed the party. The oldest Indonesian labour union, Confederation of All-Indonesian Worker Associations (Indonesian: "Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia", KSPSI) did not respond well with formation of the party and not joined the party. Leader of the KSPSI, Elly Rosita Silaban, explained  that such condition where labourism politics required to grow are not met in Indonesia due to lacking of three things: (1) Low trade union density, despite high number of labourers and workers. In Indonesia, from KSPSI 2021 data, from 127 million Indonesian labourers and workers, only 2.7 million are registered labourers and workers, and those 2.7 million labourers and workers also scattered across hundred specialized labour unions. (2) No single labour confederation as umbrella organization for all labour to channel and focused labour to one point. (3) Number of parties in Indonesia which much scatter and diluted the labourers' voice