Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

And about bloody time, I say!

Some seven years ago I recounted the pleasure I got from forcing motorcyclists off the pedestrian sidewalks. And now comes news of a coalition of groups who are tackling the issue by holding up placards bearing the words “Pedestrian Walks are for Pedestrians” and “Sidewalks are not for Motorists”.

Protesters joining the rallies came from several organizations, including KRL Mania, the Institute of Transportation Studies, the Indonesian Transportation Society and Suara Transjakarta, and some joined spontaneously, which they didn’t in ‘my’ day.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a photo of that particular demo, but these two are other examples of the “i-could’nt-give-a-damn-about-anyone-else’ syndrome. 

A parked car in a bike lane.

And this one speaks for itself.

Much larger protests have gained wider media attention here because, perhaps for the first time, workers’ unions have been flexing their muscles. Unfortunately, some may say, it’s been muscular rather cerebral; after all, blocking off toll roads to emphasise the need for a ‘living’ wage can cause loads of resentment amongst motorists who have ‘important’ appointments to keep. That the roads are perpetually jammed seems to have been ignored.

As an individual who fortunately wasn’t going anywhere last Thursday, and I won’t be this Thursday when the unions are threatening to block access to Jakarta’s main airport and the toll road to Merak port, Java’s gateway to Sumatra) is somewhat immaterial. I reserve my wrath for the convoys of the self-important who block my way – and that includes you, Obama.

What is more to the point is that, as much as Asian employers protest to the government that paying more than the minimum wage ($120-200 per month) would harm their ‘investments’ in labour intensive industries (textiles, footwear and electrical appliances, their actions are leading to social unrest.

Mutterings have been heard in the media, owned by members of the corporate elite, that agitators are behind the industrial unrest and that thugs have intimidated those workers unwilling to withdraw their labour. That may be true, but before condemning the strikers, ask yourself what you would do in this situation.

Workers in Bekasi, a satellite town east of Jakarta, were enraged after a court annulled a provincial minimum wage increase, set by the governor from Rp.1.29 million ($143) per month to Rp.1.49 million ($165).

According to a 2010 survey by Japan External Trade Organisation, Indonesian factory workers are some of the lowest-paid in Asia, followed by Thailand ($263), India ($269), Malaysia ($298) and China ($300+), all per month.

After the workers hit the streets, the governor reissued the wage increase that same night. So the workers’ movement is now aware that forceful action on the streets can bring success. How long before we see other industrial centres in the country brought to a standstill? 

Protests can be individual or collective, can be planned or spontaneous; some succeed, some don’t, and some achieve undesired results. Stasis leads to extinction, and even a sitdown strike or a work in can work.

Workers sitdown strike in New York

Where there’s injustice you will nearly always find someone prepared to fight for what they perceive is right. How they go about it depends on their means and circumstances, but go about it they must.

Let justice prevail.

…………………………………………………………………………

You control our world. You’ve poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. 

We are slaves to your corporations, zombies to your airwaves, servants to your decadence. You’ve stolen our elections and abolished our basic rights as human beings. You own our property, shipped away our jobs (to Indonesia among other ‘cheap labour’ countries), and shredded our unions. You’ve profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. You’ve monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame.

We are hit… we are bleeding… but we ain’t got time to bleed.  We will bring the giants to their knees and you will witness our revolution!
Jesse Ventura

The medieval Crusades were ‘Holy Wars’, European Christians defending their religious realm against expansionist Muslims. Atrocities were committed by both sides, a situation which has persisted for nigh on a thousand years, as can be witnessed on an almost daily basis here in Indonesia.

However, in labelling 40 year old Jim Keady as “a Crusader”, I am referring to the fourteen (count ‘em!) years of his single-minded efforts to achieve basic human rights for the workers in the Indonesia’s sweat shops producing Nike sports goods for export, goods that the workers cannot afford on their earned income. As I will point out a bit further on, it is worth noting that many of the companies sub-contracted to Nike are Korean, albeit with Indonesian partners.

The workers are mostly Muslims whereas Jim is a committed Christian and sometime teacher of religious education to American high school students.

Having supported Jim’s work through this blog for a few years, we finally met up last Sunday for a couple of hours. Much of what follows is gleaned from our chat, as well as the immense coverage on the internet of his fine work.

I knew that he was forced to resign from his New York university; he was studying for his master’s degree in pastoral theology) when he refused to wear the sponsored sports gear from Nike because of their operation of sweat shops, i.e. cheap labour working onerous hours. Also exacerbating matters was the title of his thesis: “Nike and Catholic Social Teaching: A Challenge to the Christian Mission at St. John’s University,” examining the company’s business practices and challenging the university’s sponsorship agreement with Nike.

He was also not given a renewed contract by his semi-professional football club where, he told me, he was ‘understudy’ to Tim Howard, the current Everton FC goalkeeper, as well as being an assistant coach. Jim told me that he would have been satisfied to have been on the bench as reserve goalie at a major match, but it was not to be. He also told me that, unlike me, he had visited Charlton’s new stadium at the Valley and was a fan of Charlton, having also visited their training ground.

He still looks very fit; he had been for a workout that morning and was tucking in to a substantial meal at Ya ‘Udah when I arrived.

With a core of supporters who donate to Team Sweat, a not-for-profit organisation, Jim works alone, highlighting the appalling conditions endured by workers in factories in Indonesia sub-contracted to Nike, albeit with an expanding group of supporters who through their donations support him. I asked a number of questions, which arose through our conversation rather than having been thought out beforehand.

For example, I wondered whether there were any prominent sports stars prepared to be associated with him. Tiger Woods of Planet Golf and Roger Federer wear Nike gear, but neither were doing very well in June 2010 when I listed the football stars featured in TV ads coinciding with the World Cup in South Africa. None of them did very well: Theo Walcott of England and Ronaldinho of Brazil didn’t get to go and Cesc Fábregas played just 59 minutes of Spain’s four matches.

But I digress, and my question was somewhat naive anyway. After all, who’d want to bad-mouth their kit sponsor when they’re paid vast sums to wear it? In 1998, for example, Nike paid Tiger Woods $28 million. (Contrast that with the $100,000 spent in Indonesia from 1998 to 2000 on continuing education programmes for Nike workers and $150,000 on small loans to unemployed and disadvantaged people.)

I did wonder why Jim works alone and also why he focusses on the Nike sub-contractors in Indonesia; wouldn’t a broad coalition be more effective? As the Nike Anti-Sweatshop campaign says, it is but “one branch of a larger global movement aimed at raising awareness about labor conditions in manufacturing zones of developing nations where major global corporations increasingly contract for the manufacture of their products. There are hundreds of web sites concerning these issues.” (Actually, many thousands.)

Furthermore, Nike isn’t the only American corporation whose products are produced in factories abroad which operate free of the health, safety and labour laws in force, but not always enforced, in the USA. (Think Apple: they knowingly used child labour and outsourced workers in China whose “horrendous” working conditions were such that at least 19 were driven to suicide.)

One factor Jim mentioned to me was that it is common for NGO’s to be sucked in by the perks offered by such conglomerates as Nike. Offers of all-expenses paid factory tours abroad and round table meetings can be seductive. You can see that first hand here in Jakarta. I’ve often thought it strange that I should be paid no more than an adequate amount for teaching the children of rich parents, whilst international NGO staff obstensibly working on behalf of the downtrodden masses live in upmarket areas with the usual expat perks.

Jim’s approach is radically different from the better financed and/or sponsored NGOs: he spends time living with Nike factory workers on a typical wage of c.Rp.44,000 ($4.70) per day, which, pegged against inflation, is less in real terms than the c.Rp.11,500 (c.$1.25) a day they earned in 2000 when Jim first came here.

He has had meetings with union officials such as Siti Nurrofiqoh, the Chairperson of Bangkit Labour Union (Serikat Buruh Bangkit or SBB), who is deeply appreciative of Jim’s efforts, as this letter makes clear.

Union officials at PT SM Global, managed by Koreans, in Tangerang, “received pressure, repeated rotation of their positions, [were] downgraded, and [were] blamed by the management of the factory in front of all the workers saying that the factory will be closed as a result of the action of union officials … [thus] … making the union officials as the public enemy for the workers.”

The “workers were requested to sign a pre-arranged statement stating that they were in good condition, have no problem, and will not demanding anything.”

“Good conditions”? Only if the workers were prepared to accept an obligatory three hours of overtime per day, and that the women workers would show blood-stained sanitary towels when seeking their mandatory two days menstrual leave.

That last degrading action has long been a practice in factories managed by Koreans. I first heard of it during a football match some 20 years ago when one of the opposing team highlighted the issue, and stated that the women were forced to stand in the open, under the tropical sun, whilst undergoing the inspection. On that occasion, the managers were deported.

Maybe that is also the standard practice in Korea; Koreans are not noted here for much beyond their kimchi, and brutality which I witnessed at first hand when a teacher at the Jakarta Korean International School (JIKS) for three years until Xmas 2003. I was horrified at their use of the euphemistically named “love stick” (and occasional fists) to administer corporal punishments.

As for focussing on Nike, Jim says that if the market leaders change then others will have to follow.

Indonesia is Nike’s third largest manufacturing base, behind China and Vietnam, with 140,000 workers in 14 factories, and productivity is high. For example, 18,000 workers at PT Nikomas in Serang produce more than 2,000,000 pairs of Nike sneakers per month. If you discount the administrative and warehouse staff, drivers, security guards, and other non-assembly line staff, that’s c.four+ pairs a day per worker sold retail for anywhere between $50 to $500.
(See comments for updated stats.)

For 18 years workers at Nikomas complained about forced overtime and wage cheating, but it is only now, after a year’s hard work of research, lobbying and negotiations that a breakthrough has been achieved with Jim Keady’s help, lobbying and single-minded focus.

He is now proud to report that following almost a year of investigation and negotiation, 4,437 Nike factory workers will be paid $1 million dollars for overtime they were forced to do without payment. The settlement between SPN and the factory management reflects 593,468 of unpaid overtime hours that workers put in sewing Nike sneakers at the plant during the past two years.

But his work is not done yet; Indonesian law only allows redress for the past two years so that’s 16 years of unpaid overtime owed by Nikomas, with a further few thousand workers who are not part of the deal. There are also another 42 factories which are not yet party to such a deal.

I’m not a psychoanalyst, nor am I particularly enamoured of the notion of having another’s hang ups hung on you, so I can only surmise that Jim’s single minded-focus and self-sacrifice comes from his wellspring of Christian faith. That may be why his chosen position in a football team was goalkeeper, a position which demands the utmost concentration and patience, with a readiness to spring into action when required.

I’ve generally played as a defender, and I’m happy to have such a role supporting Jim in his humanitarian crusade.

One further point, as friend Oigal asked in a previous post of mine about Nike’s lack of oversight of their sub-contractors here: When do countries like Indonesia have to take responsibility for their own affairs?

Whilst employers here often ignore the prevailing labour law,Act No 13, 2003, and seek amendments to their advantage regarding severance pay,  this week the Constitutional Court annulled Articles 59, 64-66 regarding contract and outsourced workers, stating that “every company carrying out short-term projects had an obligation to treat their contract workers and permanent staff equally.“

I’ll leave it to Jim and the union representatives to examine the ramifications, if any, for the workers they are trying to help.

And I wonder if that ruling will be of any benefit to expatriates on fixed-term contracts?

I particularly dedicate this song to the punks in Aceh.

At least the police gave them black T-shirts!

Unfortunately, I can't think of anything suitable for the incidents of beheadings in Lampung, South Sumatra. Although they do call to mind the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland who had a habit of crying out "Off with their heads!" when anyone displeased her. Mind you, no-one seems to have carried out her wishes.

Rather than common sense, Indonesia at times it offers up a hallucinatory sense of WTF. Is Indonesia a 21st century version of 'Wonderland'?

I wonder, as do right-thinking Malaysians, why it is Malaysian companies which are involved in the "genocide against Indonesia’s endangered orangutans".

The Malaysian-based palm oil company, PT Silva Inhutani Lampung, a subsidiary of the Sungai Budi Group, allegedly took the land owned by the local villagers whilst the police stood by, and hired security forces. Villagers who remain now live in fear. And no wonder: videos shown this week to the House of Representatives’ Commission III overseeing human rights showed the killing of 30 farmers since 2009, including two beheadings by masked men carrying assault rifles.

The company, which has its headquarters in Wisma Budi, Jalan HR Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, responded, "How could there be massacre and the police did not take any actions to prevent it? Such an incident has never happened. Indonesia is a constitutional state. How could such an event happen?"

How indeed?

It would seem that to bolster their case against the landgrabbers, the farmers' group, which included former Territorial Assistant for Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. (ret.) Saurip Kadi, have got hold of a video from South Thailand where there is an Islamic separatist movement.

However, the same question can be asked about individuals and organisations which blatantly ignore the rulings of the highest legal authority in the land, the Supreme Court.

The same question can be asked about the rampant corruption which causes bridges to collapse, for schools not to receive their funding and the corruptors to subsequently suffer from convenient amnesia.

And the same question can be asked about the vandals, more religious nutters, who have beheaded a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a holy cave in Tawangmangu, an hour’s drive from Solo in Central Java Province.

I have some advice for these and other headhunters: If you want to get ahead, first get a brain.

November 10th, today, is celebrated as Heroes Day in Indonesia, to commemorate heavy fighting between Indonesian nationalist militias and British Allied forces at Surabaya, East Java on November 10, 1945. This was the first large scale armed conflict between Indonesia and foreign forces after Indonesia's Proclamation of Independence at August 17, 1945.

However, as Donny Syofyan has written in the Post, hero cults are carefully manipulated and maintained by manifold political and social forces. In Indonesia, for example, heroes have been limited to those officially recognized by the state, although not all of them deserved such a high honour.

There are many unsung heroes in every country, but few who are awarded the Civil Courage Prize, a human rights award which is awarded for "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk – rather than military valor."

Munir, Indonesia's slain human rights activist, was awarded the Prize posthumously.

Jakartass doesn't give awards, but I would like to draw your attention to Greenpeace Indonesia, an NGO funded by private donations which has consistently fought for environmental protection, something the government seems unable to do in spite of enforceable legislation. Most recently, Greenpeace has run afoul of Asia Pulp & Paper  (APP), part of the giant Singapore registered conglomerate Sinar Mas.

Just today, Greenpeace has been served with an eviction order from their offices in Kemang, an action not in keeping with Heroes Day.

Agus Supriyono, P2B’s head of enforcement, said the office had been built in an area designated for residential buildings only.

“Like any other building that violates regulations, we will have to seal off this building,” he said.

Kemang is an upscale area of South Jakarta which was once almost entirely a residential area. In the past dozen years it has been turned into an 'entertainment area', littered with bars, restaurants and other nighlife spots.

Greenpeace are fully deserving of a Civil Courage Award and their staff and volunteers should be recognised as the heroes they undoubtably are.

The symbols of democracy pinned up against the coast, the outhouse of bureaucracy surrounded by a moat./ Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight/ The overlords escape in the evenings, brothers on the night.
Washington DC by Gil Scott-Heron

The only Wall Street here in Jakarta is an English language institute so I assume that apart from students and teachers demonstrating their language fluency, there won’t be much, if any, direct non-violent action by the have-nots in Indonesia.

Elsewhere, the Occupy Wall Street movement has gone global with protests planned in nearly a thousand cities worldwide today to show “the global solidarity of the 99 percent with their grievances against the 1 percent.”

Knowing one’s enemy is fundamental if change is going to come. And come it must if future generations are to experience the joys of humanity rather than being condemned to an abject and unfulfilled life of misery.

Another perspective for capitalists to consider is that their greed is depriving themselves of umpteen billions of consumers, but we don’t want or need that. It’s consumerism which is destroying Planet Earth.

Inequality
How much longer can elites hide their privileges from view?
Taxing questions
The Indonesian government wants more people to pay tax so it should stop tax evasion by the rich.
Evil and wealthy
Indonesian martial arts comics do not flatter the rich.
Be rich, stay rich
Why are the New Order billionaires still doing so well?
Lifestyles of the rich
These newsbriefs present snapshots of how the rich live . . . and die.
The rich in Indonesia
How do they live? How do they make their money? How good are they for Indonesia?
Fascinated by Versace
Beautiful living in Indonesia is possible if you are superwealthy.
Rich, fat, and sitting down
Childhood obesity is a growing problem among the urban rich.
‘We can’t be seen as cheap’
Money matters when preparing an upper middle class Batak wedding in Jakarta.
Who will tame the oligarchs?
Not democracy but rule of law is Indonesia’s central problem.
Prosperous in the provinces
Friends and connections hold the key to riches in Kalimantan’s Barito region.
(fr. Edition 104 of Inside Indonesia, the online magazine.)

This post is yet another indication of my solidarity with the 99%.

….. long live the King.

There's an article in yesterday's Guardian about the new Thai government's plans to be even stricter in applying their lèse-majesté law to websites; the law "says anyone who defames, insults or threatens the king, queen, heir apparent or regent should be punished with three to 15 years in prison, but does not define what constitutes such behaviour."

When I sought to come to south-east Asia back in 1988, I really wanted to return to Thailand, having spent two periods of three months there in the previous year. I had no thought of settling down at the time. That hadn't seemed to be an option anyway as the only encounters I'd had there were with 'lady-boys'. (In case you're wondering, I had no difficulty in resisting their advances.)

It was happenstance which brought me to Indonesia, and I'm more than happy that life has turned out as it has. My glass is perenially half full.

However, I have retained an interest in Thailand. When I was in Bangkok, I often ate in the student canteen at Thammasat University and first heard of the students killed by paramilitary forces back in 1973. (Pictures here.)

Students from various universities were demonstrating against the return to Thailand of Field Marshall Thanom Kittikachorn, a former military ruler.

After Thanom was replaced by a civilian prime minister in October 1973, an army faction headed by Major-General Pramarn Adireksarn began plotting a return to military rule. Right-wing paramilitary groups were armed and trained and a crackdown on left-wing activists was prepared. King Bhumibol was a notable supporter of the paramilitary groups, a situation that has been described as "royal vigilantism."

The Communist takeover of Indochina in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War convinced many that Thailand could be the next communist target and that the nation's unruly left-wing students were aiding the enemy.

The day before the massacre, a photo of a mock hanging by Thammasat demonstrators was published in the Bangkok press. To many, the students in the photo appeared to be hanging the Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn in effigy. (His full name is Somdet Phra Boromma-orasathirat Chao Fa Maha Vajiralongkorn Sayammakutratchakuman) In response, outraged paramilitary forces gathered outside the university that evening.

Lieutenant-General Chumphon Lohachala, deputy director of the national police, ordered an attack in the morning and authorized free fire on the campus.  By the official count, forty-six people died in the attack, during which protesters were shot, beaten and their bodies mutilated.

That was then, but the country has more recent problems, which you can further research for yourselves.

What has caught my interest is an article in Wednesday's Guardian .

Thailand can best be described as a failing democracy, particularly as lèsé majesté, being dreogatory about the ruler, is treated as treason, punishable by 15 years in prison or more if, like Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of the online news site Prachataiy, you face multiple charges under the Cyber Crimes Act.

You see, the government and populace (are expected to) revere King Bhumibol who is now 83 and in failing health. The Guardian article refers to a Wikileak which offers the general perception that, due to his serial womanising and gambling addiction, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn is unfit to assume the throne.

According to a leaked US diplomatic cable, Thai leaders harbour grave misgivings about the crown prince's fitness to become king owing to his reputation as a womaniser and links to a fugitive former prime minister (and a former owner of Manchester City football club).

I emailed some friends in Thailand, in plain text, asking for their thoughts on the article, which I understand is now blocked within the country.

This is one brief reply.

As you know I have to be a bit careful on this subject but the topic has been doing the rounds here now for quite a while. And it's not only the locals who are not convinced but many of the ex-pats too, the reason is that it is reported that this guy is not a great fan of foreigners being in his country – especially Brit's.

Sorry I can't say too much more on this J.

Are they being paranoid without due cause?

Hardly, A blog snappily called Thai Political Prisoners reports that the Ministry of Justice is inviting people to join its ‘Cyber Scout’ training programme in order to build a network of volunteers to protect the monarchy in the online world.

Another site, worth checking for its revelations of otherwise 'hidden' news about Thailand is Pratachai.com. I'll be adding this to my list of Aseanist blogs.

I'm glad that fate brought me to Indonesia, not least because getting to grips with Thai script would probably have proved impossible!

Wikileaks disclosure of cables emanating from the US embassy in Singapore show that Indonesia is emerging as a power player in this region.

Diplomats from both superpowers [China and the USA] and other nations reportedly talked of a greater role for the Indonesia to engage Myanmar’s military dictatorship. Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told US diplomats that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono might potentially serve as an “interlocutor” to engage Myanmar.

“As a former general, [SBY] might be able to meet with Senior General Than Shwe and get him to listen,” Lee reportedly said.

Yudhoyono did exchange several letters with Than Shwe and sent a special envoy to cement ties with the junta during the period.

Although his services are sorely needed here, perhaps SBY might care to help out the generals who run Thailand through its Privy Council.which is currently lead by Prem Tinsulanonda, another of the region's retired army generals.