Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

Before I get accused again of being negative in my writing about Indonesia, I would point out that much of what I write, including this post, refer to the exploitation of the country by outsiders. Of course, they couldn't get away with their practices without local players turning a blind eye or actually conniving.

Case 1
Once again, I'm putting Nike in the spotlight. They must spend an incredible amount on their internet presence in order to counteract the bad publicity their corporate insouciance has engendered over the years.

They say: As environmental, social and economic challenges in our world proliferate, they demand our best performance. We’re using the power of our brand, the energy and passion of our people and the scale of our business to create meaningful change. The opportunity is greater than ever for our sustainability strategy to drive business growth, build deeper consumer and community connections, and create positive social and environmental change.

This is their commitment made on waste reduction in their Considered Design program launched in 2001: At Nike, waste is any product or material used in the supply chain that does not ultimately end up in somebody’s closet. Considered design seeks ways to prevent the initial creation of waste, and where unavoidable, find ways to recycle and reuse.

Their Sustainable Business Performance Summary (Years 10 -11) was released just last week. It is supposed to demonstrate their continued commitment to Considered Design.

This is what they say about waste: We regularly work with our contract finished-goods manufacturers to assist them in reducing waste. To date, we’ve focused on helping them to optimize manufacturing processes, segregate waste at the source, measure waste types and volumes, and target reductions of high-volume waste materials. We have also led the development of six dedicated recycling centers in three countries – China, Vietnam and Indonesia – to support our closed-loop vision.

Jim Keady has recently revisited Indonesia and found this and similar sights at the three factories he visited.

He didn't visit the other 40 Nike factories in Indonesia.

Case 2 The British government's Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) is about to come under parliamentary review for its role in lending vast sums to dictators so they can buy arms with which to quell rebellious citizens.

The actions of the ECGD have led to it being christened the "department for dodgy deals" by the Jubilee Debt Campaign. You can download their report here. (Once downloaded, to make it readable change the file tag from .php to .pdf.) The report's Case Study No.1 is about Indonesia.

The majority of Indonesia’s £513.46 million debt to the ECGD, repayable by June 2021, as well as the £400 million repaid since 2000, can be attributed to arms sales made by the UK government to the brutal military dictatorship of General Suharto. Suharto borrowed heavily from the time he seized power in 1967 until his fall in 1998. Creditors repeatedly funded Suharto, an avowed ‘anti-communist’, even though instances of brutal oppression and corruption were well documented.

In 1998, then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook acknowledged that weapons manufactured and supplied by the UK were used against civilians. British supplied Hawk jets and Scorpion tanks were used when attacking resistance in Aceh.

The well-researched and referenced report also notes that Indonesia’s long term debt is truly enormous – currently standing at $151 billion; three times its national income. In 2008, Indonesia paid $22 billion in debt service – that’s over $2.5 million every hour – of which $5.6 billion was interest. Nearly 20% of its budget goes on debt service, more than on education (17.2%). (Source: Global Development Finance, The World Bank and Human Development Index, Indonesia, UNDP) ………………………………………………
International Views of Indonesia 1 is here.

May Day (May 1st, today) is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and a public holiday in over 80 countries. Indonesia is not one of those.

For some 100 years, May 1st has been celebrated as International Workers’ (also Labour) Day. Indonesia now recognises the rights of workers to organise demonstrations to celebrate this. Since 2007, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has regularly celebrated May Day with the workers, usually be saying what wonderful progress the government is making to benefit them.

For example, this year, in what Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar called,  ‘a gift’ to the country’s workers, this International Labor Day, the government will raise the threshold on non-taxable income (PTKP) to Rp.24 million (c.$214 per month), from the current Rp.15.8 million per year.

Muhaimin admitted ‘the gift’ was aimed at easing today’s planned mass rallies.

Yes, the government is worried about the disorder that an estimated 100,000 (or 60,000?) workers would create, so the Jakarta Police are deploying more than 16,000 officers to secure in this chaotic city.

Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi was optimistic that the May Day rallies would pass off peacefully as no issue remained that could raise the ire of workers. “Do you see any major issues concerning workers these days?” he asked.

Well, actually yes I do Minister, as you would too if you read the local or international press, or this blog.   

A report was published yesterday by the Fair Labor Association into the practices at PT. Glostar Indonesia (Glostar) located in Sukabumi, Indonesia. The factory, owned and operated by Pou Chen Group, supplied Converse (a Nike, Inc. affiliate brand), as well as Adidas and VF Corporation. Internal monitoring by Nike Inc., confirmed by internal monitoring by adidas, had found noncompliances in the area of harassment or abuse, among others.

Here is a synopsis of what the Fair Labor Association found in their investigation:
- Violations of Indonesian law with regard to hiring practices.
- Violations of Indonesian law with regard to the transport of workers.
- Violations of Indonesian law with regard to health and safety issues.
- Violations of Nike’s Code of Conduct with regard to grievance procedures or lack thereof.

- Workers forced to pay bribes for employment.
- Workers subjected to having shoe parts thrown at them.
- Workers subjected to foul language from the management.
- Workers are not given chairs with backs at their workstations
- Workers subjected to sexual harassment, including inappropriate touching and language.

- A worker being kicked by a supervisor for asking a question.
- A worker who was six months pregnant being berated and having a walkie-talkie thrown at her face because she took a moment to rest her head during her shift.

- Smoke detectors are not functioning.
- There are not proper worker evacuations plans in place.
- Factory chemicals are not properly labeled and stored at the factory.
- Proper risk assessments for health and safety in the embroidery, rubber, molding, punching and engineering areas were not done.

Jim Keady of Team Sweat has been campaigning for 14 years+ against such practices. That’s surely long enough for Indonesia’s government to understand the need to be pro-active in safeguarding the rights of its citizens.

A couple of days ago I was aghast by what Putra Sampoerna said in an interview in theJakarta Post about “his social opus, the Putra Sampoerna Foundation.”

First a bit of background. According to the interview, he is the “heir to PT HM Sampoerna“. I don’t think so as it not his anymore: the Sampoerna family is incredibly wealthy having sold their 40% share in the cigarette company to Philip Morris for $5.2 billion in 2005.

However, he is the founder of Sampoerna Strategic, which has a number of ‘strategic’ businesses. These include telecommunications, agriculture – a diversified plantation company currently engaged in the production of Germinated Oil Palm Seed, Crude Palm Oil and Palm Kernel, Slab Rubber and Sago, and forestry - among the top five tropical hardwood plywood producers globally.

There is also a property division.

Standing gracefully with two magnificent towers, Sampoerna Strategic Square proudly distinguishes itself as a signature building in the heart of Jakarta with its unique glass dome and beautiful garden. While its exterior view entices, its interior embraces you with a warm welcome as you step into this luxurious iconic building.

Sampoerna converted this building, formerly known as Sudirman Square and the headquarters of Danamon Bank, in 2007. It is the coldest building I’ve ever been in, with the centralised air conditioning set at freezing throughout.

Apart from these company divisions, Sampoerna is a major partner in Mansion (Gibraltar) Limited, an online gambling company that operates casino and poker websites. Online gambling is banned in the USA. However, the small state of Gibralter is much more easy going: it is a tax haven and accounts of large companies “are not available to the public“.

Manchester City Football Club fans may be interested to know that “the global online gambling and entertainment business, Mansion Group, [is the] new International Betting Partner“, having previously had their logo on the front of the Tottenham Hotspur shirts.

(Local football fans may well wonder why they couldn’t be more involved in the Indonesian football leagues.)

Of course, you can’t really be a large Indonesian company without playing the Corporate Social Responsibility scam. For a start, there is this page of gobbledegook about Sampoerna Strategy’s Sahabat microfinance programme.

Even with the power of 1205 reliable Human Resources we continue to innovate to develop products that suit the needs of the society, we continue to reach out and without stopping we take steps together to give you the best. Together with Sahabat, not just to give and serve, but to reach the current evidence in order to achieve in the future.

Well, it isn’t ‘perfect’ in my estimation, not by a long mile. It’s the Putra Sampoerna Foundation and, in particular, the Sampoerna Academy which gives me grave concern.

In support of the Ministry of National Education’s initiative “Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional”, Putera Sampoerna Foundation embarked on a complementary effort to provide deserving teens, students with excellent academic achievements and leadership character who come from the lowest economic quintile*, with access to an international standard high school education through Sampoerna Academy. Sampoerna Academy is a partnership program between Putera Sampoerna Foundation and some provincial governments with a comprehensive boarding system to instill the values of leadership skills, morality, empathy, tolerance and social skills needed to facilitate the development of Indonesia’s future leaders.
(*fr. Websters: quintile: the aspect of two celestial bodies 72º, or one fifth of a circle apart. Eh? )

On the face of it, it seems to be a noble endeavour, not that I believe private businesses should be involved in the provision of schooling unless it’s a vocational school providing skills training in, say, car mechanics. Check out the Solo Techno Park for a fine example of synergy between government, businesses and academia.

But it is what Putera Sampoerna says, somewhat gloatingly, in the interview that reveals his true motivation.

“For the Sampoerna Academy, we take the top five percent of academic achievers from junior high school and then select those that we believe have leadership potential.

‘These students are the smartest, the hungriest and come from the poorest families. We have them in our boarding school for three years so we can instill our value system into their DNA. The values are leadership, entrepreneurship, and giving back to society.

“I do not give scholarships for my students. They have to pay me back a total of US$15,000 spent for the three years in the academy.

“This is because I have invested in, let’s say, you, a student from a poor village. I call it an equity investment. I will support you through school and find other people to support you through school. As soon as you get a job, I’m entitled to 20 percent of your income throughout your life.”

So, these places aren’t awarded for purely altruistic reasons but because they will offer him a financial return, and if it’s 20% of future earnings “for life“, then potentially great profits. The expression “instill [his] value system into their DNA” has a sinister connotation: brainwashing? The society they will give back to is his, not mine or yours. That’s even more sinister in my book as it smacks of a dictatorial fascism.

Given that he has brought a number of “sponsors” into the programme who can be expected to employ the graduates from his ‘Academy’, he is in a position to render them unemployable within his network if they do not pay him his tithe.

Unfortunately, the research project “Contemporary Forms of Bonded Labour in Southeast Asia” was completed in 2009. Otherwise this particular instance of capitalism in its most inhuman form would have made a suitable case study.

Taking impressionable junior high school students, and tying them to an agreement for life, is surely a form of indentured labour, or debt bondage, as it is mediated through patronage relations which reduces the worker’s personal autonomy to the degree that s/he is prevented from protecting her/his legitimate personal interests.

I would also argue that it contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly Article 4 which states: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

I recognise that it is possible that there has been a mistranslation of Putera Sampoena’s actual words, or perhaps they have been edited out of context. However, considering that the bulk of hiis wealth has come from the evil weed and gambling, he’s not a man I would entrust my son to.

Would you?

Jim Keady is ecumenical in his coherent campaign against the abuses committed by Nike’s sub-contractors here in Indonesia.

His latest email missive is an open reply to a teacher at the Creighton Preparatory (Catholic) School in Omaha, USA. Jim certainly doesn’t need me to to offer a counter-argument. However, I do feel the need to challenge the academic competence, and thus credibility, of his correspondent, who does not seem to be prepared to engage in further discussion.

Jim writes, “Since he has not written me back, I also will not share his name or the subject he teaches.” That is a pity, but can merely hope that he is not tasked with encouraging creative, analytical thinking, or “the hermeneutic of suspicion” as Jim puts it.

I have highlighted in bold red those basic language errors  I have found. (If you find any more, feel free to challenge my competence.)

TEACHER: Jim, I find your rhetoric full of bias and anti-capitalist propaganda. In your attempt to help those whose human rights are being imposed on; your approach and style of delivery does nothing but push students away. You ostracize anyone who questions your opinions and it seems as if you project attacks back at students because your stance is so flawed & hollow. Instead of giving the student’s both sides of the issue and asking them to work together to find an appropriate solution, you simply cast aspersions on Nike and belittle your audience if questioned. I found it offensive and unprofessional the way you shot down one of our student’s at Creighton Preparatory School and if you believe that is spreading your message in an inspiring way; you are sadly mistaken.

The following is total bullshit. What standard of living do workers have when life’s little luxuries (e.g. a TV), or necessities (e.g. a motorcycle, because of the paucity of public transport) are bought on credit, with a minimal deposit.

Have you looked at how jobs in Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, ect…. have allowed people to increase their standard of living despite the low wages.

(My emphasis. Also note the lack of a question mark!)

TEACHER: I question your intentions and your level of commitment to helping those most in need. Your pathway seems much more likely to hurt as opposed to helping them.

At least he recognises that workers in Indonesia’s sweatshops are among “those least [well?] off“.

As a matter of fact, your message was so convoluted with political pomposity that you have inadvertently become Nike’s biggest spoke’s person. I just purchased new clothes online through Eastbay and I made sure and purchased all Nike so I could help those who Nike is so graciously helping employ.

It’s the sub-contractors, often Korean-Indonesian joint venture companies, who directly abuse the local workers. Nike have effectively ‘divorced’ themselves from taking direct responsibility for the production of their sportswear.

Also, note the condescension: ...those who Nike is so graciously helping employ.
WTF, eh? Since when is seeking high profit margins a gracious act?

TEACHER: The youth athletic association that I have been on the board of will now purchase all Nike as well.
“….have been on the board of..” Does that mean that he now is not on the board? If so, how can he effect decisions?

All just for you.
Well, he certainly has done nothing to increase the welfare of any Indonesian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, ect worker, has he!

So in short, thank you for helping me make the decision to support Nike. Your talk really helped out.

Never mind, Jim. You’ve got a good batting average. Win some, lose one isn’t bad at all.

And with a bit of luck, teacher’s new clothes will fit just like Seymour Skinner’s.

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.