A Disciplined Freedom: The Paradox of Labour Rights in Post-Reformasi Indonesia
Rizma Afian Azhiim(1), Gema Ramadhan Bastari(2*)
(1) Aliansi Pemuda Pekerja Indonesia
(2) Aliansi Pemuda Pekerja Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
This paper will discuss the paradox of labour rights in Indonesia after the beginning of Reformasi in 1998. Despite workers having been provided with better regulations that uphold all of their essential rights, labour protests remain prevalent with the same demands every year. To explain this paradox, this paper will employ Foucault's concept of biopower to argue, that instead of bringing prosperity to workers, these new regulations have actually disciplined them. New regulations and freedoms have dictated and limited the kinds of actions that workers can undertake, constructing their logic and becoming internalised to the point that some do not realise that they are ironically being constrained by the very laws that were supposed to free them. As such, workers have unknowingly become trapped in a cycle of protest–new government policy–protest ad infinitum. This paper concludes that "Reformasi" has not done much to improve workers' prosperity. The Manpower Law and freedom of association have failed to guarantee the fulfilment of labour rights, instead giving a false sense of freedom. To escape this trap, the labour movement must find a way to fight outside of the logic provided by the Manpower Law by beginning to imagine a system where labour exploitation can no longer exist.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Agamben, G. (1995). Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life (D. Heller-Roazen, trans.). California: Stanford University Press.
Avonius, L. (2008). From Marsinah to Munir: Grounding human rights in Indonesia. In L. Avonius, & D. Kingsbury, Human rights in Asia: A reassessment of the Asian values debate (pp.99-109). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Burnham, P. (2001). Marx, international political economy and globalization. Capital & Class, 25(3),103–112.
Foucault, M. (1980a). Body/power. In C. Gordon, Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977 (pp. 53-62). New York: Pantheon Book.
Foucault, M. (1980b). Question on geography. In C. Gordon, Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977 (pp. 63-77). New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1980c). Truth and power. In C. Gordon, Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972–1977 (pp. 109-133). New York: Pantheon Book.
Foucault, M. (1994). Les mailles du pouvoir. In M. Foucault, Dits et ecrits (pp. 182–201). Paris: Gallimard.
Foucault, M. (2008). The birth of biopolitics, lectures at the college de France 1978-1979. (A. I. Davidson, ed.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hadiz, V. (1998). Reformasi total? Labor after Suharto. Indonesia No. 66, 109–125.
Hadiz, V. (2001). Capitalism, oligarchic power and the state in Indonesia. Historical Materialism, 8(1), 119–152.
Hadiz, V. (2002). The Indonesian labour movement: Resurgent or constrained? Southeast Asian Affairs, 130–142.
Hadiz, V. (2004). The failure of state ideology in Indonesia: The rise and demise of Pancasila. In C. B. Huat, Communitarian politics in Asia (pp. 148–161). New York: Routledge.
Handayani, S. W. (2016). Jaminan pemerintah Negara Republik Indonesia terhadap penyelenggaraan serikat pekerja sebagai hak azasi manusia. Jurnal Kosmik Hukum. 16 (1), 1–12.
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. USA: Harvard University Press.
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2009). Commonwealth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hidayati, N. (2014). Perlindungan terhadap pembantu rumah tangga (PRT) menurut Permenaker No. 2 Tahun 2015. Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora,14(3), 213–217.
Ismail, I., & Basir, M. Z. (2012). Karl Marx dan konsep perjuangan kelas sosial. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 1, 27–33.
Izzaty, & Sari, R. (2013). Kebijakan penetapan upah minimum di Indonesia. Jurnal Ekonomi & Kebijakan Publik, 4 (2), 131–145.
Lane, M. (2018). The impossibility of citizenship. International workshop on Power, Conflict & Democracy 2018 (Handout). Yogyakarta: PCD Journal.
Lemke, T. (2011). Biopolitics: An advanced introduction. New York & London: New York University Press.
Levine, M. J. (2007). Worker rights and labor standards in Asia's four new tigers: A comparative perspective. Berlin: Springer.
Marx, K. (1978). Capital (Vol. II). Middlesex: Penguin.
Marx, K. (2009). Wage-labor and capital. London: Dodo Press.
Maulinda, R., Dahlan, & Rasyid, M. N. (2016). Perlindungan hukum bagi pekerja kontrak waktu tertentu dalam perjanjian kerja pada PT. Indotruck Utama. Kanun Jurnal Ilmu Hukum, 18 (3), 337–351.
Mill, J. S. (2004). Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy. Cambridge/Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Ministry of Manpower. (2011). Perkembangan ketenagakerjaan di Indonesia. Jakarta: ILO Jakarta.
Nafila, Kristine, E., & Wijaya, E. (2017). Perlindungan hak-hak buruh pada praktik sistem outsourcing: Sebuah "kesenjangan penerimaan". Jurnal Hukum Novelty, 8 (2), 252–256.
Purwaningsih, R. (2008). Konflik antar serikat buruh. Jurnal Bisnis dan Ekonomi, 15 (2), 143-148.
Randi. (2017). Buruh vs perusahaan: Studi kasus konflik buruh/pekerja driver Go-Jek dengan PT Go-Jek Indonesia. Social Work Journal, 7(2), 10–17.
Sasongko, K. H. (2016, February 25). Menguak tabir ilusi kelas menengah. Indoprogress. Retrieved from https://indoprogress.com/2016/02/menguak-tabir-ilusi-kelas-menengah/.
Simanjuntak, P. J. (2002). Undang-undang yang baru tentang serikat pekerja/serikat buruh. Jakarta: ILO.
Sjahrir, S. (1956). Perdjuangan kita. Bandung: Jajasan Pendidikan Rakjat.
Soegiri, & Cahyono, E. (2003). Gerakan serikat buruh: Jaman kolonial Hindia Belanda hingga orde baru. Hasta Mitra.
Tjandraningsih, I. (2007, August 21). Serikat buruh/serikat pekerja di Indonesia. Indoprogress. Retrieved from https://indoprogress.com/2007/08/serikat-buruhserikat-pekerja-di-indonesia/.
Tjandraningsih, I., & Herawati, R. (2008, May 12). Dinamika jaringan perburuhan di Indonesia. Indoprogress. Retrieved from https://indoprogress.com/2008/05/dinamika-jaringan-perburuhan-di-indonesia/.
TURC. (2014). Lapsus: Refleksi perjuangan buruh di tahun 2014. Retrieved from TURC: http://www.turc.or.id/lapsus-refleksi-perjuangan-buruh-di-tahun-2014/.
Utomo, I. S. (2005). Suatu tinjauan tentang tenaga kerja buruh di Indonesia. Jurnal The Winners, 6(1), 83–93.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/pcd.36026
Article Metrics
Abstract views : 3664 | views : 2720Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2019 PCD Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Gadjah Mada University Jl. Sosio-Yustisia Bulaksumur Yogyakarta 55281
Telp (0274) 563362 Ext. 150; +62 811 2515 863 - email: pcd@ugm.ac.id