Considered Discrimination, Bawaslu Is Expected To Protect Labor Political Rights

JAKARTA - Discrimination of workers/laborers to implement their political rights continues throughout the entire period of the election stage. Chairman of the National Campaign Team of the Labor Party Said Salahudin said, since the start of the stages of verification of political parties, there have been many cases of workers/laborers who are prohibited by the agency or company where they work to become administrators, even just to become members of the Labor Party. "For bosses and holders of positions at the management level, they can be free "Party, but the workers are prohibited from politics. The threat is always uniform: if you do politics, you will be fired or your work contract will not be extended," said Said, Tuesday, January 2. Even then there are companies that prohibit their workers from making posts related to political parties on social media. Workers outside the company's movements were spying. Said said, worse conditions occurred during the nomination stage. Many Labor Party candidates are forced to leave without being paid The wages. Others were asked to resign after being stipulated in the Permanent Candidate List (DCT) by the KPU. The most ironic case occurred in North Sulawesi. A state-owned company deliberately obstructed the Labor Party cadres from participating in the candidacy by not issuing a letter of dismissal, while the workers have repeatedly applied for dismissal from their place of work. "As a result, the North Sulawesi KPU dropped the Labor Party cadre from DCT," Said said. Cases Above that, it would not have happened if Bawaslu carried out a "preventive function" by reminding agencies and companies about the political rights of the workers. Unfortunately, Bawaslu only remained silent. Even Bawaslu confirmed the act of eliminating Labor Party cadres from the North Sulawesi Provincial DPRD. In fact, Bawaslu should actually play a role in protecting the political rights of citizens. Since the issuance of the Constitutional Court Decision Number 011-017/PUU-I/2003, dated February 24, 2004, and declared again In many other decisions, the Constitutional Court has firmly stated that the constitutional rights of citizens to politics (political rights), especially the right to be candidates) are rights guaranteed by the constitution, laws, and international conventions, so that restrictions, irregularities, elimination, and the abolition of rights are violations of the rights of citizens. The decision of the Court, among others, is based on the provisions of Article 28C paragraph (2) of the Constitution 1945 which states: Everyone has the right to advance themselves in fighting for their collective rights to build society, nation and country. Then there is also Article 28D paragraph (1) of the 1945 Constitution which states: Everyone has the right to recognition, guarantee, protection, and legal certainty and equal treatment before the law. Article 28D paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution also emphasized: Every citizen has the same opportunity in government. Article 21 Declaration Universal Human Rights (DUHAM), Article 25 of the International Covenan on Civil and Political Rights which has been ratified by Law Number 12 of 2005 concerning Ratification of the International Covant on Civil and Political Rights (International Conventions on Civil and Political Rights), and Article 43 of Law Number 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights are also used as the basis by the Constitutional Court.

Based on the above legal reasons, the Labor Party urges Bawaslu to, first, issue appeals to government agencies, BUMN/BUMD, and private companies not to take prohibition, threats, and intimidation of workers/laborers who are members, administrators, including being candidates for legislative members or legislative candidates. Bawaslu must guarantee political freedom to workers/laborers. Second, the Indonesian Bawaslu must take over the case of the North Sulawesi Provincial DPRD candidate from the Labor Party which was dropped from DCT through the Decision Correction mechanism by canceling the North Sulawesi Bawaslu Decision, as this is justified according to the provisions of Article 85 Perbawaslu Number 9 of 2022 concerning Procedures for Completion of the General Election Process Dispute.