JAKARTA - The issue of Old Age Security (JHT) that surfaced earlier this week triggered a reaction from the Indonesian people, including netizens. In the eyes of netizens, the new JHT rules made based on the Minister of Manpower Regulation (Permenaker) No. 2 of 2022 will only make it difficult for Indonesian workers.
The Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 2 of 2022 signed by the Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah regulates the Procedures and Requirements for Payment of Old Age Security Benefits. The new Permenaker replaces the old regulation, Permenaker No. 19 of 2015. Under the new regulation, JHT can only be disbursed after participants enter the retirement age of 56 years.
According to the old regulations, JHT could be disbursed one month after the participant of the Social Security Administering Body (BPJS) for Employment was fired or resigned from the place of work. There is no mention of the age limit for JHT recipients in the old regulation, while the new regulation is 56 years old. This change has sparked criticism from netizens.
Media Monitoring Netray monitored the issue of JHT among netizens, and found that there was a lot of attention to this issue.
12 Thousand TweetsNetray uses BPJS keywords and special BPJS && JHT keywords as tools to monitor JHT issues on social media. The result is more than 12 thousand tweets on Twitter using these keywords, uploaded by 3000 accounts in the 10-15 February 2022 crowd.
The first tweet that received the most attention regarding voting for this rule was uploaded by the @mas_recruiter account on 10 February. This account, which has more than 90 thousand followers, stated that BPJS participants who resigned from January to March can still make full disbursement of JHT funds. Meanwhile, the rules for claiming JHT disbursement at the age of 56 will only be applied starting in May 2022.
Due to the large number of followers, the tweet received a lot of responses so that it became a new topic of discussion in cyberspace. This JHT topic continued to move up, until it peaked on February 12 with 3,601 tweets.
Accounts with thousands to tens of thousands of followers also voiced the polemic. The topic of JHT is able to get the attention of netizens and has the potential to reach 114 million accounts. Even Said Didu's @msaid_didu account, known as a government critic with more than 500 thousand followers, also commented on this issue.
There is also the account @Mdy Asmara1701 belonging to Maudy Asmara who criticized the new rules. According to Maudy, the new regulation regarding JHT will make people miserable. Maudy's tweet also received thousands of responses from netizens.
Apart from being considered miserable for the people, the new rules regarding JHT are also seen by netizens as a reflection that the Indonesian government is experiencing economic difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to save money, the government has to make it difficult to disburse funds for workers who have been laid off.
Allegations of Corruption at BPJSThrough the Top Complaints feature used by Netray, it can be seen that some vocabulary is indicated as complaints expressed by netizens in conversations about this issue.
From the table above, the word layoffs ranks first in the ranks of Top Complaints on the topic of the new BPJS JHT rules. The new policy from the government is considered to have a big impact on the layoff victims. No doubt many netizens have criticized the new regulations.
Warganet thinks that the government is outsmarting the people by playing with BPJS money. Even netizens also suspect that the BPJS is short of money so that it burdens BPJS participants.
Not only that, netizens' suspicions were also directed at the BPJS, which was suspected of being involved in corruption against the funds it managed. So that the new regulation makes it difficult for BPJS Employment participants to disburse JHT funds.
Rejection Via PetitionNot only voicing through tweets uploaded on their personal accounts. Warganet is also echoing the rejection of the policy through the distribution of petitions. As of Friday, February 18, 2022 at 15.30 WIB, this petition has been signed by 417,383 people. This means that hundreds of thousands of Indonesians have agreed to the rejection of the new policy regarding the claim process for JHT funds managed by BPJS.
The new regulation for disbursing BPJS JHT funds gives a bad signal because the process is considered difficult. The public has vigorously voiced their disapproval of the new policy. Even a petition has been distributed and signed by hundreds of thousands of people as a form of rejection of this new policy.
The public represented by Warganet also continued to express this rejection by providing their opinions and criticisms through uploading their respective personal accounts. Warganet continues to hope that the regulation can be reviewed because it concerns the rights of the owner of the funds.
Trade Union DemonstrationOn the ground, the reaction against the new JHT regulations was manifested in a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Manpower's Office in Jakarta on February 16. The demands that were voiced were of course the rejection of the Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 2 of 2022. The union group requested that the Minister of Manpower be canceled.
"Yes, if you don't want to revoke the rule, we ask to be removed or resign from office," said Said Iqbal, President of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI).
The Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah responded to all public reactions regarding the new JHT regulations as a dynamic of democracy.
"The government respects the effort to judicially review Permenaker 2/2022 because it is part of the dynamics of democracy," said the Minister of Manpower (Menaker) Ida Fauziyah in a statement received in Jakarta, Antara, Friday, February 18.
The Minister of Manpower explained that the latest regulation on JHT had been promulgated, so the Ministry of Manpower had a constitutional obligation to implement it until there was a Supreme Court decision that decided otherwise.
The implementation of the Permenaker which comes into effect on May 4, 2022 is not for the benefit of the government or BPJS Employment, but rather to strengthen the implementation of the JHT Program so that the benefits are felt optimally by workers.
Ida ensures that JHT funds are guaranteed safe. Strict external supervision through the National Social Security Council (DJSN), the Financial Services Authority (OJK), and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), as well as internally through the BPJS Supervisory Board from elements of workers, employers, government experts, and internal supervisory units continues to be carried out .
According to Ida, the Old Age Guarantee Fund (JHT) will not be used by the Indonesian government. JHT funds are still available when participants enter the age of 56 and can feel the benefits.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
