PKS Faction DPR Member: The Assumption That The Job Creation Law Is Prioritizing Manpower Issues Is A Wrong Diagnosis

Illustration (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Government said that the Omnibus Law on Work Creation is one of the main transformation priorities, including for post-pandemic economic recovery.

Member of Commission XI DPR RI from the PKS faction, Anis Byarwati assessed that the Job Creation Law has several weak points.

"First, the weakness started from the lack of explanation regarding the direction of the Work Creation Omnibus Law Bill. The government calls it an improvement in the investment climate but does not explain in detail how this bill will improve the wheels of the Indonesian economy, ”said Anis in a statement received by VOI , Sunday, October 18.

Second, he continued, the government considers the work creation Omnibus Law Bill to stimulate the national economy which is hit by a crisis, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to Anis, the current economic slowdown in Indonesia cannot be resolved by simply regulation, because Indonesia's economic problems lie in more fundamental matters.

"Among Indonesia's fundamental economic problems is the low productivity of our workforce. According to the Global Competition Index report released at the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year, the ability of Indonesian workers is ranked 65 out of 141 countries with a score of 64, "He explained.

This ranking, said Anis, lost to neighboring countries such as Malaysia which was in 30th place with a score of 72.5, even though we were still ahead of Thailand and Vietnam which were ranked 73 and 93.

"Meanwhile, the Job Creation Bill only focuses on generating new jobs, not on increasing worker productivity," he said.

Based on this data, Anis assessed that the Job Creation Bill did not answer the problem.

Third, Anis added, the Omnibus Law on the Job Creation Bill only touches the country's structural economic problems with the main focus on facilitating investment, and loosening labor regulations, not towards the fundamental economy.

"Meanwhile, currently, economic problems in Indonesia are still fundamental (fundamental) as explained above, namely concerning worker productivity," said Anis.

If the government fails to address these fundamental problems, according to Anis, the Indonesian economy will not rise from stagnation.

Fourth, the Job Creation Bill is intended to facilitate investment.

"But putting priority on labor issues, this is a wrong diagnosis," said Anis.

Quoting World Economic Forum data, the main problems hindering investment in Indonesia are corruption and legal uncertainty that surrounds it.

WEF research shows that there are 16 factors that hinder the investment climate in Indonesia and corruption is a major obstacle. Indonesia is currently in 85th place out of 180 countries in the 2019 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International.

"By paying attention to the points above, presumably we cannot hope that the Omnibus Law will be a solution to Indonesia's economic problems amid the COVID-19 pandemic," concluded Anis ending.