This Is The Reason The Job Creation Law Was Passed Faster Than The HIP Bill

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD said the Job Creation Law was passed more quickly than the Pancasila Ideology Policy Bill (HIP).

"The HIP Bill is because the government and the DPR have different views. If it is like the Omnibus Law it is the same, the aspirations will continue to be accommodated," said Mahfud in an event titled 4 Coordinating Ministers on One Stage: One Year Jokowi-Ma'ruf Dialogue which was broadcast on TVRI, Sunday, October 25th, evening.

He said this, because the two laws were the ones that were discussed the most by the public recently, even though the DPR had a number of laws that were being discussed.

"It must be remembered, there are a lot of laws that have been completed this year but there are only two that are busy, right? We are postponing the HIP Bill, and then our Omnibus Law is not postponed. It's just that it has become very busy," he said.

Furthermore, Mahfud straightened out the public view that the Job Creation Law was passed hastily. This is because the discussion of the law has been discussed for a long time. In fact, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has already mentioned in his inauguration speech, October 20, 2019.

"This means that the discussion has actually been a year until now. When viewed from the president's plan to the discussion in the DPR. So if you say it's in a hurry, it's not really," he said.

In the process of discussing the Law, said Mahfud, the government and the Indonesian Parliament always accommodated the aspirations of the labor unions from two sides, namely those who rejected and accepted.

"All we have accommodated, we invite them in different forums respectively. In my office no less than three times and the concrete proposals are accommodated and then discussed together," he said.

Mahfud admitted that he had difficulties in discussing this law because of the existence of a labor union that insisted on their demands and did not want to compromise. So, in the end the government decided to submit the draft law to the Indonesian Parliament for further discussion as well as to give a decision as an authorized institution.

Apart from receiving input from workers, he claimed, the government had received input from academics. This input flowed profusely after the education cluster was included in this law and is considered to have an impact on the commercialization of education.

"So it means that there are actually a lot of improvements in accordance with input from the community from labor groups in particular. [...] This means that it is aspirational, we respond to what is said by the community," he said.