Defending democracy in Indonesia

The inauguration of Indonesia's democratically elected president, Joko Widodo ("Jokowi") on October 20 marks the most significant victory for democracy since the collapse of the Suharto military dictatorship in 1998. The significance lies not in who won the presidential elections in July but who lost. Former military general Prabowo Subianto narrowly lost the elections with a political platform that derided democracy as ineffectual and irrelevant to the Indonesian masses while promising to a return to the iron rule of the New Order regime.  Indeed the image of Suharto - who ruled Indonesia for 32 years under a repressive military dictatorship - was part of Prabowo's election campaign, appearing on billboards throughout the country.

Prabowo himself (once the son-in-law of Suharto) has a record of serious human rights violations including involvement in the kidnapping and disappearance of human rights activists in 1998 and orchestrating mass killings in East Timor. Despite this record of human rights violations and an overt commitment to dismantle democracy and restore authoritarian rule, Prabowo received tremendous support from some of the largest trade unions in Indonesia. Dismissive of human rights as not being a trade union concern, these trade unions officially declared their support for Prabowo and plunged the Indonesian trade union movement into its biggest crisis in the 16 years since the end of the the Suharto dictatorship. Since these trade unions included some of the biggest national industrial unions affiliated internationally, this in turn became a crisis for the international trade union movement.

When Prabowo lost the July elections these trade unions mobilized tens of thousands of workers to protest the election results and declared that they will bring down the Jokowi government. This is despite the progressive social policies of Jokowi including free access to health and education for low income families, social support for the poorest communities, restoring public transportation and public services and eradicating corruption in government. Most important of all is Jokowi's clear commitment to defend democracy and make it work. Yet this is what trade unions mobilized to oppose. When Prabowo's appeal of the election results was finally rejected by the electoral commission he declared that direct elections should no longer be held in Indonesia and instead the system of political appointment that existed under the Suharto dictatorship should be restored. Once again certain trade unions rallied to support this assault on democracy.

Contrast this to the courageous struggle for democracy in Hong Kong where hundreds of thousands have turned out in the streets to demand the right to direct elections. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) played a leading role, calling for a general strike on September 29. The IUF is tremendously proud of our members in Hong Kong who joined this strike and supported the pro-democracy protests.

In Indonesia we are proud of our members for not being among those unions that officially declared their support for Prabowo and mobilized against democracy. Had our affiliates done so they would have found themselves in direct conflict with the principles and values of the IUF and would have been expelled. There is no place in the IUF for unions that support dictators or dictators-in-waiting. In 2012 the 25th IUF Congress reaffirmed the need for unions to organize to "recapture for politics meaningful democratic control over the economic forces which shape our lives" and fight "shoulder to shoulder with those still seeking to establish core political and democratic rights in their countries". This was not a resolution but an urgent call to rebuild and defend the democratic system on which all of our goals as a trade union movement depend. That is why our members in Hong Kong took to the streets in support of democracy and why our members in Indonesia did not take to the streets in support of dictatorship.

The fight is far from over in Indonesia and the Jokowi presidency will face a continual crisis of those elite political and military interests attempting to restore the New Order dictatorship. Genuine trade unions in Indonesia must remain committed to the fight to defend democracy and democratic rights in the face of this threat. And internationally we must support them.