When this storm passes, we will need to be ready to pick up the pieces of an economy — despite the painful experiences of watching it grind to a virtual halt and a buckling health system. We must also be ready amid the grief, anger and frustration of people who have lost loved ones, their livelihoods and their sense of security, and the millions who are looking at being furloughed indefinitely — if they haven’t been laid off already — despite promises of government aid.

Enter the proponents of the government-backed job creation omnibus bill, which has been controversial from the outset. The broad bill primarily aims to remove the barriers to the investment Indonesia sorely needs, such as the bureaucratic licensing procedures. It also eases requirements for layoffs and severance and relaxes environmental requirements for projects that are deemed low-risk.

The bill looks to revise 79 laws and do away with the thousands of contradicting regulations that have been blamed for Indonesia’s low ranking in the Ease of Doing Business index.

The omnibus bill would provide the legal grounds for the country to be better prepared to jump-start the economy when the pandemic subsides. One of its objectives is to reverse the composition of Indonesia’s labor force and shift millions of poorly paid workers from the dominant informal sector to the more protected formal sector.

Nonetheless, the news that the House of Representatives would soon restart deliberations over the bill was shocking — a shock that has prompted the more vocal, unionized workers to threaten a rally on April 30, despite the large-scale social restrictions in Greater Jakarta.

True, the bill may benefit the majority of those in the more vulnerable informal economy, who include the poorest. Yet the House’s promise of dialogue and negotiations has turned out to be a mere “hearing mechanism”, union representatives say.

The workers’ fears surrounding job security are greater — and perhaps more real — than the threats the virus poses. Any gathering at this time, let alone rallies, risks too many lives to create a chain reaction that could doom the fight against the virus to failure. But perhaps taking to the streets is the only way for desperate workers to have their voices heard.

While the lawmakers are far from gaining public trust to deliberate a supposedly groundbreaking bill, now is certainly the worst time to restart the deliberations instead of focusing their energies on how to alleviate the suffering of millions affected by the outbreak. And as if everything was business as usual, news has leaked of lawmakers’ plan to continue receiving their vehicle allowances.

A regime that is insensitive to real-world conditions and real-life needs getting ready to discuss the so-called job creation bill — and likely behind closed doors — as jobs are being axed left and right, only to force the labor unions’ hands to violate the COVID-19 mitigation policies with rallies: This is the last thing Indonesia and its people need right now.

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