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Will jobs law guide Indonesia to a sustainable economy?
One key question that should help frame the debate surrounding the future of the law is how much it will help with the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Impacted by COVID-19 pandemic: Based on the 2020 Sustainable Development Report, the COVID-19 pandemic, in the short term, is expected to have the potential to cause severe negative impacts on most SDGs, specifically SDG 1 (ending poverty), SDG 2 (ending hunger), SDG 3 (achieving health and wellbeing) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).
T
he omnibus Job Creation Law has been the center of a vortex not only causing spiraling unrest in the streets in Jakarta and elsewhere across the country but also throughout a variety of commentaries about its implications on the daily lives of millions of citizens.
Depending on who you read and listen, opinions highly diverge with interpretations almost asymmetrically opposite to each other.
The government, on the defensive, considers it a game changer, an enabler that will attract jobs creating investments that will project Indonesia among the group of developed nations by 2045, while much of the rest of the country, except business leaders, denounces its provisions.
Interestingly, the entire world took notice of the new legislation, confirming the strategic importance attached to Indonesia, a regional power still in its development but with tremendous economical and geopolitical potential.
It is surely too early to reach some definitive conclusions on the law and much will depend on the derivative regulations that will be written in the months ahead, a mammoth task if you consider the comprehensiveness and magnitude of the legislation.
One key question that should help frame the debate surrounding the future of the law is how much it will help with the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Will the jobs that are going to be created offer the social and economic stability indispensable for millions of Indonesians citizens to emerge out of poverty? Will a stronger social security system framework be unveiled to offset the new flexibility to be unleashed in the job market?
