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or the first time in five years, President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono neither visited nor greeted workers at their workplaces as part of this year’s International Workers’ Day on Tuesday.

On May Day, the President arrived at his office in the morning and spent the entire day there.

This was unusual, as Yudhoyono normally left town while thousands of workers rallied in front of his office.

Starting from about 9 a.m., hundreds of workers staged rallies in front of the State Palace, among other key places in the capital.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said the protests did not disturb Yudhoyono’s activities and instead allowed for some pleasant feelings for the President.

“The President appreciated the protesters who staged protests in very large numbers in many cities, and the demonstrations ran well,” Julian told reporters at the Presidential Office.

He added that Yudhoyono had only a few meetings, but refused to go into detail.

The President’s special advisor for political communications, Daniel Sparringa, said, “The President is very happy to see that today’s rallies were massive but peaceful. This can be set as a model for democracy. We, including those among the political elites, must learn from what the workers have shown us today.”

Sparringa added the President also monitored the mass rallies occurring across the country.

Yudhoyono had always randomly visited companies to meet and talk with workers since 2007.

During last year’s International Workers’ Day, for example, the President visited a ceramics factory and a drinking water company in Bogor, West Java.

Daniel said Yudhoyono had chosen to complete his agenda at the Palace for the rest of the day merely because the President had no other official matters to attend to.

“But he’s keeping up with every aspect concerning labor, including the workers’ [rallies],” said Daniel.

Similar to what his boss did, Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar also spent the day at the office.

The difference was that Muhaimini managed to meet with hundreds of workers rallying in front of the ministry’s office.

“It has always been the government’s concern to improve workers’ welfare. For example, we are now working on creating a regulatory basis to guarantee that outsourced workers do not receive discriminative treatment,” said Muhaimin, who is also chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB).

The government’s efforts on outsourcing workers were actually made upon mandate from the Constitutional Court, which in January ruled that outsourced workers deserved treatment equal to that expected by other employees.

The government, however, seemed to forget about the fate of workers working overseas. Anis Hidayah of Migrant Care, said the government’s ignorance of migrant worker issues could be seen from the continuing cases where Indonesians were “criminalized” overseas.

Last month, two Indonesian workers who were shot dead by Malaysian police, allegedly became victims of illegal organ-trading, sparking protests from activists nationwide. The government has denied the allegations of any illicit organ trade.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said that the May Day rally ran smoothly without any significant disturbances or violence.

“The National Police have not received any reports of violence in the rallies,” he said.

According to Saud, the police had deployed two-thirds of its personnel to maintain security during the rallies.

Some 30,000 police officers across the nation were mobilized to secure the rally. “About 2,000 of them are from the Mobile Brigade unit,” Saud said, adding that the police officers’ firearms were not equipped with sharp bullets. “They were only allowed to use tear gas, and only if the rally turned ugly.”

According to the police, more than 100,000 workers nationwide staged protests in numerous locations in Indonesia. (aml)