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SBY out of town, again, while workers rally
Jakarta Post - May 2, 2013
Bagus BT Saragih and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Jakarta/Surabaya – When workers decided that the front of the State Palace would be the main location for their rally on Wednesday, they must have taken it for granted that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would be in the neighborhood to listen to what they had to say.
But just like in the past, on this year's International Workers Day, also referred to as May Day, Yudhoyono chose to skip town and leave the State Palace empty. On Wednesday morning, as workers began to descend on downtown Jakarta, Yudhoyono and his entourage were jetting off from Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in East Jakarta for Surabaya, East Java, for a five-day working visit to the province.
In Surabaya, Yudhoyono announced that as of next year May 1 would be a national holiday and he would issue a presidential decree to make it official. "So, next year we can celebrate May Day more solemnly," he said, during a meeting with workers of kitchenware company PT Maspion.
With Yudhoyono's decision, Indonesia became the ninth ASEAN country to declare May Day a national holiday. Brunei Darussalam, the grouping's current chair, is yet to adopt the policy.
At PT Maspion's compound, Yudhoyono encouraged employers and workers to have an amiable relationship for the sake of the economy. "The economy has grown and companies have made profit. Therefore, this should be the right moment to consider the welfare of workers," said Yudhoyono addressing the factory workers.
After visiting PT Maspion, Yudhoyono went to giant consumer goods manufacturer PT Unilever factory and Surabaya Industrial Estate Rungkut (SIER).
On Thursday, the President and his entourage are scheduled to witness a TNI joint-exercise in Asembagus, Situbondo Regency, to watch members of the Navy conduct an amphibian operation involving about 2,000 marines. He is expected to return to Jakarta from Malang on Sunday.
On May Day 2011, Yudhoyono traveled to Bogor, West Java, to meet workers at a ceramics factory and a water bottling plant.
The year before, the President visited carmaker PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing and PT Mesindo Putra Perkasa, a spare part company, in Karawang, West Java.
In 2009, Yudhoyono visited the PT Panasonic Electronics manufacturing plant in Bogor. In 2007, the President had lunch with hundreds of workers in Palu, Central Sulawesi. Yudhoyono actually remained at his office on May Day last year.
During his visit to Surabaya on Wednesday, the President could not escape the gathering of workers.
Around 50,000 workers from Surabaya and the surrounding towns, such as Sidoarjo, Gresik, Pasuruan and Malang, flocked to the provincial capital to observe International Workers Day. More than 32,000 personnel from the East Java Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) were deployed to secure the rallies and the President's working visit.
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