Is there justice in Indonesia?

This is an idle question, at least for the next four weeks in my case. Those interested in my ongoing legal process will no doubt be pleased to know that on March 27th the presiding judges at the Industrial Relations Court will issue their verdict. There will be a further week for both sides to lodge arguments about the fine details. We fully expect that we'll be seeking higher compensation based on documents, or the lack of them, which have yet to be presented to the over-worked Lordships.

For example, our employment contracts and letters of dismissal were in English, whereas they should have been in Indonesian in the first instance. Although this was a fundament of our case, we still had to provide certified translations. That several clauses run counter to Act No.13, 2003 concerning Manpower ~ for example, the notion of a probationary period in a supposedly fixed-term contract ~ I suppose means that the added expense we've incurred thereby further help prove our case.

Of course, the major question is how come BPK-Penabur were unable to provide the original documents filed with, presumably, the Departments of Manpower, Education, and Immigration, and the police, in order to process the multitude of permits and visas which enable an expatriate to legally work and reside here.

We can usefully ask why, on a number of occasions, several of us had to leave the office when officialdom was due to visit. We had presumed that our papers were in order. This does naturally lead to thought of criminal investigation, but we'll leave all that to Depnaker to sort that out once our case is settled. That'll be when Media Sekolah, a new-ish weekly tabloid with the lofty aspiration of 'Building Indonesia Through Education' (Membangun Bangsa Melalui Pendidikan) will be publishing a major expose of the network of (supposedly) Christian schools who flagrantly disregard not only the laws governing employment but also the ethics of their religion. They also produce documentaries about corruption for such crime watch TV programmes as SERGAP (on RCTI).

Was it Woody Allen who commented that "Those who can do, those who can't teach, and those who can't teach think they can manage schools." That certainly seems to hold true for too many establishments here in Jakarta. There are other former employees of Penabur who have initiated legal proceedings, the Singapore International Schools franchise network is reportedly embarrassed by the number of judgments awarded against it, and other profit-centred schools are beginning to fear the wrath of fee-paying parents.

This is a shame given the other more important issues facing the education sector, many of which are being raised in Thoughts Outside The Indonesian Box.

Worthy Of Respect?

Foreigners wishing to make a life in Jakarta have a clear choice - live in enclaves with security to keep the riff-raff out or live at street level and interact with the local community.

I have now lived in the same house for twenty years; it was my choice and 'Er Indoors moved in a year or so later. We fit in: the postman, electricity meter reader and even the newspaper 'boy' are long-term regulars. There is a monthly gathering, arisan, which the housewives attend to swap gossip and to contribute Rp.100,000 to a collective kitty which is scooped by one mum on a rotational basis, or according to urgent need.

I very rarely hear the cry "Hello, Mister", nor is the word 'bule' (whitey) often uttered in my presence. The many young children in my neighbourhood ~ a very mixed community in terms of wealth, ethnicity, religion and lifestyle, whatever that is ~ generally greet me with "Good morning/afternoon, Om (uncle)".

So it has come about that the lawyers in my legal case against my erstwhile employers, Badan Pendidikan Kristen Penabur/Ukrida Penabur Internasional, have been appointed because a senior member of the firm lives opposite. It is happenstance that one of the named partners on the letter heading was once an Attorney General in the New Order era, and the other was on the staff of Try Sutrisno when he was Army Chief shortly before becoming Suharto's penultimate Vice President.

Obviously I have not sought out high profile lawyers. I cannot afford to pay their fees upfront, not least because BPK Penabur have yet to pay me for work that I did before I was summarily dismissed. Having legal representation has come about because of the respect I have earned over the years within this community.

Intimidatory letters and phone calls have been Penabur's modus operandi not only during the course of our - yes, I have an ex-colleague in similar distress - legal process. We also have affidavits and documents which suggest that intimidation has been endemic for a number of years, both before and continuing after our own case. There are well-founded allegations of visa irregularities putting the status of expatriates at grave risk of deportation, of tax avoidance, and even an attempted eviction and a death threat. This is all generally non-Christian behaviour unbefitting an organisation which claims to be at the forefront of Indonesia's education system.

There are further allegations of continued non-compliance with manpower regulations. Many, if not all, of our former colleagues (still) do not have legally enforceable employment contracts, and there are, to our knowledge, at least two other cases involving Penabur being dealt with by the Industrial Relations Court, one of which has been brought by Indonesian staff.

This will also be a concern to Curtin University of Perth, Australia, who are co-sponsors of the UPI-Penabur Business School. Their original commitment was with UPI, initially the Penabur high school native speaker English language programme, and they were involved in the original recruitment of native-speaker teaching staff, first in Perth and later here in Jakarta, as well as the supply of courses for extra-curricular classes.

There are no suggestions that their employment practices in Australia are anything but legal and above board, but we are sure that they would not wish to lose their good name by being associated with unethical and illegal practices elsewhere.

Penabur's lawyers suggested at one meeting, a meeting where they were castigated for not providing documents, that I was in breach of 'etiquette' by publishing general comments about the ethics of the Penabur board on the internet.*

They will be interested to know that this post is being published with the knowledge and permission of our legal team.

Full disclosure of evidence will be made here on the Performing Monkeys blog as soon as it has been stated in court. I will also give details of possible criminal charges that we anticipate will be made against senior officers of the Penabur Board, rather than the minions their lawyers have named and who have been deemed disposable.

The actions of these officers demonstrate that they are worthy of no-one's respect, let alone that of their employees.
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* Read the January 2007 archive, posted in order, for a series of background posts on Penabur's "Christian" philosophy.