Oleh Ahmad Arif – The global financial crisis, which began far away in the United States, appears to have also become a bugbear for workers in Indonesia. Starting with national industries that are dying because global markets are stagnating, millions of workers are faced with the threat of dismissal.

Jakarta – The number of workers that have already been dismissed appears to be extraordinarily large. At least, this is the version being given by employers. The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) has stated that hundreds of thousands of workers have quietly been losing their jobs – a euphemism for being sacked (PHK).

Jakarta – The threat of a wave of dismissals as a consequence of the global crisis is beginning to be concretely felt by the manufacturing sector. As of Thursday November 20, the government has received requests from several companies that plan to dismiss 12,600 workers and lay of at least 1,200 more.

Woman: ...Global financial crisis, local crisis, high prices...

Man: ...No problem... Our economic foundations are solid you know...

Badge reads: Vote for me.

Writing on drum reads: 2009 elections.

Black hose reads: Infrastructure

White hose reads: Bureaucracy

Writing on pot plant: Investment

Jakarta – The national banking industry appears to be controlled by foreign interests. The proportion of foreign ownership has steadily risen to almost half of the total capacity of the banking industry.

Joniansyah, Tangerang – The increase in the price of fuel in late May has resulted in the collapse of thousands of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SME) in Tangerang regency. Around 50 percent out of 17,353 SMEs in the region have closed down due to bankruptcy.

Joniansyah, Tangerang – More than 18 thousand employees from various companies in the Jakarta satellite city of Tangerang are now unemployed. They lost their jobs because the companies where they worked closed down.

Jakarta – The government’s economic growth target for 2007 of 6.3 percent has been reached. But growth in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors – which supports real sector growth – continues to weaken.