Hyper-regulation

Source
Kompas – March 2, 2020
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From an op-ed piece titled The Obesity of the ‘Omnibus Laws’ Government Regulations

The government claims that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s so called Omnibus Law on Job Creation will simply some 1,244 articles covering 79 laws making it easier to attract foreign investment, and thereby create more job.

Leaving aside for the moment that the draft law will also undermine labour conditions and wages, deregulate the already destructive mining industry and weaken environmental legislation, critics point out that much of the blame for Indonesia’s over-regulation lies with President Widodo himself.

Indonesia was already hyper-regulated even before Widodo came to office, with institutions, departments, ministries, local governments and central government often creating a maze of overlapping and conflicting laws and regulations.

And to make matters worse, during his first term from 2014 to 2019, the government issued at least 10,180 new regulations, consisting of 131 laws, 526 government regulations, 839 presidential regulations and 8,684 ministerial regulations.

Added to this are concerns that in order to actually implement the Omnibus law if and when it finally gets ratified – given the widespread popular opposition and decent about particular aspects of the law by some of the political parties and regional governments – the law itself will require a whole new slew of supporting government regulations.

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