Muchtar Pakpahan

Muchtar Pakpahan (21 December 1953 – 21 March 2021) was an Indonesian labor leader who founded the first independent trade union in Indonesia.

Pakpahan was active as a lawyer at Muchtar Pakpahan & Associates Law Firm and taught at the law faculty of the Indonesian Christian University (UKI).

Pakpahan was born on 21 December 1953, in Bah Jambi village, Tanah Jawa, Simalungun, as the son of Sutan Johan Pakpahan and Victoria Silalahi.

His father was a farm laborer and a member of the Peasants Front of Indonesia.

His father died when he was eleven years old, while his mother died when he was eighteen years old.

His parents' deaths made him and his brothers and sisters orphans, and he had to work as a pedicab driver and as a Paperboy during his studies in high school.

After Muchtar Pakpahan finished high school, he continued his studies at the Medical Faculty of the University of North Sumatra.

However, according to Pakpahan, he decided to move into the law faculty following the Malari incident.

He stated that he was inspired by activists, such as Hariman Siregar, Muslim Tampubolon, Nelson Parapat, and Sufri Helmi Tanjung, who were highly involved in the movement.

He became a member of the student senate of his university and became a board member of the Medan branch of the Indonesian Christian Student Movement.

He graduated from the university in 1978.

Several prominent cases that he handled included the Inalum Asahan Project (1978–1982), the Deli Match Factory in Medan, the Mount Balak National Forest in Lampung, the firing of 2800 Jakarta Passenger Transport drivers, the sales ban imposed on street vendors in Jakarta, the Kedung Ombo case, and the Kampung Sawah burning.

After obtaining his Bachelor of Law (Sarjana Hukum/S.H.) degree, he obtained his Master of Arts in Social and Political Science (M.A.) from the University of Indonesia in 1989, and a Doctorate in Constitutional Law from the University of Indonesia in 1993.

He was a faculty member and law professor at Indonesia Christian University.

Following his graduation from the university, Pakpahan opened a law office in Medan.

Most of his clients were relatively powerless and poor people, such as laborers and farmers.

He rarely won the cases when defending them, due to the intimidation directed at him including accusations that he was a communist.

After working as a lawyer for several decades, Pakpahan went on to form the Indonesian Workers Welfare Union (Serikat Buruh Sejahtera Indonesia, SBSI) in May 1992.

Before the establishment of the SBSI, the government-backed All Indonesian Workers Union (Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia, SPSI) was the only legal trade union at that time.

However, SPSI was often criticized for its indifference to the persecution of labor workers.

Pakpahan was then elected the chairman of SBSI.

Since its founding, the organization has twice attempted to register itself as a legal trade union: first on 28 October 1992 and second on 10 August 1993.

In the first instance, no action was taken on the union's application, and in the second, an official from the Department of Home Affairs refused to accept the SBSI's documentation.

In its early days, the organization focused mainly on criticizing the organization system of SPSI and demanding a free trade union.

In December 1992, the SBSI and eight other NGOs formed the Labor Solidarity Forum.

In the same month, the forum discussed the SPSI, which was also attended by Pakpahan.

In the discussion, Pakpahan criticized the monopoly enjoyed by SPSI.

On 11 December of the same month, Pakpahan led an SBSI delegation to the People's Consultative Assembly and proposed several changes relating to workers' welfare and working conditions.

The delegation was received by members of the People's Consultative Assembly from the Indonesian Democratic Party.

On 3 February 1994, Pakpahan delivered a public letter to the Minister of Labor at that time, Abdul Latief, and put forward four demands regarding labor welfare.

He demanded to remove restrictions on labor unions by repealing the Minister of Labor Decree No. 1 of 1994, confirming the basic income of laborers to 173.500 rupiahs/month or 7.000 rupiahs/day, approving the existence of SBSI as a legal trade union, and that all of these demands shall be fulfilled before 1 April 1994.

He also encouraged workers all over Indonesia to conduct a strike on 11 February from 08.00 to 09.00.

In response to his letter, regional military commanders all over Indonesia conducted precautions to prevent any strikes.

The Diponegoro (Central Java) military commander, Major-General Soeyono, went to industrial plants to conduct dialogues with workers and laborers.

The Jaya (Jakarta) military commander, Major-General Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, collected data and intelligence on workers and concluded that the strike would not threaten the productivity of factories.

He also doubted whether the workers would comply with Pakpahan's invitation to conduct a workers' strike.

Abdul Latief himself responded to the letter, stating that SBSI is not a workers' union and that the methods of workers' strike were outdated.

Several days after the letter was published, Pakpahan and a colleague from SBSI were arrested by the Semarang police on the grounds of subversion and hate speech.

He was arrested after attending an SBSI event, in which the police found folders containing posters relating to the strike.

His arrest was criticized by Amnesty International, Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, Human Rights Defenders Institute, Infight, and Women's Solidarity.