President Jokowi made the statement at the opening of the 2023 National Working Meeting (Rakernas) of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Governments (APPSI) in Balikpapan on Thursday.
"This morning, I called Menpan RB that the matter is still being discussed, but I asked that a good middle ground be found," the president stated as witnessed in a virtual broadcast via the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account.
The head of state remarked that thousands of temporary workers at the provincial to district and city levels had not been appointed as permanent employees or state civil servants (ASN).
Jokowi pointed out that during his term as Surakarta mayor, the recruitment of temporary workers had been stopped.
"When I was still the mayor, it was actually 100-percent stopped. I do not know why it could appear thousands more. That is what is still being formulated to find a middle ground," he stated.
Jokowi remarked that the issue related to a large number of temporary workers was raised by East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor, who is concurrently General Chair of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Governments (APPSI) for the 2022-2023 period.
At the APPSI pre-Rakernas event, Governor Isran sought support from regional heads to maintain the temporary staff, especially teachers.
Quoting from APPSI's official website, Isran assessed that regional heads should jointly consider the impact of eliminating temporary workers.
"If the abolition of honorary workers occurs, then it comes out to approximately four million people, assuming that one temporary worker supports one wife and two children. You can imagine, there are at least 12 million people, who depend on the work of temporary workers," he remarked.
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Translator: Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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