If you’ve already made adjustments to your Idul Fitri holiday plans in light of the government’s recent decision to extend the period by three days, you are about to join the chorus of groans reverberating throughout the country due to the government’s new indecision over those extra cuti bersama (collective leave) days.
When the government passed the decree to extend the Idul Fitri holiday in mid-April, it appears they arrived at the decision without consulting corporations and business owners. Since the decree was passed, corporations have complained that the extra days off would mean decreased productivity and possibly increase their operational costs.
As reported by Kompas, after receiving numerous complaints, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani (who oversaw the initial decree signed by three ministries and has the final say on this particular issue) called a meeting between ministers to re-evaluate the extra holiday decree on April 30, less than two weeks after the decree passed.
After no decision was made at the meeting, President Joko Widodo himself convened another closed doors meeting with his ministers yesterday to discuss the issue. Again, no concrete decision was made.
“The decision will be made as soon as possible, before the start of Ramadan (May 15),” Puan said, as quoted by Kompas after the conclusion of yesterday’s meeting.
The longer the government takes to decide, the more frustrated the public will become as their travel plans can potentially be derailed. For example, state-owned railway company PT KAI reported that every single train ticket for the Idul Fitri holiday days, including the extra days, have already been sold. Nobody has rescheduled their trips so far, but that may well change should the government decide to take back the extra days off.
On April 17, the government added June 11, 12 and 20 to the Idul Fitri holiday period, which was previously set for June 13-19. The main reason the government decided on the additional leave days was to ease the terrible mudik traffic that overtakes the country each year as millions of people travel back to their hometowns to spend the holidays with their family, a mass movement that sometimes results in deadly logistical chaos. In 2016, 12 people died when they got stuck in a three-day, 21 km long traffic jam at the Brebes exit (Brexit) toll gate while attempting to make their way home for the holiday.
