Indonesia’s Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms (Kemenpan) today announced that they are in the process of introducing an additional day off on June 23, which is the Friday before the Eid al-Fitr holiday which starts on June 25.
A letter, signed by officials from Kemenpan and circulated online today, says that the ministry has agreed to turn June 23 into a collective leave day (or “cuti bersama”, a term used to describe days that are not officially marked as public holidays but entitles those working in the public sector, and, by extension, most in the private sector, to time off of work without using up annual leave days). This would add to the Eid holiday (June 25-26) and the subsequent collective leave days (June 27-30), which were made official by the government last year.
However, there is one more step before June 23 to officially become a collective leave day.
“Right now it’s still in process, because it must be enforced through a Presidential Decree,” said Kemenpan spokesman Herman Suryatman, as quoted by Detik today.
President Joko Widodo has not yet made a public statement regarding the matter.
Herman said that the additional day off was recommended by National Police Chief Tito Karnavian so that the public has additional time to travel back to their hometowns for the annual Eid tradition of mudik. Theoretically, this could spread out the millions of people traveling home over a longer time period, easing the overcrowding of public transportation facilities and vehicles on the roads that typically take place across the country during mudik.
At least 12 people died from fatigue and other health complications during a three-day traffic jam at an intersection called “Brexit” in Central Java in last year’s mudik.
