Anniversary of the Employees’ Corps of the Republic of Indonesia Date in the current year: November 29, 2024

The Employees’ Corps of the Republic of Indonesia, also known as the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps or KORPRI (an acronym for Korps Pegawai Republik Indonesia), is a state-regulated organization of Indonesian government employees. It was created to support the New Order, President Suharto’s autocratic regime that lasted from 1965 (de facto) or 1967 (de jure) to 1998.

Suharto came to power in late 1965, taking advantage of an economic crisis and a failed coup attempt that he helped suppress. In 1967, the Indonesian parliament controlled by Suharto stripped President Sukarno of whatever remaining power he had. Suharto was named acting president in March 1967 and was formally appointed as the president of Indonesia a year later.

The New Order relied primarily on the army, but Suharto also needed other mechanisms to control the population. The Indonesian Civil Servants Corps was one of such mechanisms. Suharto established KORPRI in 1971 in order to support Golkar, Indonesia’s ruling political party, as well as to ensure political control of bureaucracy. The new organization was subordinate to the Minister of Interior.

Following the establishment of KORPRI, all independent trade unions were dissolved, and civil servants were forced to join KORPRI under the threat of dismissal. Workers who were required to become members of the Employees’ Corps included all civil servants, employees of state and regional government-owned enterprises, banks and private enterprises partially owned by the government, heads of regional government, and members of the military who were running for government.

Although the New Order permitted the existence of political parties, it was essentially a one-party regime. All members of KORPRI were expected to vote for Golkar, ensuring that that the ruling party received at least two million votes in each election. Voting for other political parties was viewed as disloyalty to the organization’s principles and resulted in termination of government employment.

Suharto’s regime fell in 1998 as a result of another economic crisis and the ensuing public riots. The new government led by Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie initiated a series of reforms, one of which included the revival of independent trade unions in sectors that used to be under KORPRI’s jurisdiction. They included postal services, telecommunications, electricity, banking, and education.

However, KORPRI remains the only organization for Indonesian civil servants and heads of regional government, despite not being a trade union. Since Indonesian labor laws do not grant civil servants the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, they cannot form independent trade unions and are compelled to remain members of the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps.