Disabled communities demand attention

JAKARTA. Various disabled groups have urged presidential and vice presidential candidates to pay closer attention to them and to explicitly express their commitment to issues affecting the disabled.

The director of the Institute for Inclusion and Advocacy of Disabled People (Sigab), Joni Julianto, said he lamented the lack of strong commitment by both tickets to empower people with disabilities.

“We have yet to hear candidates raising concerns on disability issues or expressing a strong commitment to the matter. We are curious as to how far they will go to ensure the empowerment of people with disabilities,” Joni said during a recent discussion.

Joni cited that the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla ticket had briefly mentioned disability issues within its 42-page vision and mission submitted to the General Elections Commission (KPU).

“They did mention that they were committed to repealing laws discriminative toward vulnerable groups and disabled people. But they have yet to speak up about how to empower people with disabilities,” he said.

“We regret that Jokowi did not elaborate on the details on the matter, given that Surakarta [a city in Central Java governed by Jokowi from 2005 to 2012] is known as a haven for people with disabilities.”

As for the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa ticket, he said, Prabowo had mentioned his commitment to disability issues during the second presidential debate, but not as expected by the group.

“He used the term ‘the crippled’, which is not politically correct. He has yet to talk about empowering the people; instead he talked about increasing social aid funds to help disabled people,” said Joni.

A forum participant, Alamsyah, who is visually impaired, said that both tickets, thus far, were unconvincing. “I am still not sure about whom to vote for. I’ll just decide on election day,” he said.

Joni cited issues that needed to be addressed by the next administration regarding the well-being of disabled people.

Among them was the lack of inclusion of disabled people in policy-making, including at national and regional development planning forums (Musrenbang).

“Disability issues have to involve multiple sectors, but up until now they are still concentrated in one particular sector, namely the Social Affairs Ministry,” he said.

He also cited minimum access to education, including higher education, and the lack of valid data used by relevant institutions, which resulted in discordant programs. “In 2013, the SIGAB received complaints from 12 physically impaired students who were rejected by inclusive schools due to their disabilities,” he said.

The group later laid out and discussed a number of recommendations they called a “policy brief” that would be submitted to both presidential tickets.

Among the recommendations were disabled-friendly policies, promoting inclusiveness and mainstreaming disability in the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) for 2015-2019. “We also encourage the endorsement of the bill on the protection of disabled people,” he said.

Yosa Nainggolan, a researcher with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), who was present during the discussion, also suggested that the group encourage a national inquiry into disability issues. “A national inquiry was held once to address issues regarding preserved areas and ethnic groups,” he said.

Most government institutions claim that the number of people with disabilities in Indonesia was 10 percent of the country’s total population of 240 million.

However, a World Health Organization (WHO) report on disabilities released in 2012 cited that the percentage of people with disabilities in developing countries stood at 15 percent. As many as 60 percent of the disabled population in Indonesia live below the poverty line. (Sita W. Dewi)