Social Justice Has Not Been Achieved, Eastern Indonesia Most Left Behind

Kompas/Raditya Helabumi

A man pulls his cart at an intersection on Jalan Thamrin, Central Jakarta, in front of luxury cars on Tuesday (2/8). Social inequality is still remarkable in big cities, like Jakarta.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - Social justice, as mandated by the nation\'s founders in one of the five principles of Pancasila, has not met expectations, especially in some provinces in eastern Indonesia, such as Papua, West Papua and East Nusa Tenggara. The people in these provinces are still left behind in terms of education, health and in poverty alleviation.

Such a condition can be seen from the results of the 2018 Indonesian Social Justice Index (IKSI) issued by the Indonesia Social Justice Network (ISJN). The index was based on a survey conducted by the ISJN team, which consists of Sujarwoto, Dominggus Elcid Li, Asal Wahyuni Erlin Mulyadi, and Andi Ahmad Yani.

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The index, which measures the quality of social justice in 34 Indonesian provinces, covers eight subjects: poverty alleviation, access to education services, access to health services, social cohesion and non-discrimination, inclusive employment, intergenerational justice, legal enforcement, democracy and public governance.

Nationally, the score of the IKSI index is 63.46 out of 100. This means that about 63 percent of Indonesian citizens are able to enjoy social justice.

The highest IKSI scores are recorded by provinces in Java and Sumatra, such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Central Java, Bali and Riau Islands.

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KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Semi-permanent houses stand on a water channel in Cideng, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (5/8/2020). It is feared that the decline in the Indonesian economy in the second quarter of 2020, which grew negatively by 5.32 percent, will cause the poverty rate to rise further.

However, 13 provinces or about a third of the total number of provinces in Indonesia have IKSI scores below the national average. The provinces with the lowest IKSI are Papua, West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Maluku, and West Kalimantan.

The low IKSI scores are due to the low scores obtained in a number of subjects, such as the alleviation of poverty, education, social cohesion and non-discrimination, and intergenerational justice.

During the 75 years of independence, our brothers in eastern Indonesia have not yet enjoyed full justice.

The head of the research team, Sujarwoto, in a discussion on the IKSI index in Jakarta on Wednesday (19/8/2020), said that disparities in social justice are very real in Indonesia. A number of provinces in eastern Indonesia are still far behind compared to western Indonesia.

"The goal in fulfilling social justice is still a big challenge in our country. During the 75 years of independence, our brothers in eastern Indonesia have not yet enjoyed full justice, “said Sujarwoto.

Speakers in the discussion included, among others, the National Alliance expert Yudi Latif, the executive director of Wahana Inclusif Indonesia, Tolhas Damanik, and the vice chairperson of the Commission IX of the House of Representatives (DPR) Nihayatul Wafiroh.

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KOMPAS/A PONCO ANGGORO

A portrait of poverty in Kobamar village, Aru Utara district, Aru Islands regency, Maluku Province.

Sujarwoto said that the results of the IKSI also showed a wide gap between Jakarta and Papua. The gap reaches 20.03 percent. It means that seven out of 10 people in Jakarta have been able to achieve social justice, while in Papua, the social justice can be enjoyed only by five out of 10 people.

"For decades, Jakarta has not only become the capital of the country, but has transformed itself into capitalist centers that suck up provincial resources outside the capital city," he said.

Nihayatul Wafiroh agreed with the results of the IKSI. From the health side, for example, she sees that the distribution of the health workers is still not even throughout Indonesia. The improvement of the health services is still focused on the island of Java. She called on the Health Ministry to improve health service and recruit more health workers for disadvantaged, frontier and outermost areas in Indonesia.

Disability

Meanwhile, Tolhas Damanik highlighted the issue of persons with disabilities that still received a lack of attention. Persons with disabilities still have limited access to education, training and decent work. In fact, the number of people with disabilities in Indonesia is not small.

Based on the 2015 Inter-Census Population Survey (SUPAS), at least 8.56 percent of Indonesia\'s total population or around 21.84 million people are persons with disabilities.

"Limited access in a number of aspects raises the vulnerability of the persons with disabilities. It causes them to fall into the category of poor people or vulnerable to poverty," said Tolhas.

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KOMPAS/A PONCO ANGGORO

Iwan Halawani, a member of the health team from the Health Ministry, provides health services to residents in Tambrauw Mountains, precisely in Kwesefo village, Kwoor district, Tambrauw regency, West Papua, Sunday (7/4/2013).

The biggest challenge for people with disabilities today, according to Tolhas, is the stigma in the society.

The stigma that is still embedded in the minds of the community is that people with disabilities are considered unproductive and cannot develop, because, they depend on other people. "The stigma, that emerges, unconsciously creates discrimination. Opportunities for persons with disabilities to enter various sectors of life are also still very limited," said Tolhas.

Tolhas hopes that people with disabilities would be included as the basis of the government’s policy and program either in the central government to local governments. With such a way, they will not be left behind.

The inability of the state

According to Yudi Latif, the IKSI score is very important to measure the achievement of the fifth principle of Pancasila, namely justice for all Indonesian people.

He said that Pancasila actually started from abstract principles and ended with concrete principles. The social justice is the most concrete aspect. "The problem is, the more concrete it is, the more difficult to make it happen, "said Yudi.

If the state fails to solve these concrete challenges, it can cause many people rely merely on abstract things, such as religious identity and ethnic identity.

"The symptoms of identity politics arise as a result of the inability of the state to solve the nation\'s problems in concrete ways. And, those, which are concrete, are justice social, "said Yudi.

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KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Persons with disabilities push wheelchairs to the elevator at MRT Lebak Bulus Station, South Jakarta, after the inauguration of a special parking area for vehicles of people with disabilities, Thursday, (20/2/2020).

Apart from that, Yudi regretted a number of aspects had not been covered in the IKSI index, such as the distribution of social privileges. This is important because it leads to social discrimination, such as religious majority and minority relations, gender relations, ethnic relations, and generational relations.

Access to education, according to Yudi, is also interesting to explore. Interestingly, in Indonesia, the ratio between teachers and students is better than in South Korea. "That\'s deceptive. It turns out that most of the teachers are only concentrated in Java. So, the problem is not the teachers, but the teacher distribution,” he said.

Corruption has a correlation with prosperity and social justice.

In the context of a rule of law, continued Yudi, IKSI should also portray the culture of corruption in each region. This is because the more prosperous a country is, the less corruption will be, and vice versa.

"Corruption is part of bad state governance and has an impact on social justice. So, corruption has a correlation with prosperity and social justice," he said.