Page 14 - Mainstreamer Volume 1, Issue 4, November 2023
P. 14
MAKING IT WORK
with disabilities have existed since the emergence word “difabel” or “disabilitas”, which is considered
of Law No. 4 of 1997 and Government Regulation more humane than the previous mention of the
No. 43 of 1998, as stated in Articles 5, 6 and 14. word “cacat” (which tends to mean damaged or
Apart from that, the policies also include Law useless) as used in Law No. 4 of 1997 (Chandra
No. 39 of 1999 concerning Human Rights (Article Ambarwati et al., 2022: 31).
41 paragraph 2), Law No. 28 of 2002 concerning With the collaboration between government
Building Construction (Article 27) and Law No. 25 and society resulting in Law No. 8 of 2016
of 2009 concerning Public Services (Article 29). concerning Persons with Disabilities, the rights of
The government’s concern for disability groups this group became stronger. According to Chandra
not only occurs in the central government but has Ambarwati et al. (2022: 38–39), the academic
also been carried out by regional governments community pays much attention to the right to
throughout Indonesia with related Regional education (inclusive education), the right to social
Regulations (PERDA). This happened after Law No. welfare, the right to justice and legal protection,
8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities, as the right to disaster protection and the right to be
explained in eight Government Regulations and free from stigma for disabled groups. Nevertheless,
one Ratification of International Agreements. it is hoped that academic concerns will be focused
on rights related to privacy, religion, sports,
Community Concerns culture and tourism, concession, expressing,
communicating and obtaining information, and
Public awareness of disability groups is mostly changing location and citizenship.
carried out by civil society, such as non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) and In the future, the government must ensure
academics. The SEMERU Research Institute is that the lives of disabled groups are guaranteed to
one of them. Apart from having an impact on have the same constitutional rights as all citizens.
improving state policies regarding disability groups, The President and the House of Representatives
the most essential change is a transformation must encourage alignment in policies, budgets and
in society’s perspective towards this group. a comfortable life for them in all sectors of life,
Tohari (2012) stated that disabled groups in Java all of which are stated in policies in all ministries,
were once considered magical people who had state institutions, companies and other public
extraordinary powers and had to be respected. institutions, such as schools, hospitals, markets,
Then, when they were examined from the medical terminals or airport and so on. NGOs must
perspective, disabled groups were seen as sick, supervise the implementation of all these policies,
problematic and needed to be treated. As a result, both without the state and with the People’s
society began to perceive disabled persons as sick Representative Council.
people rather than as strong individuals. The author holds a Doctor of Philosophy holder from
The perspective towards disabled groups is the Centre for Historical, Political and Strategic Studies,
transformed into a social model approach, where Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and teaches
Master in Political Science at the Department of
they reject discrimination against disabled groups International Relations, National University. He has
and demand equal rights and glorification of contributed valuable expertise to government agencies
(Parliament, Senate, Ministry, Vice President of Republic of
disabled groups. This transformation in perspective Indonesia), universities, Islamic education institutions, and
cannot be separated from international influence, Islamic organisations, such as the Indonesian Council of
Ulema (MUI), Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) for over more than a
which established the Convention on the Rights of decade.
Persons with Disabilities on 13th December 2006.
Government and Community Collaboration
Collaborative care between the government and
society towards disability groups has shifted the
policy approach from charity-based to rights-
based. This approach has influenced the use of the
13 November 2023 | Vol. 01, Issue 4
