Center helps ex-cons change their ways<\/p>\n
Kafil Yamin, Inter Presse Service, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Norman is an bus driver in Bogor and leads a happy life with his
\nwife and two children. But his life was not always this tranquil
\nor uneventful.<\/p>\n
Jailed for two years after being convicted for robbery,
\nNorman, who declined to give his full name, said he had not even
\nbeen certain that he could ever have a normal life again.<\/p>\n
"You know, it has never been easy for an ex-prisoners,
\ncriminals like me to get a job even after I have paid for my
\ncrime with long imprisonment," he said in an interview. "Society
\ntreats me badly. People always say, 'Be careful. He's an ex-
\nprisoner'. And no company would accept an ex-prisoner.''<\/p>\n
Lost and penniless after prison, Norman ended up going back to
\ncrime.<\/p>\n
"The days after my release were days of war inside my mind. I
\ntried very hard not to do bad things: robbing, stealing," he
\nrecalled. "But the stomach cannot wait. I could not get a job.''<\/p>\n
Then, he heard about the At-Taibin rehabilitation center in
\nCibinong, some 80 kilometers from the capital Jakarta. He says
\nthe training and experience he got there gave him the means and
\nskills to be reintegrated into society -- and get a job.<\/p>\n
"After two years of training here, I found it easy to live as
\nan ordinary person. People know I graduated from At-Taibin. But
\npeople accept me and some of them even offered me jobs," he
\nrecounted.<\/p>\n
Today, there are many others who are trying to find their way
\nback into society at the At-Taibin center, set up by Anton Medan,
\nhimself a well-known criminal in the 1980s -- and who knows very
\nwell the kind of life that At-Taibin's residents are trying to
\nleave behind.<\/p>\n
Some 200 men, all of them ex-prisoners, work in this
\nrehabilitation center that also runs animal husbandry, a medical
\nclinic and mechanics' services and construction businesses.<\/p>\n
Apart from the people who work here and in the process
\nundergoing skills and vocational training, thousands of others
\nhave graduated from At-Taibin and now work as drivers of public
\ntransport, food vendors and construction workers, among other
\noccupations.<\/p>\n
But it is a tough environment inside the center's premises.
\nAnton himself can be heard shouting at the men inside.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't you do what I have told you? Huh? How many times
\nshould I tell you about this?" he was heard yelling at a man who
\nwas working on breeding chickens.<\/p>\n
But those like Zulmansyah, a new graduate of At-Taibin, said
\nthe center has done wonders for them.<\/p>\n
As an army lieutenant, he was involved drug trafficking, was
\ndischarged from the military and was jailed for four years.<\/p>\n
After his release, friends told him about the foundation.
\nThere, he learned billboard-making and printing work for two
\nyears. Now he runs his own printing business.<\/p>\n
Medan says the center, located in three hectares of land, may
\nindeed be tough. But he stresses that it puts back humanity into
\nits residents, not least by providing them a conducive
\nenvironment quite different from the poor conditions in
\nIndonesia's jails.<\/p>\n
He said: "The situation of prisons in Indonesia is totally
\ninhuman. Animals are treated much better. Prisoners are given
\nstale steamed rice with a lot of water. Toilets and bathing rooms
\nare terrible."<\/p>\n
"Many prisoners have been left dead without a single media
\nmaking news of it," he said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Anton said the some money raised from At-Taibin has in fact
\nbeen donated to prisons in the country. "We have sent TV sets to
\nBandung and Cirebon prisons. I know they don't have TV sets," he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
No stranger to a life of crime and rejection, Anton during the
\n1980s was the most wanted criminal in Indonesia for various
\nrobbery cases. He robbed jewelry stores, banks and stole cars.<\/p>\n
From 1974 to 1986, his deeds regularly made the headlines in
\nJakarta. Through the years until 1990, he was jailed eight times.
\nReports had it that he was involved in the gambling business and
\nhad links with the international gambling mafia.<\/p>\n
Anton was raised in an Indonesian Chinese and Buddhist family
\nin Medan, North Sumatra. Under the anti-communist campaign in
\n1967, after the fall of Sukarno and the rise of the Soeharto
\ngovernment, his family, like many other Chinese-Indonesians,
\nfound itself excluded from economic rights.<\/p>\n
Tan Hok Lian -- his original name -- had to sell cakes
\nfrom village to village to help support his family. Poverty drove him to
\nstreet life, and he became a criminal at 13.<\/p>\n
In 1992, he converted to Islam. Since then, he has focused on
\nhelping, facilitating, and training ex-prisoners and criminals.<\/p>\n
In pursuing this work, Anton said he has tried to maintain
\nindependence because the basic principle of At-Taibin is "from
\nex-prisoners, by ex-prisoners, for ex-prisoners". The center does
\nnot receive donations from outside.<\/p>\n
"Regents, mayors and some ministers have come here to donate
\nmoney. They say they are very concerned with us and want to help
\nus. I say 'thank you, but we cannot accept it'," he added.<\/p>\n
In 1994, he turned down an honorary doctorate for social and
\ncommunity development bestowed on him by a U.S. university. ''I
\nam not and I can never become a doctor, even an honorary one. I
\ncan read a little and cannot write," he remarked.<\/p>\n
Anton went to school for only eight months. He could not read
\nand write -- until he became a criminal and learned to do these
\nbehind bars.<\/p>\n
Ironically, prison gave him an opportunity to achieve what he
\ncould not before, and it is the same benefit he hopes the ex-
\nprisoners will find at At-Taibin.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/center-helps-ex-cons-change-their-ways-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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