Blindness not dead end for Eka Setyawan

By Primastuti Handayani

JAKARTA (JP): Being blind represent a dead end for many people, but it hasn't discouraged one student of the Teachers Training Institute in Jakarta.

Eka Setyawan, a 24-year-old student of the institute's special program for the physically handicapped, has been blind since the age of eight months.

"I was so shocked when the doctor told me that there was nothing he could do to save his eyes," said Eka's mother, Mariani.

"We sought treatment, both modern and traditional, for 15 months," she added.

"Finally our son asked us to stop taking him for further treatments," said Eka's father, Husin.

According to Mariani, Eka insisted on pursuing a tertiary education after finishing high school.

"Eka refused to be a masseur like other blind people," she said.

"'Being a masseur is the last thing I want to be,'" she quoted her son as saying. "If all blind men only end up as masseurs, when will we be able to improve our lives?" Eka asked at the time.

Eka, who plays the drums, the guitar and the flute, said he was proud to have been admitted to a state university.

"Actually I didn't expect to do too well in the admission test because I was not well prepared for it," he said.

"The most difficult part in the admission test for me was mathematics, especially geometry," Eka said. "I can't imagine geometrical figures and curves so I answered only 10 out of 30 questions," he added.

He had studied at boarding schools from an early age, before entering a special state high school for the blind (handicapped "Type A") in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta.

"I took the special education for the handicapped because I wanted to do something for them, especially for the blind," Eka said.

However, becoming a teacher for handicapped children is one of Eka's dreams that may not come true.

"I don't expect too much, because of my blindness," he said.

Eka hopes to finish his studies at the beginning of 1997.

One of the biggest difficulties, he said, is that few textbooks are in Braille.

"I have to transcribe my textbooks into Braille characters or have them read onto cassettes, which is obviously not cheap," he said.

An ordinary 300-page book is three or four times thicker in Braille. It would fill 24 audio cassettes.

The eldest of five children, Eka said that taking part in social activities increases his confidence and courage.

He takes part in student organization activities on campus and is a member of the Indonesian Association of Blind People (Pertuni) as well as the Mitra Netra Foundation, a foundation which provides services for the blind.

"In Pertuni, I am in charge of the education and youth department," he said.

"I am also active at Netra magazine, a journal which is published in ordinary alphabetical characters by the Mitra Netra Foundation," he said. As a member of the magazine's editorial team, Eka has to do a lot of typing.

Eka notes that most blind people are not as lucky as he has been, most of them working as masseurs or, sometimes, begging for a living.

The fact that the blind are largely limited to those activities has created an image problem for them, Eka said, making interaction with the rest of society difficult.

He said that, for example, most bus drivers try to avoid carrying blind passengers.

"I think they are afraid we will be a burden to them or won't pay for the ride," he said. "Even taxi drivers don't like us to be their passengers."

Eka said he hoped that in January next year Pertuni will be able to hold seminars and meetings in conjunction with a commemoration of Louise Braille, the inventor of Braille script.