Five leading parties against abortion

Five leading parties against abortion

DEPOK, West Java (JP): Five leading political parties
contesting the June 7 general election say they are against
abortion, grouping it with AIDS and other sexually transmitted
diseases as "problems of moral and religious crisis".

Politicians of the National Mandate Party (PAN), National
Awakening Party (PKB), Golkar Party, Justice Party (PK) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) agreed
in a seminar here on Thursday that abortion is against religious
and moral values and must be forbidden.

The politicians, four of whom were doctors, were Sanusi
Tambunan of PAN, Abdul Wahid of PKB, Ulla Nuchrawaty of Golkar,
Naharus Surur of PK and Sukowaluyo Mintorahardjo of PDI
Perjuangan.

"Abortion is against moral and religious values. It is wrong
and must be forbidden," Sukowaluyo said.

The discussion, titled "Towards a New and Healthy Indonesia,"
was organized by the Faculty of Public Health of the University
of Indonesia. The discussion was also attended by medical
experts, including former chairman of the Indonesian Medical
Association (IDI) Kartono Mohamad who became visibly irritated by
the politicians' stance on abortion.

Quoting data from the World Health Organization (WHO), he said
unsafe abortions accounted for 30 percent of the total mortality
rate among women. He also cited studies that showed most
abortions were an option taken by married women rather than by
teenagers or free sex practitioners.

"So stop giving normative, hypocritical answers. Which is
better, saving a woman's life or sacrificing her over
hypocritical excuses?" Kartono demanded.

Another attendant in the audience told Sukowaluyo that the
leader of PDI Perjuangan, Megawati Soekarnoputri, is a woman, and
that 52 percent of Indonesia's eligible voters are women. It was
therefore reasonable, he said, that the party campaign for
women's rights to decide on their own whether to have abortions.

"There is no correlation between having a female leader and
the abortion (issue)," Sukowaluyo retorted.

Kartono believed no satisfying answers were given by the
politicians during the session.

"They have much to learn. Health is an important issue but
they have made it a mere political commodity," Kartono said to
journalists.

The politicians also pledged to lower medicine prices and
improve health management through decentralization. They agreed
that smoking is a bad habit, "but they have to respect the rights
of smoking people," and suggested for non-smoking areas to be
implemented in Indonesia.

"Our party will strive for an increase in the next state
health budget from the previous 2.3 percent out of Rp 263.88
trillion to at least 5 percent," Naharus.

"Health is a crucial investment for human resource development
but all this time we gave little attention to it," Naharus said.

"We have to start by supporting a decentralization of health
administration and management and by empowering people at the
grassroots level where they are hit the hardest by the impacts of
the crisis," he said.

Ulla said empowerment should start at the community health
clinics, popularly called Puskesmas.

"It is time for health clinics not to be filled only by
doctors, but also public health experts as well as
environmentalists and other specialists."

"Currently, doctors play all of those roles," she said.

A lack of awareness towards healthy living among people often
hinders efforts to develop a healthy environment, Sukowaluyo
noted.

"Many people still fail to understand the consequences of
their own actions. For instance, a street cleaner sweeps the
roads but dumps the litter into the gutter. This is
ridiculous ... as it (causes) flooding," Sukowaluyo said.

He spoke about the need to change people's habits and educate
the public, including many health officials, in order to develop
a healthy environment.

"Our party will give examples by presenting a clean and
peaceful campaign for the June 7 poll."

The five politicians also expressed support for an anti-
smoking campaign.

"But I wouldn't agree if the government drastically shuts down
tobacco plantations or forbids people to smoke. That's
impossible," Sanusi said.

"We have a presidential candidate who smokes," Sanusi said,
referring to Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a presidential nominee of the
Crescent Star Party (PBB).

The politicians also agreed on the need to cut distribution
chains in order to lower medicine prices. They said the
manufacturers, the major wholesalers or agents, and retailers
billed fees that went towards the increased drug price in most
cases.

"This is why Golkar will campaign for a policy under which
doctors may dispense medicines to patients at cheaper prices,"
Ulla said.

Medicines that are directly distributed, she said, "means the
long bureaucratic chain of distribution could be cut off".

A common medicine price list along with clear regulations and
sanctions authorizing doctors to dispense medicines, must be set
up by the government, she added.

Currently there are 224 companies which produce 16,000 types
of medicines in Indonesia, Ulla said.

"We will also have to question the government about the
importation of raw materials for drugs. Most of the medicines
produced here contain up to 90 percent imported materials (which
cause skyrocketing prices)," Sanusi said. "We suggest the
imported materials be substituted with local ones so production
costs can be lowered." (edt)