'Law on facilities for the disabled needed'

While Indonesia commemorates the International Day of Disabled Persons every Dec. 3, many observers said that the country has not upheld the law that stipulates the provision of facilities for the disabled. The Jakarta Post interviewed two urban activists on what the Jakarta administration ought to do.

S.K Butar Butar, 30, is an activist of a non-governmental organization that deals with budgetary transparency. He lives on Jl. Kramat Raya in Central Jakarta:

I do not see any commitment from the city administration to provide disabled persons with adequate facilities.

Most urban conveniences like pedestrian sidewalks, public transportation, as well as government offices are not equipped with facilities for disabled.

Meanwhile, the city itself has a regulation, which requires all buildings to have facilities for the disabled.

Therefore, the city administration must require any new buildings, both those owned by the government and private companies, to be equipped with facilities for them.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan, 41, is the chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta), whose activities focus on advocacy work with poor families. He lives in Kramat Jati subdistrict, East Jakarta:

We often discuss the fate of the disabled people at Fakta meetings. We see that facilities for disabled people in the city are very scarce, while they face discrimination in education and employment.

Therefore, we have submitted a draft of the bylaw on facilities for the disabled to the City Council's Commission E for people's welfare. I hope that it will become a reference for the councillors to create their own version of the draft bylaw on the same subject.

In the draft, we include a number of issues, such as the city administration's obligation to develop special facilities for the disabled at all public places.

We also include the obligation of companies to employ disabled persons, while schools cannot reject disabled students.

In short, the draft bylaw rules out all non-discriminatory treatment of disabled people.

-- The Jakarta Post