RI children need counseling

Ignas Kleden, Sociologist, The Center for East Indonesian Affairs (CEIA), Jakarta, ceia@centrin.net.id

Viewed from the perspective of time, the future are our children. The question as to what the future would look like depends on the extent to which children are given the proper attention they deserve in the present. This is why the broad issue of education is so important, given normal political situations and social conditions.

This normalcy has been lacking in some parts of Indonesia ever since the 1998 political reform, and even from some time before then. The fact is that many children have grown up since then in the middle of violence, wars and killings which involve people very dear to them. If we take a look at the number of human lives which have been lost at the cost of the conflicts in Ambon, Maluku, then there must be at least 9,000 people who fell victim to and were killed in the violence.

Let us assume that half of this number were family heads and that the other half were unmarried young men. Let us further assume that the 4,500 family heads had, on average, two children. According to this very general estimate, there are no less than 9,000 children who live in an environment of social and psychological strains. The killings of family heads were witnessed by their children, and the killings of the young men were witnessed by their brothers and sisters.

This scenario has occurred not only in Ambon, Maluku, but also in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in Papua, and in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, as well as in Aceh.

In short, there are thousands of children who are now growing up resentful, bitter, and inclined towards revenge. For the time being, many of these bitter experiences might be repressed and temporarily forgotten. However, the resentment, conscious or subconscious, is there and will not disappear automatically unless serious initiatives are made towards providing special psychological treatment for these children.

Conflict-resolution efforts so far have only been focused on the adults, that is, on those who are able to wage war, to commit violent acts, or to take revenge immediately. This is important for short-term politics and is necessitated by security deliberations and reasons of stability.

However, from a long-term perspective, it is very important to pay special attention to these children. Efforts should be made to help them out of their psychological crises and inner conflicts, and to overcome their pain and repressed resentment.

This should be done not only for clinical reasons, but also on the grounds of human rights. The question is, of course: Why do these children not have what they deserve, owing to a situation for which they are not responsible? They are entitled to good nutrition, parental affection and protection, a peaceful environment in which to grow up, a good education, trust in their society, and hope for their futures. In many conflict-ridden communities, children are deprived of most of these basic needs.

They suffer from the scarcity of food, because there is no food supply and the marketplace is closed. They cannot go to school, because the schools have been burned down by conflicting parties. Parental protection becomes minimal, because they have to live with only one parent or no parents at all. We hope that they still have a little trust in their society, although this is something they can hardly afford in the face of blatant violence, mutual distrust and killings. Hope for a better life might have been superseded by a real determination to take revenge once they are able to do so.

Children are potential geniuses or potential fools, potential heroes or potential criminals. All the possibilities are within them, whose development is very much dependent upon the adults around them and how they are treated while they are not yet able to make their own choices as to what to do, and how.

In the case of Indonesia, the issue of children in conflict- laden areas might not seem to be as important as it should be, owing to the fact that there are many other children in peaceful areas who face similar disadvantages. Child labor, for example, is still a big problem, even today.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), there were 2.1 million child workers in 1998, but according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), there were at least 6 million child workers, including 2 million of whom were involved in high-risk work. The same can be said of malnutrition for children of the lower middle and the lower classes, besides which, there are a great number of children who cannot go to school or have to stop going to school due to poverty. According to data from BPS in 1998, there were 10 children between the ages of 7 and 15 who became dropouts. This is not to speak of domestic child abuse, which in most cases remain hidden, protected by the veil of traditional habits and social taboos.

Taking all these problems into consideration, one cannot overlook the fact that there is a link between the broad social problems of Indonesian children and future human resources.

For example, the conditions of childhood in conflict areas has a lot to do with the general peace and political stability of years to come. A 7-year-old son who witnessed the murder of his father or brother in 2000 will be a young man of 19 or 20 in 2012. There is no guarantee whatsoever that he will not relive his terrible childhood experience and become strongly motivated to avenge the death of his father or brother.

In Ambon, there are no less than 9,000 or 10,000 children who are living under such conditions, not to mention children in Sampit, Jayapura, Poso or Aceh, for that matter. There is thus a real need for serious efforts to treat these children with extra care and to provide them with special psychological treatment.

Indonesia might not have enough experience in this regard, and if this is the case, a different effort should be made to procure assistance from international communities, such as those who have been involved in rescue missions for children in Palestine, Afghanistan, or other overseas conflict areas.

To ignore this problem would not only mean denying these children the proper future to which they have a right, but also ignoring the political time-bomb which will certainly explode should these children come of age without either guidance or treatment.