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Socially, these people dwell on the edges of society. Often pushed off their land and out of their villages by urban or rural authorities, law enforcement officers or land-grabbing elites, they are compelled to make a living in a very hostile environment.
They are often used by crime syndicates, drug dealers and others for a variety of odd jobs, like being "jockeys"-- people who are paid to ride in vehicles so that the vehicles can travel into the center of Jakarta. Even their babies are not spared -- they can be rented for a day for begging. They are pushed to the periphery of society only to be exploited at every turn. The paradox is that society desperately needs them for many tasks that it finds distasteful. Still, it refuses to essentially acknowledge their existence.
Agung and Sitti (not their real names) spend their childhood days collecting parts of various toys and electrical goods. For example, the parts of electrical fans, such as the blades or the stands, are collected and given to their uncle who, using these parts, turns out fans for sale. It is not only the poor but also the lower middle class that purchases them. Someone might cynically call it "recycling," but surprisingly, it is the poor that truly implement the three "Rs"-- reduce, reuse and recycle -- despite being looked down upon as worthless.
For the state, they are a constant nuisance. Since the poor often have no permanent or current address, they may not qualify for any assistance, education, food or shelter. A fire that razed more than 500 houses and uprooted more than 2,000 people during the recent feast of Idul Fitri in Kalibaru Subdistrict in Cilincing in north Jakarta highlighted this precarious situation. The government was in no mood to provide assistance to the victims of this tragedy, "illegal occupants" on government land, for fear it would be interpreted as giving their presence on the land legal status.
The paradox is that these residents of Kalibaru are port workers on which the port depends for its operations. These people living at the edges are, in fact, an integral part of the economy. Their contribution as formal and informal workers is enormous, but they are, at best, only tolerated; the government refuses to recognize their legal status.
These people live with this contradiction every day. Their contribution to the economy is recognized as central, but they become peripheral or marginal members of society when it comes to the recognition of their rights as human beings. Although they are productive members of society, they receive little, if any, support from the government and many receive no regular salaries or other benefits.
It is the state's day-to-day refusal to recognize them as people of equal worth, with rights and dignity, that hurts them most. At every government office they are asked the same unanswerable question -- What is your current or permanent address? When the answer is that they do not have a permanent home, they are dismissed from the office. In fact, the scenario should be reversed: a person's rights are not dependent upon having an address. It is the right of the person to have an address, and it is up to the state to provide the prerequisites for obtaining an address.
The greatness of a nation lies in its ability to actualize the dignity of its people by guaranteeing their rights. This begins with the recognition of the right to life followed by the rights to food, shelter, education and other basic needs. The state must recognize that the right to life precedes all other issues and that the granting of the prerequisites of life, including a place of abode, is the responsibility of the state.
This perilous existence, threatened by economic, social and psychological factors, often pushes people to make the ultimate protest by committing suicide. People denied recognition and a means of legitimate protest find the painful step of suicide to be their last resort. People living at the edges must be accepted, respected and provided conditions for a dignified life if this suicide trend in Indonesia is to stop.
Article 27 of the country's Constitution states that (1) "all citizens shall have equal status before the law and the government and hold without exemption the law and the government in esteem" and (2) "each citizen shall be entitled to an occupation and an existence proper for a human being."
Is it too much for Indonesia's citizens surviving at the edges to request this equality that is promised to them in the Constitution?
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(Philip Setunga is a staff member of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong responsible for the organization's research on Indonesia. He has a doctorate in sociology.)
