Papuans with HIV/AIDS to get microchips

Angel Flassy ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Papua   |  Sat, 11/22/2008 9:00 AM  |  Headlines

Amid protests from Papuans and NGOs, the Papua provincial legislative council is set to pass a bylaw on HIV/AIDS that includes a controversial article requiring certain people living with the disease to be implanted with a microchip.

“If the draft bylaw is passed, it will violate the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS because they will be implanted with microchips,” said Constan Karma, executive director of the Papua AIDS Commission (KPAD).

Councilor John Manangsang said the microchips would only be implanted in people living with HIV/AIDS who were deemed to be “aggressive”.

“Aggressive means actively seeking sexual intercourse. This is one way to protect healthy people,” he said.

“Do not misunderstand human rights; if we respect the rights of the people living with HIV/AIDS, then we must also respect the rights of healthy people.”

He said the public should judge the bylaw draft as a whole rather than by is constituent articles.
“The draft, for example, requires everyone to take HIV/AIDS tests so that preventative measures can be taken early on,” he said.

“I am a doctor, saving lives is my profession. If we want to save the only limited number of Papuans, we have to take real action because 47 percent of (the country’s) HIV/AIDS (cases) are in Papua.”

The 40-article-long bylaw also stipulates that the KPAD executive director should be a physician who understands epidemiology, the roles of religious institutions and audit the accreditation of NGOs working in the field of HIV/AIDS.

A liaison officer of the West Papua chapter of Save Papua, Gunawan, said he disagreed with the bylaw.

“People with HIV/AIDS do not always have sex, especially those with AIDS. They can no longer perform sexual intercourse,” he said, perhaps referring to the moral obligation of people living with HIV/AIDS to not risk spreading the disease.

“And how do you measure aggressiveness?” he added.

Indonesia would be the worst human rights violator if people living with HIV/AIDS in the country were implanted with microchips, Gunawan said.

“Let’s see how the Papuans respond to the bylaw. It will suffer the same fate as the pornography law,” he said.

Enita T. Rouw, coordinator of the Papua branch of the Indonesian Network of People Infected with HIV, said incidences of discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS had declined.

“However, the stigmatization is still there,” she said. “So please don’t use microchips. We’re humans, not animals.”

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua is increasing, with 319 new cases reported so far this year as of October, taking the total to 4,114 reported cases, Constan said earlier this month.   

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Mike W. (not verified) — Fri, 11/28/2008 - 5:18am

Some of you are missing the point. Read again : "the microchips would only be implanted in people living with HIV/AIDS who were deemed to be “aggressive”. There are people there who know they have HIV and have been warned to avoid unprotective sex, who still continue sex as usual. They're like living bombs that must be monitored. This planted microchip also bring shame to them for showing little regard to others' well being.
Do you know where's highest concentration of HIV in Indonesia ? PAPUA. Where is the fastest growing HIV case ? PAPUA. Aggressive measures sometimes are needed to stop the spread of HIV in places that are hard to control, either because of the low level of education or poverty.

Rafiq Mahmood, Bogor (not verified) — Tue, 11/25/2008 - 10:05am

Yes, Ekyah, they are a bunch of Nazis. And yes, John Wilfred, there will be concentration camps.

Fascism is alive and rampant in Indonesia and every bit of law that gets passed by the central government and every two-bit local administration amply demonstrates that fact.

As the world economic situation deteriorates their power will only increase - as long as we, dear reader, sit down and let it happen.

Nairdah (not verified) — Sun, 11/23/2008 - 7:16am

As likely the world's first compulsory implant of microchips into humans, this move is guaranteed to get world attention from a variety of interests. This is a sad day for Indonesia - it has enough human rights problems without adding this to its list.

A microchip will do absolutely nothing to PREVENT the spread of HIV. I doubt if any potential sexual partner of any implantee will have a high-tech micro-chip reader at the ready to check their prospective partner. At best the microchip is of interest and value to parts of the medical profession.

Get on and help those with HIV with treatment and understanding and stop treating them the way lepers were treated 200 years ago.

Forget the microchip and get on with meaningful HIV awareness and education - especially in the schools. This requires persistence and commitment on the part of health educators. It is not a money making 'project' like funding for a new road or building - here today, gone tomorrow. This requires understanding, commitment and devotion from Government and NGO's alike. More than anything it needs budget commitments well into the future. Stop wasting time with diversions and do something more tangible, immediate and useful to save 'at risk' Papuans, indeed all Indonesian citizens. Awareness, Education, Prevention. There are plenty of successful HIV programs elsewhere in the world to provide guidance.

Erwin Ermez Eriollah (not verified) — Sat, 11/22/2008 - 9:23pm

"if we respect the rights of the people living with HIV/AIDS, then we must also respect the rights of healthy people." This is a dangerous ground for argument.

Any person is responsible for his/her own health. The government's main responsibility is to teach the people how to protect themselves, such as safe sex education, so that they are less susceptible to infecting themselves with HIV viruses. It is clearly unacceptable to ostracize people with HIV/AIDS. In this case, the government is trying to protect one group of people (healthy people) by violating the rights of other groups. How can this ever be termed protection?

Opportunistic politicians love to play around with words to achieve their political goals. This is very unfortunate indeed.

John wilfred (not verified) — Sat, 11/22/2008 - 6:52pm

what next concentration camps .
HIV does not spread if the sex is safe
and clean needles are used , the worst thing to do is stigmatization.
why not burn it on the forehead like cattle .
disgrace for anyone helping in the making of such a law.
disgrace for anyone voting the law and applying it

Councilor John Manangsang (not verified) — Sat, 11/22/2008 - 4:59pm

Councilor John Manangsang, you are suppose to ask yourself this simple questions :

1)What is the purpose of the implant ?

2)Will the microchip implant help to deter the spread of HIV/AIDS ?

3)Who will bear the cost of the microchip and the implant operation/procedure ?

4)Who is going to monitor all this after the implant ?

My suggestion to you, Councilor John Manangsang :

1)One way to protect healthy people is to lock this "aggressive" HIV/AIDS carrier for ever if they are going to have unprotected sex !

2)Better still impost death penalty for the spread of HIV/AIDS ( if one is aggressive and knowingly to spread the disease ).

Ekyah (not verified) — Sat, 11/22/2008 - 11:29am

Are these guys a bunch of Nazis, or what?

Their next step probably put all people with implanted chips to concentration camps ,and wipe them out

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