The commemoration of National Children’s Day at the Indonesia Miniature Park (TMII) saw children singing “Pak SBY siapa yang punya?” (Who does President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono belong to?).
National Children’s Day: Children from low-income families sing at the Tunas Merah Putih educational center in Jl. Otista Raya, East Jakarta, on Friday. The center provides free education to the children, who live on the banks of the Ciliwung River. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama
From one particular event on the day, however, some of the children learned the answer the hard way.
The celebration Friday failed to give children their promised five minutes to be heard.
Two representatives from the National Children’s Congress IX, which consists of more than 300 children from the nation’s 33 provinces, were disappointed after being informed that they could not read out the conclusions from the congress at the celebration attended by the President and dozens of ministers and officials.
The committee said the planned three-hour program was cut to two hours due to accommodate Friday’s noon prayers.
“We worked hard to make this list, with the children from their respective regions having something to say about the problems they face in their regions. We had to narrow it down to eight points,”
said Maesa Ranggawati, a congress representatives who was supposed to read the congress result titled “Indonesian Children’s Voices”.
Maesa, already dressed for the occasion, said she and another representative, Arief Rachman, only requested five minutes.
Sujarwo, one of the event’s organizer from the National Education Ministry, said that after their request was rejected, National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh spoke with the representatives and received the congress result. He said the children appeared to accept the solution.
Arief said 300 of his friends excitedly waited all morning for the President to hear their declarations.
They said they had planned to watch the celebration broadcast from the congress venue in Bangka Belitung.
Nuh said that the cancellation of the reading was a “technical matter”.
National Commission for Child Protection advisory board member Seto Mulyadi said he had communicated the matter to presidential aides and learned that the President was not aware of the plan to read out the declaration. “The President regrets the cancellation,” Seto said.
Another event marred the celebration with reports of a member of the presidential security detail violently pushing a child’ in the head because the child was seen as being unruly.
Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrian Pasha said that if true, the President “deeply regrets the incident”.
Julian said, however, that it was highly possible that the perpetrator was not part of the security service because the child’s description of him did not match anyone from the security detail.
Indonesian children’s voices
• We call on all Indonesian children to unite and respect diversity in a bid to do our best for our nation.
• We call for support from the government to facilitate children’s forums in the regions and Indonesian Children’s Congress as a mechanism to fulfill children’s rights to participate.
• We, Indonesian children, need the government to provide shelter for children caught in violence, trafficking and disasters and those who face legal trouble. We also call on the government to fight violence against children.
• We recommend mediation before taking legal course for children facing legal problems.
• We support an increased state budget for better education.
• We need special health schemes to free children from health costs.
• We want to reach out to our friends in remote, isolated areas by calling for better infrastructure.
• We want protection from the dangers of smoking by prohibiting cigarette advertisements.
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