T

he chief detective of the National Police has been quoted saying it is all right for the now ousted candidate for police chief to have two identity cards, since one is for opening a bank account. Comr. Gen Budi Waseso was responding to questions about why police are still intent on prosecuting the recently suspended chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for helping a young woman get an extra ID by including her name on his family card, even though Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan was also found to have double IDs '€” a clear legal violation.

No wonder the nation still grapples with corruption, money laundering and terrorism '€” all crimes eased by the mobility multiple and forged IDs give to persons and assets.

Compare this with the difficulties facing those who need personal documents for their very survival. Basic awareness is one challenge '€” President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has raised more awareness of the need for IDs to access improved public services. Others are the fees and transportation costs to reach government offices, which are often far from remote settlements.

Another is time '€” the days needed to travel to offices mean a loss of daily wages for millions of agricultural laborers and home-based workers, like the women sewing patches for mops in Banten. A bigger challenge is the '€œpsychological distance'€; one woman said her friend '€œtrembled'€ when an official merely wanted to confirm whether she was entitled to free services.

Recent and ongoing innovations are a source of optimism, however small, that millions will be able to access services to gain their IDs, though it would be slower in more remote areas.

Among the sources of pessimism are the archipelago'€™s sheer vastness and the entrenched attitudes of government mandarins seeking to extort citizens. A 2012 national survey estimated more than 24 million Indonesians aged under 17 years old did not have birth certificates. President Jokowi'€™s hometown of Surakarta in Central Java achieved almost 100 percent birth certificates in 10 years, an official said.

Yet the need for votes in local elections and local leaders'€™ leeway since regional autonomy was granted provides hope that more local leaders will want to catch up and boast of improved basic services, especially in helping the poor get birth and marriage certificates, among other things.

The innovations were shared in a workshop last month, hosted here by the Association of Women-headed Households (Pekka).

Founded by single mothers, Pekka members in 19 provinces are especially aware of discrimination, for instance when enrolling children in school. There are always humiliating questions if the name of the father is not on the birth certificate, one woman said, although officially such certificates can carry only the name of the mother.

'€œI'€™m pessimistic'€ that the government target can be reached, said Pekka founder Nani Zulminarni, as long as fees and levies for such documents and discriminative attitudes do not end. The government has followed other countries in setting a target of '€œbirth certificates for all'€ by 2030, as part of providing legal identities to all citizens.

But hopefully the innovative spirit will spread '€” at least from the government representatives from West and Central Java, South Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara and North Sumatra, who shared their policies and experience.

This is possible '€œif all agencies are determined to move,'€ said a retired director general for the religious courts, Wahyu Widana.

Having drastically cut fuel subsidies, President Jokowi has more fiscal room provided by some Rp 230 trillion (US$17.9 billion), much of it earmarked for public services for the poor, but who surely must have their papers ready.

Wahyu, an advisor to the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ), which has studied access of the poor to legal documents, said he is also optimistic given Pekka'€™s experience. The association trained hundreds of women as paralegals, who then helped fellow villagers acquire some 100,000 documents in three years. '€œSuch bridges between villagers and government offices are vital,'€ said Wahyu.

The AIPJ'€™s study found that the lack of personal and family documents in one generation in poor households generally pass on to the next generation. Marriages among minors are also common in such households and almost none of these marriages involve legal documents.

'€œIt'€™s very difficult for women to remarry'€ when they have neither marriage certificates from earlier marriages nor their divorce papers, said Sumiati, a Pekka member.

Local officials said overcoming low awareness of the need for documents among the poor was prominent in their campaigns, apart from cutting costs and initiating mobile services. Officials worked until 8 p.m. in vehicles that '€œeven reached the kampong alleys'€, said a proud Heny Ermawati, the Surakarta population agency'€™s head of statistics.

Incentives work. Based on a 2009 regulation from then mayor Jokowi, the Surakarta municipality now has 52 public and private '€œpartners'€ providing discounts or other benefits to children with birth certificates. Children can get discounts for pools, restaurants, tourism destinations and entertainment spectacles, among others.

Integrating services helps to eliminate the middlemen who benefit from residence'€™s ignorance and perceived difficulties in arranging for the papers themselves.

As many women are either divorced, or are second or third wives, marriages were mostly arranged without formal religious rites, approved by religious elders '€œto avoid the sin of adultery'€, said Sumiati from Kemiri district in Tangerang regency, Banten.

Births are mostly attended by shamans, although many are accompanied by midwives, at the women'€™s homes. Being poorly educated like Sumiati, a high school dropout, many only realize the need for proper documents when enrolling children in school.

Sumiati and her friends were greeted with surprise by officials in charge of personal documents, she said, as it was the women in their simple appearance who had reached the offices by motorbike, instead of the more typical men used to dealing with government agencies.

When registering children in schools, the villagers could then submit proper documents, while holding their heads high. '€œI am so proud,'€ Sumiati said, in tears.