TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Kemendikbudristek award scholarships to children of Human Rights Violation Victims in Aceh
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
T
he Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry has taken follow-up steps to carry out the recommended non-judicial settlement of gross human rights violations in Indonesia as mandated by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo by awarding education scholarships to victims and affected families.
The President launched a program targeting 12 locations where the human rights violations occurred in Pidie regency, Aceh, on June 26.
In his speech, President Jokowi said that since January of this year the government had decided on a non-judicial settlement focused on the restoration of the victims’ rights without a judicial mechanism.
The decision was enshrined in Presidential Decree No. 2/2023 on the implementation of recommended non-judicial settlement of gross human rights violations, issued in March. Under the decree, 19 ministries and institutions are involved and particularly in regard to education, the education ministry will play a role in providing scholarships for the victims and victims’ families.
“Today, alhamdullilah [thank God], we started to realize the restoration of the rights of the human rights violations’ victims that occurred in 12 events and, at the same time, marked the shared commitment to prevent the recurrence of those events in the future,” he explained.
President Jokowi also mentioned that he had received a report from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD that the victims and the families of victims in Aceh had started to receive training to scale up their skills in work, health benefits, family benefits and house repairs and construction of other facilities.
In response to the mandate, especially in the area of education, head of the Education Financing Service Center (PPLP) at the ministry, Abdul Kahar, affirmed that nine children had received scholarships in the initial stage. The nine children were the results of the identification and verification of data sourced from the National Commission of Human Rights (Konmas Ham).
“Based on the early data, 77 names were recorded but after we traced through Education Primary Data [Dapodik], we found that 53 were school-age children, 19 of whom are recorded at Dapodik as active students. Then we traced back and we found that seven of them are already registered at Program Indonesia Pintar [PIP], while nine have yet to register at PIP and they go to school. So, we decided to set the nine children as the recipients of the scholarship,” he said.
The nine children of the victims received the scholarship and school utensils one day prior to the launch on Monday, June 26 at Pidie Regency Hall. Witnessed by the Pidie Regent and educational stakeholders, the affected children received a saving book and school utensils.
Abdul Kahar said that Kemedeikbudristek has three major tasks related to the settlement of the non-judicial heavy human rights violations. First, providing scholarship for the children of the victims, second, providing education facilities ad infrastructure, and third, preparing facilities and infrastructure for cultural area.
He added that as regards to the heavy human rights violation, many people feel that they deserve the attention from the government. And yet, there is a criteria that need to be considered, especially by Kemendikbudristek, in providing the scholarship. “We continue to coordinate with regional education offices to make sure the children of the victims get the right for education,” he said.
Kahar went on to say that Kemendikbudristek continues to make efforts to enable the school age children of the victims that do not go to school, not dropped out, to return to school. And if the children have passed the examination for the certain level of education, they could be ascertained to pursue education at the higher level.
“While, those who are no longer at the school age or do not want to go back to school, what we can do is coordinating with non- formal education or even the ministries and other agencies with different programs,” he said.
The non-judicial heavy human right violation settlement program involves 19 ministries and other institutions, namely Home Affairs Ministry, Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Law and Security, Coordinating Ministry for Human Resources and Culture, Kemendikbudristek, Finance Ministry, Agriculture Ministry, Health Ministry, Manpower Ministry, Law and Human Rights Ministry, PUPRF Ministry, Religious Affairs Ministry, Cooperatives and UKM Ministry, Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, Attorney Office, Indonesian National Armed Forces, and Indonesian Police.
