Arist Merdeka Sirait. JP/Nani Afrida

He is a straightforward-man with a bellowing voice and with his long grey-hair and bushy beard, when you see Arist Merdeka Sirait you would be excused for thinking he looks more like an artist than a protector of children.

“I was an artist but that was a long time ago when I was young,” Arist said, adding that he could sing and compose songs.

Arist is an important character for the media, especially in light of the recent increase in incidents of violations against children.

“The situation for children is worse [now] than when I was a child,” Arist, a chairman for the National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas PA), said.

Arist was born on a tea plantation in Sidamanik district, Simalungun regency, North Sumatra, in 1960. The area was very remote, about 30 kilometers from the closest town, Pematang Siantar, with rocky and dusty roads to traverse in between.

Arist, with his six brothers and sisters, spent his childhood playing with the children of Javanese workers who worked in the plantation. Even though Arist is ethnically Batak, and a Christian, his first mother tongue was Javanese and he could read the Koran as well as many of his Muslim friends.

Many of the children on the plantation were poor and had no access to education or other social welfare. Their day-to-day lives were usually spent helping their parents or playing.

Arist remembered that one of their favorite activities was watching television at the plantation guard’s house. Of course, the children were not allowed to enter the house, so they peeked through the curtains to watch television. They would line-up, waiting for their turn to peek.

“Sometime we were lucky, but sometimes they closed the curtain so tightly we did not get the chance to look,” he said laughing.

Arist’s father, the late Domitian Sirait was a tailor. He lived on the plantation and made clothes for the workers since 1950’s. Although he was an expert at making clothes, Domitian had actually graduated from Teachers Training High School (SGA).

Young Arist was told that his father would open an alternative school for children in the plantation in 1958. Domitian taught children how to read and count.

The alternative school was there until 1965, when the government finally opened the state school for children in the area.

“My father had taught the children for seven years in the alternative school. He knew that children should have a better future,” Arist recalled, adding that he admired his father because he cared about children’s welfare.

When Arist grew up, his father took him to Pematang Siantar, in North Sumatra, to go to school.

In that time, Arist, who loves writing poems, hoped to become a journalist. He remembered that the management in the plantation was afraid of journalists because journalists often criticized them of being bad to workers.

After graduating from high school, his father had no more money to support the continuation of his study. So Arist made money how he could; he spent some time working as a waiter on Samosir Island and also performed with his band on the island’s café at night.

Arist then decided to go to Jakarta, thinking he would become a famous singer in the capital city. The situation was not as easy as he had hoped. Arist did not have access to a recording studio and instead of singing in studios, he was singing on the street. He survived in Jakarta by selling songs he had composed.

“Although it was hard, I was happy and I met my future wife Rosti Maline Munthe in 1985,” Arist, who finally graduated from law school, said.

Rosti is a labor activist. She took Arist to visit many areas in Jakarta and he became involved in the labor movement. Arist was also given the opportunity to visit many countries, including Britain and Australia, which have strong labor movements.

One day Arist was shocked when he found a group of child workers in an electricity equipment factory. They were less than 16 years old and had to work hard. None of those children went to school and none of them could read a single word.

The children’s condition made him nostalgic about his own childhood. The experience was an epiphany.

In 1987, Arist established alternative education schools for child workers and the children of workers.

“I think we have welcomed around 10,000 children to the alternative schools. It is very similar to what my father had also achieved,” he said, adding that the schools were established in 1987 through 2001.

Taking care of children since 1987 has made Arist realize that the conditions these children have to live in have not changed. They still have no protection from the government and as consequence become victims in various aspects.

According Arist, the strategy to harm children is more “creative” and in several sexual abuse cases the children suffered at the hands of people close to them such as their uncle, neighbor and even their own father.

Everyday, Komnas PA receives at least up to three cases regarding violence against children the commission recorded that during January to February there were 80 cases of violence against children in greater Jakarta.

 “It is time for us to be a human shield to protect our children,” he said

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