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Paralympic Games and the quest for a better Indonesia
We truly need a whole of government approach to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities within all the spheres of the societies.
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Finally, it is time for Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and around 4,400 athletes from all over the world will vie for glory and medals.
Fans will have the opportunity to watch incredible gestures of athleticism and sportsmanship, an enduring testament of endurance, perseverance and spirit of competition.
Will the Games also enable a new conversation about the rights of persons with disabilities especially in contexts where such rights are continuously overlooked and violated?
Sports can be a powerful tool not only to elevate athletes to personal greatness but also to create a new level of awareness on key societal issues.
Unfortunately, the way many societies around the world continue to discriminate against persons living with disabilities represents one of the less visible, less recognized and less talked about tragedies plaguing the world.
With the headlines over the catastrophic effects of climate change rightly dominating our attention, we are less inclined to think that persons with physical, developmental and psychosocial disabilities are among those who are going to pay the worst consequences stemming from this crisis.
This was also one of the key messages of World Humanitarian Day that was celebrated on Aug. 19 because with the world leaders seemingly unable to step up to the biggest challenge faced by humanity in modern history, we are at risk of furthering leaving behind those who got entrapped in a perpetual cycle of exclusion, vulnerability and deprivation.
That’s why the Paralympic Games have such importance that transcends the sheer power of sports. Indonesians should truly take notice.
It is not only the fact that their delegation will be the biggest ever, even larger than the Malaysia’s but for the first time ever, their athletes will compete in the highest ever number of sports and they will be serious contenders for five medals.
This is truly unprecedented. We got so used to this word, “unprecedented” over the last year and half but finally we can use it for a very good thing.
It was in the far 1984 when Indonesia won the first medals at Paralympic Games. It was another era and the event, even in its name, represented an entirely different way at looking at adaptive sports and at the rights of persons with disabilities in general.
Forward to the present, with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in place, at least theoretically, the humanity has formally embraced the rights of persons with disabilities.
Equality, inclusivity, accessibility are the backbone of the convention and with nations slowly adapting their legislation to this new acknowledgment, incredible strides have been made and yet so much remains to be achieved.
Indonesia enacted Law No.8/2016 on Persons with Disabilities in April 2016. This was in many ways a milestone as finally the country incorporated and mainstreamed the key underpinning of the convention.
Yet this is a still the beginning of a journey toward a more inclusive and accessible country.
Reading the Indonesia Shadow Report on implementation of Convention, a document prepared by the civil society and submitted to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the reporting mechanisms in place at international level to monitor the countries’ commitments toward the implementation of the convention, you realize the gigantic work that still needs to be done to provide persons with disabilities in the country a dignified place in the society.
One piece of legislation, no matter how important, does not change the equation. We truly need a whole of government approach to mainstream the rights of persons with disabilities within all the spheres of the societies.
From physical accessibility to access to justice to employment, health and education, it is a mammoth task ensuring that Indonesia truly becomes an equal and inclusive country where persons living with disabilities have the support needed for them to thrive.
The Paralympic Games is going to be a short affair, a couple of weeks of high adrenaline, stamina and fierce competitions.
Indonesia is going to try to win a gold medal and a silver in badminton and at least three more bronze medals between power-lifting, table tennis and track and field. If this happens, history will be made.
Talking in this column about what it takes to achieve full equality for persons with disabilities does not want to minimize or reduce the importance of the 23 athletes competing at the Games. They truly deserve a full piece dedicated on their sacrifices and their achievements but highlighting the real challenges that persons living with disabilities still face and will face even more as consequence of the pandemic, is a way to stress even more that we really are dealing with not just talented sportswomen and men but with real heroes.
Because adaptive sports around the world is not yet a level playing field and athletes from emerging countries like Indonesia still face much more hurdles than many of their peers accustomed to fight for a medal.
Despite a very big commitment from the National Olympic Committee for this Tokyo 2020 Games, something that should be definitely lauded, adaptive sports in Indonesia reflect the many obstacles faced by persons with disabilities in the day to day life.
Will the attention on disability survive the end of competitions in Tokyo?
If the medals the country hopes to win will really materialize, will the euphoria, joy and happiness stemming from such tremendous results, lead to a deeper reflection on what it will take to make the country more inclusive?
We need to form new alliances and partnerships. Indonesia counts on activist of global stature in the field of disability rights in the name of Risna Utami, the first person from the country sitting on the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Can the adaptive sports athletes representing the country in Tokyo and their peers who remained at home, be included into a national conversation on disability rights? Can they forge an alliance with activists like Risna?
Will the President push forward for a meaningful implementation Law No. 8/2016? Can the Group of 20 Indonesia will chair next year include the rights to employment of persons with disabilities?
At least, the centralized elite sports training center to be built in Cibubur, East Jakarta, should be designed to also include the best adaptive sports athletes from all over the country.
It would be a way to start creating a level playing field and pay respect to the unsung heroes of this country.
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The writer is cofounder of ENGAGE and a commentator on social inclusion, youth development, regional integration and the SDGs in the context of Asia Pacific.
