Indonesia's (Lacking) Healthcare

Collective coverage of Indonesia's healthcare system reveals an institution that appears to be generally lacking in providing for its citizens.  In a country that only recently eliminated class discrimination in hospitals, according to Indonesian online publication Berita Jakarta, most citizens are too poor to receive Western healthcare and tend to rely on usada and jamu -- indigenous types of healing based on spiritual energy and power (ironically there is very little mention of usada or jamu in any of Indonesia's print news archives).  While the benefits of ancient medicines are certainly not to be discounted, it still seems necessary for equipped countries to provide their citizens with at least basic Western healthcare.  The following are observations on articles from different Indonesian news sources.

Indonesian indigenous healing known as jamu involves creating medicines out of herbs, spices and other botanicals.

A well-written, factual December 2010 Jakarta Globe article entitled "High Healthcare Costs Keep Indonesians Away from Docs" by Dessy Sagita shares statistics on Indonesian citizens' attitudes toward seeking healthcare in the country.  Results from several surveys cited in the article indicate that most Indonesians avoid doctors, hospitals and other medical care because they cannot afford treatment, are afraid of the pain associated with treatment and don't actually consider doctors their first choice of who to go to when dealing with a health affliction.  Also, most Indonesians do not practice preventative health care (identified as wellness appointments and the like) but believe themselves to be healthy and able to live until at least age 80.  Experts in the article attribute this attitude to the lack of universal health care provided by the country, along with the fact that few Indonesians can afford to visit a doctor or hospital when ill or hurt, much less utilize preventative health care.

Antara News published an article stating that Indonesia loses an enormous amount of money each year because so many people seek foreign healthcare.  The article, which is brief and straightforward, says that most people believe the quality of care is better abroad rather than at home.   A Health Ministry official is quoted as saying that the quality of existing healthcare is not terribly different in quality from foreign healthcare, but rather that past problems have lied in the "many shortcomings in terms of health services and patients' safety."  This statement appears to be a bit of a paradox, seeing as the end of the article states that although the government has encouraged hospitals "to apply international quality standards," out of 1,500 hospitals throughout Indonesia, only four actually have.  

Most Indonesians cannot afford healthcare in the country.

A similar article from Kompas.com, an online news site dedicated to Indonesian news and world news as well as Indonesian lifestyle, reports on East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek's banning of Indonesian officials from seeking healthcare outside Indonesia.  The article keeps it brief and to-the-point.  The author, through quotes and other facts, implies that the reasoning behind the banning was Faroek's belief that Indonesia's hospitals are now equipped to handle most testing and procedures that patients formerly had to seek elsewhere, leaving patients and especially officials no reason not to seek healthcare at home.  

"Hospitals From Hell," published in the opinion section of Indonesia Matters (an online magazine offering "news and opinion about Indonesian affairs, with a focus on Islamization issues"), offers commentary on an article with an alarming title from Kompas.com: "Journalists Locked Up In Room By Hospital."  Although the article is nowhere to be found in Kompas.com, the author of "Hospitals From Hell" summarizes the incident in a blog-style post: 

Five journalists were locked up in a room on Saturday by Adam Malik Hospital, Medan for ten minutes after they attempted to report a malpractice allegation against the hospital. Kompas.com reported the journalists met a woman who accused the hospital of committing surgical malpractice against her 4 month old baby. They went along with the woman to get a proper response from the hospital, but the hospital tried to stop them from reporting the story and locked them up in a room. The journalists later reported the hospital to police.

 I am guessing this was one of the many hospitals who do not apply "international quality standards."

An article entitled Bali's Heart of Darkness, published in the features section of English newspaper The Jakarta Post, exposes the longstanding inhumane treatment of mentally ill people in Bali.   Written in a what appears to be a factual yet compassionate tone, Trisha Sertori's article covers a group of doctors and psychiatrists working for the Suryani Institute for Mental Health.  These doctors, whose purpose it is to offer legitimate mental health care to those in need, venture into rural parts of Bali, seeking patients who live unseen from the rest of the country.  They uncover what Sertori describes as "horrors to match those most often locked away in fiction:" mentally ill patients locked in chains, iron cages, and wooden stocks called pasung.   

 In Indonesia, many people with mental illnesses are forced to live in shackles and chains.

What is most shocking is the fact that most of these people have been placed in these conditions by their own families, which the article attributes to "a lack of understanding by patients’ families and the slow pace of treatment and eventual release from restraints that violate human rights." Those with mental illnesses are often forced to live out their lives in unbearable conditions, as traditional Indonesian beliefs attribute mental illness to inner demons or black magic.   More online searching of news sites into this subject turned up few Indonesian-published results, suggesting that there is at least a lack of awareness in the country about mental illness and little has been done by the government to change it.

Daily Life in Indonesia

A clip from Al-Jazeera, depicting daily life of impoverished women and their families in Java, Indonesia (1:30).

2 minutes of footage depicting daily life for families who live by train tracks in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.

Bin Laden Coverage: Compare/Contrast

Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces in Pakistan, drawing much media coverage around the world.  

Osama Bin Laden's death was an event covered extensively by American media.  The news was portrayed positively in the U.S. and focused on details of the operation, carried out by a highly trained Navy SEAL team, as well as the celebrations and overall feelings of Americans.  Other Western countries reacted in a similar, extensive style.

For example, The Australian Post created a page dedicated to Bin Laden in his life and death.  The page includes a timeline of what events led to Bin Laden's death, as well as other articles related to Bin Laden, the U.S. operation to end his life and the effect his death will have on the Middle East.  Like the U.S., Australian coverage of Bin Laden's death was supportive of the U.S.' actions.  Contrasting from American coverage, The Australian Post focused on a more international, South Pacific point of view, which makes sense since Australia is obviously more geographically connected to this part of the world than the U.S. is.

Canada also reported on celebration in its country after the news of Bin Laden's death broke.  A Canada.com article ran a quote by Action democratique du Quebec leader Gerard Deltell calling the U.S. action "justice," although it noted that Bin Laden was trained by the CIA "in a time when Islamic terrorism was acceptable to the military-industrial complex in the United States and largely supported by the monarchist, theocratic, fundamentalist government of Saudi Arabia." 


South Africa:  South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online published a fairly brief article: "Osama Bin Laden Killed By U.S."  The article objectively reported on President Obama's "dramatic speech" and the travel alert the U.S. State Department issued to U.S. citizens directly following the news.  There seemed to be no agenda behind the article other than reporting the news, but interestingly, a good chunk of it was devoted to celebratory reactions by Americans.  This part of the article, which described the "joyous" crowd outside the White House and included quotes from around the U.S. by "relieved" or "proud" Americans, inferred that basically all of the U.S. was out dancing in the streets after hearing of Bin Laden's death.  People filled the comments section below with their opinions, which mostly seemed sympathetic to the American cause, if not fully celebratory.

India: Similarly to the article from South Africa, The Times of India posted a fairly brief article on Bin Laden's death in a straightforward, what-appears-to-be-objective, style.  The article focused on the call Barack Obama made to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding Bin Laden's death and noted especially that "India has told America on many occasions that Pakistan remains a safe haven for terrorists."

The Jerusalem Post ran the above Reuters photo while comparing the U.S.' operation to many Israel has carried out in the past.

Israel: Israel promoted itself in a far more pronounced way than India did in an article entitled Security and Defense: So Targeted Killings Do Work, After All.  The article, posted on The Jerusalem Post website, did not focus so much on Bin Laden's death as it mostly reviewed targeted killings that Israel had carried out in the past.

Ethiopia: A link to an article entitled What Bin Laden's Death Mean to Ethiopia reveals a poorly-written article (editorial?) in English that spends most of its space criticizing President Obama his presidency with statements that seem to come solely from (author) Eskinder Nega's mind.  Nega even brings up the debate about Obama's "nativity" in the second paragraph, which he/she states is "questioned by a shockingly large number of Americans," even though the debate in the U.S. was silenced by the production of Obama's birth certificate at least two weeks before Bin Laden was killed.  When Nega gets to what Bin Laden's death actually means to Ethiopia he/she makes several blanket statements, including:

• There will now be "no more comparisons with Jimmy Carter" for Obama.
• "There will now be less pressure on (Obama) to sustain the war on terror as the central theme of America's foreign policy."
• "The loss of [Al Qaeda's] iconic leader will most probably weaken [Al Qaeda] considerably.
• America can move on; Policy shift "could begin in earnest." 

Although it's hard to tell whether these comments are the general consensus of Ethiopians, the inaccurate statements at the beginning of the article make the American reader question the existence of a bias directed toward news out of the U.S.  The article, at the very least, appears to have a slant towards anti-Americanism.

Nigeria: In the Nigerian Tribune, what appears to be an editorial written by Abiodun Awolaja entitled "Bin Laden, Terror and Challenges for Nigeria" discusses Bin Laden's death from a Nigerian point of view.  Awolaja details parts of Nigeria's extensively violent history and states that the U.S.' handling of the operation to kill Bin Laden "may have provided an opportunity for Nigeria to re-evaluate its war against terror."  Overall, the article suggests that Nigeria look to other countries like the U.S. in order to "attain (the U.S.') present, arguably enviable status with respect to the management of crime and terrorism."

This cartoon ran in a Pakistani newspaper, The Friday Times

Pakistan: In what can arguably be expected from a country with citizens that sympathize with Bin Laden's cause, Pakistan's Dawn.com ran an article entitled In His Death, Osama Finds Sympathy.  The article, written in a straightforward manner, serves as a commentary on the mixed emotions expressed by people mostly in Egypt.  Although the article is quite objective, author Yasser Khalil makes a point of running quotes that express the Middle East's dissatisfaction with how the U.S. handled Bin Laden's body.

In review, the majority of coverage from around the world appeared to be supportive, although many were cautiously so, of the U.S. operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.  Understandably, many countries coverage was based on how they would particularly be affected.  Most countries' coverage was to a lesser extent than that of the U.S.

Indonesia: Newslinks on the Death of Bin Laden

This link, which seems pretty straightforward and unbiased, notes the issue of terrorism in Indonesia and how certain groups are reacting to the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The Jakarta Post had an interesting "text your opinion" page, where the international community of Indonesia commented diversely on his death and  U.S.'s operation to kill him.

Antara News, Indonesia's Official News Agency, ran several stories which seemed to focus on negative aspects of the operation (Bin Laden Death Rekindles Torture Debate, White House Alters Narrative of Bin Laden Raid, Bin Laden, Two Others Didn't Fire on Seals-Sources). I think it's safe to say that this one, in which an Iranian government official states that Bin Laden was dead long before U.S. forces got to him, probably wouldn't be on any front pages here.

American Perceptions: Indonesia

Upon first considering Indonesia, a country I have never visited, several perceptions came to mind.  I knew it was a largely Muslim state and a popular tourist destination.  I recognized Java, Jakarta and Bali as Indonesian locations, although I realized I had really only ever considered Bali as a place I'd hoped to visit. This idea is probably perpetuated by how I've seen Bali portrayed in the media.  It's been shown as everything from a surf haven to a peaceful Hindu community, filled with mysterious traditional medicine and wise elderly healers, tropical beaches and lush surroundings (thank you, "Eat, Pray, Love").   I knew a Balinese esthetician once who described her country as one that placed great importance on family values as well as a lively nightlife.  Additionally, as an avid listener of NPR's "Democracy Now," I was able to recall Amy Goodman's description of the Indonesian-led massacre in East Timor that occurred about 20 years ago.   To this day I don't know the exact details of this horrific event, but I do recall the brutality Goodman described as well as the fact that the U.S. did not help but rather lobbied against U.N. intervention.  

The image of Bali as a peaceful, popular and lush tourist destination is perpetuated by media portrayals such as the book and film "Eat, Pray, Love." 

Clearly my initial perceptions of Indonesia were jumbled, random and not necessarily accurate, to say the least.  Knowing this, I was curious about how much other average Americans knew.  I interviewed six sources ranging in ages from 20-60 and with varied amounts of education.  I asked basic questions about the country such as:

• What is the first thing about Indonesia that comes to mind?
• What continent is Indonesia on and what is its capital?  
• What are some historical events that have happened in Indonesia?  

I found that most people's perceptions were similar to mine; that is again to say they were jumbled, random and not necessarily accurate.  Surprisingly, each of the six sources correctly identified Indonesia as "islands close to Asia," and knew that Islam was its major religion.  However, Dane, 26, thought the capital was Port Moresby (which is actually the capital of Papua New Guinea), while Jayne, 20, and Patrick, 25, didn't know.
People's answers varied when asked what the first thing that came to mind about Indonesia was.  Not surprisingly, Dane and Pat, both avid surfers, stated that the waves were the first thing they thought about.  Travis, 20, thought of "sweatshops, poverty, slums in big cities and legal organ trade." This is interesting when considering that in actuality, although Indonesia's economy has historically been troubled, its percentage of impoverished people is not terribly high.  As far as legal organ donation, I was unable to find any records of that in recent times.

The aftermath of a 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali

When discussing the country's historical events, Lindsey, 21, Robert, 60, and Jayne, 21, spoke of the tsunami that occurred in 2004, although Robert was the only one who could identify the year in which it happened.  Robert also recalled the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, which no one else mentioned.  Most people, including Lindsey, Jayne, Travis and Dane listed overall political corruption as an issue Indonesia has had to deal with in the past.  This, in fact is accurate, as Indonesia was ruled by a dictator until it became a democratic republic in 2004.
Overall, the sources I spoke to seemed to have a general idea of at least where Indonesia is located and some of its historical issues.  However, it is interesting to note the initial offhand perceptions of a few Californians of varying ages and education levels.  As Americans, it seems we are rather isolated and have a lot to learn about this particular country.

Twitter and News Site of the Week

The Jakarta Post: Indonesia's largest daily English newspaper.

•  Created in 1982 by the then minister of information Ali Moertopo and Mr. Jusuf Wanandi, who represented the government-backed Golkar newspaper Suara Karya.

• Its mission is to "provide an Indonesian perspective to counter the highly unbalanced Western-dominated global traffic of news and views."

• Online edition offers local news intermixed with international headlines

• The Jakarta Post is "an independent newspaper institution privately owned by four competing media groups"

The Jakarta Globe is another English Indonesian newspaper and was launched in 2008. 

Their Twitter posts a variety of international headlines.  

Indonesia: Family Connections Influence Country's Politics

Indonesia is a country geographically divided by the Indian Ocean, comprised of many islands with a population ranging from groups of rural villagers to modern urban city-dwellers. Its cultural make-up is varied; for example, although the country's official language is Indonesian, BBC News' "Indonesia Country Profile" states that over 300 regional languages are spoken throughout the country. Similarly, the country's major religion is Islam, although the island of Bali holds a largely Hindu population. Politically speaking, Indonesia is a democracy, albeit a brand new one. The country's first democratic elections took place in 2004, after nearly 40 years under dictator Suharto.

Indonesia is comprised of thousands of small islands between Australia and Asia.  Image Credit: conradaskland.com

Despite the country's democratic standing, it appears that a system of royalty based on familial connections is still supported and honored by the Indonesian political system. Hasyim Widhiarto's April 13, 2011 article “Open Door For Children of the Political Elite” in The Jakarta Post describes how adult children of politicians enter politics with surprisingly little interest or experience. Funded by their parents' political parties, these scions are elected only to delegate their official responsibilities to staff members. Widhiarto focuses on the example of Edhie “Ibas” Baskoro Yudhoyono, the son of Democratic Party founder President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. In a style that is clearly either translated from Indonesian or written without full command of the English language, Widhiarto writes that Ibas was “appointed the party’s secretary-general without any sweat,” yet is “rarely seen attending meetings or hearings at the House of Representatives.”

. Along the same vein, Widhiarto's next article, posted the same day and entitled “Heirs to the Throne,” provides a list with photos and biographical information of each “child” in the elitist political network. Included among each person's marital status and education are facts that illustrate either special treatment within Indonesia's military or prominence in the country's politics. 

Capt. Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, the crown prince of the Yudhoyono and Wiboyo, is quoted in "Heirs of the Throne" to have enjoyed "enjoyed numerous privileges during his career in the military, including exclusions from posts in conflict areas in Indonesia." Image credit: denniocastafiore.wordpress.com

“Open Door For Children of the Political Elite” appears to be trying to shed light (carefully, considering Indonesia's policy on defamation, which carries a punishment of imprisonment) on what appears to be a somewhat illegitimate government practice.  Considering that, according to epapercatalog.com, The Jakarta Post circulates 50,000 papers daily and keeps a current online edition, this information appears to be newsworthy to at least a small population of Indonesia's residents.

Whether these articles indicate true corruption within Indonesia's government or merely convey one media outlet's frustration with the system, the concept of family ties within government is shown here to be inherent to Indonesia's culture. From this, one can tentatively assume that family tradition and cohesiveness, at least among Indonesia's elite class, is an important tenet of the Indonesian value system.