The health status of Indonesia’s provinces: the double burden of diseases and inequality gap

Vicka Oktaria and Yodi Mahendradhata

The Lancet | Open Access | Published: November, 2022 | DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00405-3

In The Lancet Global Health, the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019 Indonesia Collaborators report on 30 years of disease burden and risk factors in Indonesia, expanding their analysis to a more granular subnational level.

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 Given the ongoing challenges of obtaining comparable subnational data, the GBD data provides enlightening evidence for decision makers at the subnational level for future programmatic planning and policy strategies specific to their local health issues. These findings will ultimately help narrow down the inequality gaps at regional levels. This paper is perfectly timed to captured and illustrate the health status in Indonesia before and after the launch of the universal health coverage (UHC) programme Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial Kesehatan (BPJS) in 2014. The BPJS has now covered more than 75% of the Indonesian population.

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Although excellent programmatic interventions and policies have significantly reduced the disease burden in the past three decades, communicable diseases remain the main source of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in Indonesia, along with the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes. Diabetes has become one of the main priorities of the national government as programmatic research and efforts towards prevention, early detection, and treatment of diabetes are increasing. Apart from poor quality of life, health-care costs related to diabetes complications are high, with diabetic retinopathy accounting for nearly 2% of the total national state budget, and are estimated to triple by 2025.

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UK Spies Incited Mass Murder of Indonesia’s Communists, An Exposure

Newly declassified papers show murderous role played by Britain in the mass slaughter

A Journal of People report

An alleged communist is questioned under gunpoint by Indonesian soldiers in 1965. (University of Melbourne)

The Indonesian Army’s brutal crackdown on the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in 1965 and 1966 is considered to be one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century. Between 500,000 and three million supporters of the PKI were slaughtered, according to various estimations. It was genocide.

Declassified papers reveal that UK propaganda campaign incited this mass slaughter of communists in Indonesia.

President Sukarno was arrested in 1967 and died three years later under house arrest.

He was overthrown by General Suharto, who had been leading the Indonesian Army. Suharto then ruled Indonesia until 1998, enjoying political and economic support from the West. Transparency International labeled him the most corrupt politician in modern history in 2004, claiming that he embezzled between $15 billion and $35 billion during his time in office.

The campaign of apparently spontaneous mass murder, now known to have been orchestrated by the Indonesian army, was later described by the CIA as one of the worst mass murders of the century.

The Jakarta Method Never Ended

Randy Shields

Prepare to read Vincent Bevins’s The Jakarta Method in one sitting because it’s impossible to put down. The book is a summation of the US government assisting the Indonesian military in killing approximately one million civilians from October 1965 through March 1966.

While the Vietnam War got most of the headlines, in Indonesia, the world’s third largest communist party was winning hearts, minds and elections — much to the alarm of the United States. After years of cultivating and training the Indonesian military the US decided it was time for the Indonesian working class to put away childish things like land reform and resource nationalization. The two-million strong (but fatefully unarmed) Indonesian communist party, the PKI, had to be exterminated “down to the roots.”

The mass murder starts on October 7 on Sumatra with a fanatical anticommunist commander named Ishak Djuarsa who trained at Fort Leavenworth. The police and military arrest leftists and their sympathizers en masse. Trusting peasants and factory workers turn themselves in for what they think is routine questioning and are never heard from again. For mass murder to spread so quickly it’s necessary for ethnic and religious fault lines to be exploited and “ordinary” citizens to directly participate in the killings, often under the threat of being killed themselves.

Indonesian Protests Mark Re-emergence of Social Movements, Civil Society

WORKERS’ MOVEMENT

People’s Dispatch | October 29, 2020

Robertus Robet, lecturer of sociology at the State University of Jakarta and a human rights activist, talks about the recent protests in Indonesia against the Omnibus Law. The law, in the name of job creation, seeks to weaken labor rights and environmental safeguards. Robertus talks about the resurgence of social movements, the key role played by trade unions and the fight for democracy in the country.

Indonesia: Mass strikes Against ‘Catastrophic’ Assault on Workers’ Rights and Environment

WORKERS STRIKE IN INDONESIA

Ben Chacko

People’s World | October 08, 2020

A labor demonstrator raises his fists in support of the protest against a controversial omnibus bill that takes an axe to workers’ rights and environmental protections, in Tangerang, Indonesia. | AP

Millions took strike action in Indonesia Wednesday and thousands rallied in cities across the country in protest at a new Job Creation Law that takes an axe to workers’ rights and environmental protections.

In Bandung, West Java, protesters blocked roads around the local parliament building and burned tires. Industrial workers rallied in Tangerang and Bekasi and walked out of factories and demonstrated in Karawang and Serang in West Java and Banten provinces.

Police prevented trade unions from rallying in the capital Jakarta.

Noam Chomsky on Our Wonderful Indonesian Moderates

by Daniel Falcone

teleSUR | October 30, 2017

General Suharto led the massacre of over 500,000 communists and sympathizers in Indonesia. | Photo: Archives

The editors at the New York Times were well aware at once of crucial U.S. government involvement in the Indonesian bloodbath.

Noam Chomsky discussed the responsibility of intellectuals and pointed out how, “historical amnesia is dangerous not only because it undermines moral and intellectual integrity, but also it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead.” According to Josefhine Chitra and Andhyta F. Utami, “his quote holds some truth for Indonesia’s bleak past in settling its human rights violations (with U.S. support).”

The Indonesia Genocide 1965-66 by army: U.S. government’s “active support” of the slaughter

A Journal of People report

According to newly declassified documents posted on October 17, 2017 by the National Security Archive (NSA) at The George Washington University the U.S. government had detailed knowledge that the Indonesian Army was conducting a campaign of mass murder against the country’s Communist Party (PKI) starting in 1965.

The documents reveal not just the US government’s “detailed knowledge” of the Indonesian Army’s mass killings of members of the Communist Party (PKI), but its “active support” of the slaughter.

Kendeng Against Cement

by Andre Barahamin

MR Online | 27 March, 2017

Since March 13, 2017, over 50 local indigenous peasants known as Sedulur Kendeng have been sitting with their feet in cement boxes in protest. This is their second such protest in eleven months.

It is both a symbolic and literal plea to President Joko Widodo, more commonly known as Jokowi, to halt the construction of a cement factory in Rembang, Central Java. They are protesting against the planned mining operation of PT Semen Indonesia—a state owned enterprise. The mega-plan is supported by Ganjar Pranowo, the Central Governor of Java, and Rini Soemarno, the Minister of State-owned Enterprises. Both are politicians from PDIP (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) who led Jokowi to his presidency back in 2014.

Cementing Dissent in Indonesia

by IQRA ANUGRAH

MR Online | 24 March, 2017

Iqra Anugrah examines a dramatic demonstration in Jakarta that saw peasant women concrete their own feet for 36 hours to save their farms and local environment from a cement factory.