The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) is in the process of drafting a proposal paper for the establishment of a committee to study the feasibility of mandating pre-marriage courses for non-Muslim couples. Its deputy minister, Aiman Athirah Sabu, said that the committee will propose suitable programs to be presented to the Cabinet in the near future. She said this when winding up the debate session on the motion of thanks for the royal address, in the Dewan Negara today. She was replying to Senator Aknan Ehtook, who proposed that non-Muslim couples undergo a pre-marriage course before tying the knot. Meanwhile, commenting on the lack of officers and staff of the Social Welfare Department (JKM) at the temporary relief centers during the floods, Aiman Athirah said that the department had taken steps to address the issue through community empowerment. “JKM has taken the initiative to empower the community by appointing community leaders, heads of local agencies, school principals, head teachers and other community volunteers, as supervisors and committee members and staff at relief centers. “Through community empowerment and resilience during the disaster, it will enable community leaders to run a relief center with minimal monitoring from JKM staff,” she said. The Dewan Negara sitting continues tomorrow. Read more at:
EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD
Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.
“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”
