JAKARTA - Police along with the TNI and a number of volunteers held a raid on masks on the pacet tourist trail, Mojokerto. They brought people in pocong costumes. Along with those with fantasies, authorities also used transvestites to 'scare the citizens. Another example of how authority perpetuates stigma against trans people.
The mask raid was carried out around the roundabout of Pacet park. As access to various tourist attractions at the foot of Mount Welirang, the point is always crowded with vehicles on weekends.
In the raid the police involved two transvestites aka transpuan. Wearing viral cell-shaped helmets, the two transvestites are tasked with driving without masks.
Reported detik, many Mojokerto AKBP Police Chief Dony Alexander said the way it was done to give a message about the terrible threat of the real danger of COVID-19. Through posters and loudspeakers, the authorities also voiced their encouragement to keep tourists and the public complying with the program.
"We want to give a message to the entire mojokerto community that COVID-19 still exists and endangers us all," Dony.
"Remember, the discipline of complying with prokes is one of the vaccines to break the chain of spread of COVID-19," he added.
Dony believes this kind of way can attract the public's attention. Dony is also optimistic that this method can foster mass awareness about health protocol compliance.
"Health protocols must be strictly implemented and must emerge from mojokerto community," said Dony.
wrongOne thing Dony is right, that the move was able to attract the attention of the public. Yes, even our attention. But in other ways Dony is wrong. Efforts to raise mass awareness in that way have the potential to raise other problems.
Trisakti University public policy observer Trubus Rahadiansyah called what Dony and his ranks did as discriminatory policies. Indeed, perhaps socio-economically, transvestites benefit from the payments received.
But much deeper, Dony's way has the potential to perpetuate the stigma against trans people. In a practical context, confronting transvestites who are notabene vulnerable groups with society can incite violence.
"If I think the use of certain communities is like transvestites, first it's low public imagery," Trubus told VOI on Monday, May 24.
"Education prokes this will provoke the occurrence of anarchist behavior towards other communities. The use of transvestites as an LGBT community would be counterproductive and create new problems," Trubus added.
In a long-term context, this will widen the distance between transpuan as a marginalized group and the dominant community. A situation that should be avoided as much as possible in the chaos of this pandemic.
"It also affects how they earn money yes. They've been struggling in the pandemic. Now it's getting depressed."
"Don't let him get beaten up by people. I imagine, one day he (transpuan) will become a public enemy. So I think it (discriminatory policy) is evaluated."
Violence against transpuanIn a more serious context, transpuans will be more vulnerable. Without conflict alone -- confronting transvestites with violators -- they are already seen as opposed to local cultural norms embraced by the dominants.
Remember what happened to transpuan in Cilincing, North Jakarta named Mira in April 2020? He is accused of stealing the mobile phone of a truck driver in the area. Mira was then burned from life to death. The theft of the phone was unproven.
Mira's case is no ordinary criminality. In the article Mira Bukan Transpuan that Burned Mass, He is a Human Whose Life Was Taken by Others, Adrianus Meliala, criminologist university of Indonesia, explained the stigma against transpuan makes them vulnerable to be the target of anger.
"This is the result of the stronger view instilled by some that LGBT people are sin, not human, even satanic," Adrianus told VOI at the time.
In Mira's case, Adrianus highlights another thing that blinds the conscience of the perpetrators. Economic issues, for example. " (If not corrected) people (in the future) no longer have to wait or look for triggers to then get angry. Without triggers, LGBT people can fall prey," he added.
The Transvestite Quality of Life Survey in Indonesia released by the Center for HIV and AIDS Research, Unika Atma Jaya in 2015 shows the real social exclusion experienced by transvestites in Indonesia. The survey also found gender bias in the perspective of common social structures as fundamental to their extraordinary social exclusion.
Violence against trans people also occurs in a variety of contexts, ranging from physical, psychic, sexual to economic violence. Perpetrators of violence are not only individuals of the community but also the state, including police and local government officials.
"This violence is an indication of the inability of the state to protect security from transvestites. And even some respondents reported violence from state officials," it said in the report.
*Read more information about LGBT or read other interesting writings from Yudhistira Mahabharata.
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