JAKARTA - The case of the suicide of an elementary school student in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) is more than just an economic problem. This incident, said forensic psychologist Reza Indragiri Amriel, contrasts with President Prabowo Subianto's claim that Indonesia is the happiest country in the world.
The tragedy that ended YBR's (10) life was a hard blow to all parties. This tragedy is said to have started from a simple problem - at least for some people - when the victim asked for Rp. 10,000 to buy a book and a pen.
Unfortunately, this request was not fulfilled because the mother really did not have any money. The unmet request is suspected to be the trigger for the child's feeling of being broken.
The victim's mother is a single parent with five children. He himself works as a farmer and casual laborer. To reduce the burden, the victim lives separately with his elderly grandmother in a simple hut.
According to psychologists, suicide is not a conscious choice to die, but an expression of despair. Children, in fact, do not want to end their lives, but want to end the suffering that they cannot express with words.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) noted that the number of child suicide cases in Indonesia is the highest in Southeast Asia.
Child Suicide Cases IncreaseAccording to KPAI data, in 2023 as many as 46 children chose to end their lives, then in 2024 there were 43 children, and in 2025 there were 26 children who ended their lives. Meanwhile, as of January 2026, there have been three children who have committed suicide in the country.
In October 2025, an eighth grade student at an SMP in Sawahlunto, West Sumatra, was found lifeless in the classroom after being allowed to leave in the middle of class, which was then carried out outside the classroom area. The victim was found hanging lifeless by three of his friends in an empty classroom.
In the same month, two children also committed suicide in Cianjur and Sukabumi. Residents were shocked by the news of the death of a 10-year-old boy who was also a fifth grade student at one of the SDN in the Cianjur area. His grandmother found the victim hanging in the door frame of his room.
In Sukabumi, a female student in the eighth grade of a Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs) was found dead in her house. For this case, there is a suspicion that the victim was bullied before deciding to end his life.
Regarding the case of an elementary school student ending his life in NTT, according to Reza Indragiri Amriel's observation, it is not only a matter of stationery.
This sad and frightening event, he said, should be as much as possible the concern of President Prabowo. Because this contrasts with the president's misguided hype that Indonesia is the happiest country in the world.
Sadness or unhappiness should be seen as a spectrum, not black and white. So, there is a scale ranging from slightly sad to the most sad. At the level of the worst sadness, there is a sense of hopelessness that can only be 'treated' by the perpetrator by ending his own life.
"There are definitely a lot of people whose sadness is at the level below that. But do we pay attention to the population that is really very, very much? Surely not. We have become numb to the suffering that is 'only' that. We are only shocked when we respond to extreme suffering, as happened to the NTT child," said Reza in a written message to VOI.
Two Different ViewsReza also offered two views in seeing the suicide of an elementary school student in NTT. First, this event is the end of the grief that continues to escalate from time to time. Because it is chronic, then death should be intercepted if we are careful enough to observe changes in children's habits.
"If the conclusion is what we support, then you can imagine how high the risk of Indonesian children committing suicide is," explained Reza.
"Those who do not go to school, those who are hungry for a long time, those whose diseases are getting worse, can be understood as children who continue to move towards extreme decision-making points like NTT children," he continued.
Second, suicide is more a form of reactive depression, which appears suddenly. The decision to end one's life in this case is more due to the limitations of one's insight to find constructive solutions to the problems he is currently facing.
"The question is, let's not take it too seriously. But his knowledge of the options for a way out is still too minimal. So, the main problem is in the cognition," said Reza again.
Meanwhile, Lecturer of Sociology at Brawijaya University Malang Wida Ayu Puspitosari argues that for a child in a lagging area, books and pens are "passports" to be accepted in their social environment, namely school. When the state fails to provide basic facilities, what is called symbolic violence occurs.
"The child feels socially punished for not being able to meet the minimum standards of a student. Suicide here is the most extreme form of protest against the social structure that does not give space to the weakest," said Wida, quoted by Kompas.
Wida added, in the trap of poverty, a child can know suicide because this has become a reasonable option. "The question of why a small child already knows suicide actually holds a wrong assumption: that suicide is an adult concept that children should not know. However, in a society that is constantly trapped in poverty without hope for change, suicide becomes something that is present in everyday life; maybe there are neighbors who do it, maybe there are stories circulating, maybe there are whispers in the family," he said.
But, more terrifying for children living in extreme poverty, suicide can seem like the only form of agency left.
"When we have no power over anything in life, let's say we can't choose what to eat, we can't buy school supplies, we can't change our fate, ending life can feel like the only decision we can really make ourselves," said Wida.
"When death feels more reasonable than life, the so-called failure is not the individual. According to him, the failure is the entire social order. This is the harshest criticism of the system, namely where when death feels more reasonable than life," Wida concluded.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
