Megawati Orders PDIP Cadres To Provide Special Protection For People With Disabilities

PDIP General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri (Photo: Screenshot)

JAKARTA - PDI-P General Chair, Megawati Soekarnoputri, ordered her party cadres to pay special attention to people with disabilities.

This was conveyed by Megawati during her speech in the context of awarding the athletes and administrators of the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics. This event was held online and offline at the PDIP Office, Central Jakarta, Friday, September 24.

Megawati said that when she became the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia and as long as she led her party, she always reminded her staff to appreciate the achievements of people with disabilities. Especially those who excel like the Paralympic athletes.

She also mentioned that there were several policies he made while in office so that they could move like normal humans. These policies include Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection and Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 13 of 2003 concerning Manpower.

The policy states that persons with disabilities have the right to receive education and rehabilitation, social assistance, and maintenance of welfare levels.

In addition, the policy in the field of employment he also makes access in the form of job training. Mega also at that time asked employers who employ workers with disabilities to provide protection.

Employers are also prohibited from terminating employment because the worker or laborer is permanently disabled, sick due to a work accident, or sick due to an employment relationship which according to a doctor's certificate, the period of recovery cannot be ascertained.

"So it must always be done. So the PDI-P should also be like that to provide special protection to these children. Because of course, children will become adults who they will move on to live", Mega said in her remarks conducted online.

Megawati also reminded that if a laborer is chronically ill, has a disability due to a work accident, and is unable to work after the 12-month limit has passed, he or she can apply for termination of employment.

The employees, she continued, must also be given severance pay twice, award money, and compensation for entitlements once provided. "Why are you reading this? Because it seems I feel like it has gone a bit far. I want to make it popular again that this is already a Law of the Republic of Indonesia. So don't be confident", she said.

Furthermore, Megawati's concern for people with disabilities has indeed been nurtured from a young age. When she was 13 years old, he was once invited by her father, Soekarno, who was the first President of the Republic of Indonesia, to visit the Foundation for the Development of Children with Disabilities (YPAC).

There, Megawati said, she saw children who were born differently but still rejoiced in facing life. "Then, I keep seeing them, they are taught, they are given tools. So I see that the environment should also involve them to make them proud", she concluded.