Lobbying-Proposal-Disability Issues

Public Policy Lobbying Strategies

VOICE FROM DISABLED GROUPS

South Sulawesi-Eastern Indonesia

“Unable to get there, Unable to get in, Unable to get it, It’s time to END it! ”

(A Strategic Communication Plan Proposed to the government of South

Sulawesi responding to the disability issues in Indonesia through

Provincial Disability Scheme Initiative)

This paper has been submitted to the subject of Public Policy Lobbying

Strategies

Semester 4-University of Melbourne (2013)

MASNIJURI


I. Introduction

Country Profile-Disability in Indonesia

Indonesia is a country with approximately 240 million people, the

fourth largest country by population after China, India and the United

States. It is also acknowledged as one of the coming up countries with

intense economy development and broad middle-income society in

reaching impartial growth (BPS, 2013).

Statistics shows that the number of persons with disabilities in the

total population in Indonesia is 1.38 per cent. The disabled persons

themselves are described as “..........someone who has physical and/or

mental abnormality, which could alarm or be considered as hindrance

and constraint in performing normal activities and consisted of (i)

physical disability, (ii) mental disability, and (iii) combination of

physical and mental disabilities (Act of the Republic of Indonesia

Number 4/1997). Another legislation which supports this issue is

Government Regulation No 43/1998 on Efforts to Improve the Social

Welfare of Persons with Disabilities.

Indonesian government is fully committed with the action of

promoting the human rights including people with disabilities by

ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

(UNCRPD) in October 2011. This convention was then endorsed into

The Act of the Republic Indonesia No 19/2011. The ratification of


UNCRPD by the Indonesian government functions as an essential

conversion from a social welfare to a human rights approach. This

step includes the target on the eradication of disabling boundaries in

the physical, social, cultural and economic circumstances to grant

people with disabilities in taking a part and contribution in conformity

with their abilities.

Policy Idea

The country keeps struggling to pursue a reasonable and sustainable

development. The number of people in poverty level is still in a big

proportion as well as the inequality especially for excluded and

defenceless people including persons with disabilities remain a huge

problem. Disabled persons are often excluded and marginalized in the

society. Unavoidably, they face considerable discrimination in having

an entry into health and other services like education and

employment opportunity. Stronger and serious efforts to promote the

rights of people with disabilities will require a significant increase in

resources and attention.

A severe ignorance and unfair treatment, no inclusion and lots more

barriers are encountered by the disabled groups day by day. A very

limited participation opportunity as well as “friendly” facilities

addressed to this group are obvious facts that they have been

marginalised and treated unfairly both by the government and society.


Therefore, an idea to propose as a policy proposal in this strategic

communication plan to introduce a Provincial Disability Scheme

Initiative which aims at promoting a fair and guaranteed policy

towards the disabled groups to have the same access and opportunity

into employment and services like the other citizens have.

The initiative comprises of some points to be taken by the local

government and policy makers in regarding with the guarantee of

employment opportunities for the people with disability in South

Sulawesi. The other points to propose in this scheme are guarantees

of providing common facilities which are required by disabled group in

their daily activities such as toilet, pavement, transportation and

other related facilities which are designed specifically to meet the

disabled needs.

The tagline of this campaign is “Unable to get there, Unable to get in,

Unable to get it, It’s the time to END it!”.

The main reasons why this issue has not been attracting serious

attention from the decisions makers are the unstable situation of

political atmosphere in the local and provincial level and also lack of

qualified and professional facilitators who really understand the

emerging case. Apart from that, there is no any strong program which

involves some potential stakeholders such as Legislative members,

academia and related departments such as transportation, education,


social affairs and labour. Therefore, to focus the output and objectives

to reach, this campaign is limited in the local and provincial level to be

promoted due to decentralisation structure of governance in

Indonesia.

II. Communication Evaluation.

This issue has been perceived as one of the most serious and urgent

problem to discuss and solve. Some other organizations that share the

same concerns have initiated to take actions and they are quite active

in promoting the disabled groups to be able to have serious attention

and treatment from the government. The key organisations that are

active in the provincial level currently are Indonesian Disabled

People’s Organisation (PPCI) and Indonesian Blind Union (PERTUNI).

However, these groups have no capacity to channel their voice

through the government in a maximum way. Therefore, it is

considered to involve these groups and to work together in this

campaign due to the common mission and vision we share.

The similar message has been echoed by some NGOs as well as

international organisations in the national level such as WHO1, ILO2,

World Bank3, AusAID4, and USAID5 through their projects by

cooperation with Trade Union Confederations, Indonesian Employer’s

Association, Universities and Media Partners. Again, there is no any

1 www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/chapter7

2 http://www.ilo.org/skills/areas/inclusion-of-persons-with-disabilities/ 3http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/ 4 http://aid.dfat.gov.au/Publications/ 5 http://www.usaid.gov/indonesia

http://www.ilo.org/skills/areas/inclusion-of-persons-with-disabilities

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/

http://aid.dfat.gov.au/Publications/

http://www.usaid.gov/indonesia


synergy and clear mechanisms to be transferred to provincial level to

really touch disability groups in the regions, especially in the issue

employment opportunity and service delivery and facilities.

In the national level, the key actor of this problem is The Ministry of

Social Affairs because they are mandated to address the issues on

people with disabilities and this ministry is responsible for

coordination and the implementation of disability legislation by

involving Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, Ministry of

Health, Ministry of Education and Culture, and Ministry of

Transportation. These ministries are the decision-makers of all

policies and actions regarding with disability problem in the national

level.

However, there is no any clear and intensive coordination to provincial

level, for that, there seems a gap and imbalance program addressed to

disabled groups within provincial level. That is the main reason why

this campaign is focused on local and provincial level to see its

implementation would be more focused and able to reach specific

target essentially.

In doing this campaign, there are some factors that might be potential

problems as well as supporting factors. In the provincial level, in this

case South Sulawesi where the political situation in regional level is

unstable and quite easy to be in high “tense”, this could be a very


potential hinder to counter. Apart from that, disability issue seems

not becoming a juicy part for the media to expose because there is no

any serious efforts to do in the provincial level. To succeed this policy

idea to have a place in bureaucrats and legislative boards, there

should be an intensive coordination and clear mechanism as

communication tools in bridging between the policy initiator and the

decision makers. All these potential hindrance and supports will be

explained further through SWOT analysis.

In assessing this campaign, there are two communication evaluation

tools will be applied, they are:

a. Quantitative evaluation through media mentions, survey results,

community meetings, social media.

Involving media in this campaign would be very critical since their

involvement will be able to reach the majority of people quickly.

The power of media is unquestionable in framing the news and

formatting the issue in a very eye catching package.

In South Sulawesi, there are two main local newspapers whose

coverage is relatively big, from the city to some smaller regions. The

local newspapers are Tribun Timur6 and Fajar7 that owned by

private companies. These two papers are very strong in power to

6 http://makassar.tribunnews.com/. This newspaper is daily released and it reaches the

public from the provincial capital to the small regions. 7 http://www.fajar.co.id/main.html. This newspaper was started earlier than Tribun Timur.

It is also available online instead of printed types of newspaper.

http://makassar.tribunnews.com/

http://www.fajar.co.id/main.html


persuade the public and they are also playing a significant role to

keep the public updated with any current news.

Apart from media involvement, surveys can be administered to the

public through questioner list based on groups. Professionals,

business group and students are the very potential group to

persuade and ask for support. The other community groups which

are very potential to support this campaign are religious group,

church union, and ethnic groups. There are four main ethnics in

South Sulawesi, they are Makassar, Bugis, Mandar and Toraja

ethnics.8 These ethnics have their own organisations which are

very strong and solid both in local and provincial level. As for the

religious groups, Moslem and Christian associations are dominant

in this region and they are easily found at universities and other

community groups.

Social media is another profound tool in doing campaign. It has

been proven that social media is able to reach its followers like

Facebook and Twitter as fast as they can move. In political

escalation, social media becomes one of the most likeable and

fastest tools in helping the politicians to connect them with the

public easily.

8http://www.djpk.depkeu.go.id/attachments/article/257/20.%20SULAWESI%20SELATAN.

pdf

http://www.djpk.depkeu.go.id/attachments/article/257/20.%20SULAWESI%20SELATAN.pdf

http://www.djpk.depkeu.go.id/attachments/article/257/20.%20SULAWESI%20SELATAN.pdf


b. Qualitative evaluation through media content analysis, perception

audits and focus group surveys.

Media content analysis can be done regularly in every three

months. The same procedure applies to perception audits and

focus group surveys to find out the responses and opinion of the

public towards the campaign which has been introduced.

To support the evaluation to be more valid, SWOT analysis will be

extended in this campaign.

1. Strengths

Able to attract more supports from political parties since the

election will be held in 2014, so political parties are striving to get

more voters by focusing on certain sensitive issues such as

disability issue.

Able to generate more supports from DPO (Disabled People’s

Organisations), NGOs and related groups in the provincial level.

Universities and Academicians will be the main drivers of gaining

more supporters since their power is undebatable within education

institutions.

The campaign puts minority group like people with disability as the

main concern, it is potential to attract more attention from the

public.


2. Weaknesses

Might be facing pressures from certain political party who has

more resources like money, it will lead to unfair and injustice

practice.

It requires a long time to come to the implementation due to some

stages of coordination.

Very complex issue.

3. Opportunities

This will be a big opportunity to raise public awareness in regards

with disability issue through campaign in a bigger scale.

The involvement of media and other interest groups will enable the

public to change their mindset towards disabled people.

Provincial government including legislative and bureaucrats will be

more convinced to take serious and sustainable actions on this

issue.

4. Threats

Monopoly from political parties

Limited time

Budget restrictions

III. Stated Objectives

The prevailing situation, meaning the system and societal

responses do not propose people with a disability the same

opportunities as the other Indonesian are entitled to. It is rambled ,

biased and massively less-funded. This group continually struggle

for better and fairer results in welfare and levels of inclusion. The


case for change is for both sides; policy and funding. The way out

needs to over see these components adjusted with each other, and

with constructive application and cultural impact.

The overall objectives which are aimed in this campaign are to

raise public awareness about disability issue and how to deal with

this problem. Public and environment should be friendly and

accessible by people with disability. There is no any discrimination

and exclusion practice addressed to this group because according

to the law and many related constitutions, they are eligible and

fully righteous to any facilities and services like the other citizens

have in this country.

The rationale for this overall objective is quite a big opportunity to

get positive support from the public since this issue has becomes a

national issue and widely discussed in almost all levels. However,

there are some obstacles still expected there according to the

SWOT analysis presented above.

The specific objective to emphasize in this campaign is to urge and

push the local government and the other key actors to devise and

implement the policy which is pro to the people with disabilities in

the region. By looking at some facts that this group has been facing

discrimination in almost all sectors of services, employment,


education, health and livelihood equality, this is the right time to

end all these intolerable practice.

In the provincial level, there are not enough facilities and services

provided for the group with disabilities, not to mention about the

exclusion which is extended to them. It is rarely to find disabled

people work in the government or other public institutions. This is

the fact that the government is not serious to combat the

discriminative and unfair actions for them.

The rationale for this specific objective is showing a positive gesture

as long as the government and community are willing to work and

cooperate in promoting the fair and equal opportunity as well as

providing supports and facilities to this group. There must be some

challenges and threats are potential to be in place during the

process, however, this campaign is expected to be able to succeed

the idea proposed in minimizing the case happens to disabled

people.

IV. Key Audiences

a. Direct audiences: government and other stakeholders.

The local government and other stakeholders in the provincial level

are the direct audiences of my campaign because these groups are

the most powerful to decide and to approve the proposal given. As

it has been mentioned above that in the provincial level there is no

any clear mechanism and transfer of authority from the central


government in the national level in regards with disability issues.

Through this campaign that I am proposing, the government and

stakeholders like department of health, department of social

affairs, department of labour and department of education will

collaborate and work seriously in this matter.

The biggest problems for the disabled people are still there in

employment opportunity and other mainstream disabled facilities.

Since decentralisation governance structure was initiated, here

there should be a bigger portion of authority to the provincial

government in managing all the public goods including disability

issue. Not only for the technical management but also on the

resources such as professional and budget the local government is

entitled to.

b. Intermediate audiences: NGO, interest groups such as Human

Rights Commission, Disabled Foundation, Academia, etc.

NGOs and some other interest groups are defined as the very

potential audience to bring a significant influence to the

government in taking this campaign and proposal to be successful

in the execution and implementation.

These groups have been doing the similar campaign so far but it is

still in the national level, however, their initiatives could be

adopted and adjusted with the current campaign that I am

proposing.


AusAID and USAID have been doing some projects under disability

issues in the national level. Their programs are feasible and

applicable however, they are supported by a big amount of budget

which this part is becoming one of the constraints faced by the

local government. Human Rights Commission and its supporter are

predicted to be able to push and persuade both government and

community to accept and put this policy proposal into an

implementation.

As has been explained before that one of the problems in the

society about disability issue is the cultural perception and society

attitude which is not very supportive. I see that working with

Human Rights Commission in the provincial level will be a very

significant strategy to communicate the message and goals to the

public.

Involving community group such as ethnic association in South

Sulawesi will be the right strategy in transferring and creating a

supportive environment towards disability issue. Ethnic groups are

playing a very vital role within their community and they are

considered to be one of the policy drivers in the community level.

c. Indirect audiences: media, discussion or working groups on

disability issues.


I will focus on social media like Facebook and Twitter as the main

indirect audience that I am going to use in doing the campaign.

The power of Facebook and Twitter are undeniable in reaching

people in a quick and easy way. Facts show that even politicians,

businessmen and other groups rely on this social media heavily in

doing their campaign. Since technology has expanded rapidly and

the internet connection is reaching almost all parts of the regions,

using this media is the right means of communicating the message

by using the simple but powerful tagline.

Eventually, the final decisions will be taken by the local

government, legislative and parliament members in the provincial

levels in terms of approving the policy proposal because it is also

related with budget allocation. There are some steps will be in

place started from consultation and series of formal meetings and

discussions.


V. Key Messages

Overall messages

The overall messages that I am going to convey through this

campaign are that three fundamental reasons why people with

disability have to be treated equally. The three key platforms are

based on human rights imperatives, social imperatives and

economic imperatives. The human imperative says people with a

disability must be afforded the same rights as all other Indonesians

have. The social imperative states that inclusion and participation

in the daily life of people with disability is predominant. Everyone

The campaign proposal will be published via media and other means of communication such as group meetings, surveys etc

Consultation to legislative and local governments

Human rights suporters, DPOs (Disabled People Organisations), Interest group

play a significant role in similar

decision

the decision makers in the provincial level

are quite accessible

Public pressure will influence the decision makers to take

action. Public pressures could be in the form of petition,

submission etc

the final decision towards this proposal will be taken by the government after

intensive consultation with other stakeholders


is part of the solution and this covers changing attitudes and

perceptions. The economic imperatives highlight that people with a

disability need to be backed up and reassured to take a part in the

workforce involvement and other productive avenues.

The specific messages which I intend to convey through this

campaign are disability is not someone’s problems, but it is our

problem to solve. The government together with other stakeholders

and community have to work and prioritize this group to have the

equal opportunities in employment field and also the common

facilities to support their daily activities.

It’s time to end all the discrimination and all similar practice

addressed to the people with disability. It’s time for them to get what

they are able to, to be involved and not to be excluded.

The specific audience as a target in this campaign is the local

government and other stakeholders as the decision makers.

However, the involvement of the intermediate audience such as

NGOs, Human Rights supporters, interest groups such as

academia and universities, disability organisations in the provincial

level like PERTUNI and GERKATIN, and ethnic groups are the

significant component of vocal points to push the government in

approving the policy proposed.

VI. Communication Vehicles


As stated previously, the key audience of this campaign is the local

government and stakeholders in disability issues like Department

of Social Affairs, department of Health, Department of Manpower

and Transmigration, Department of Education and Culture and

Department of Transportation. These are the key actors of the

decision making process, therefore, this campaign is intended for

them.

Direct approaches like meetings and briefing are considered the

most effective way in communicating the message to these

stakeholders. However, I need the intermediate audience to

support in the first stage through campaign before doing

submission to the government.

To deliver the main messages that I set in the campaign, I am going

to rely on two main media as the communication vehicles in this

strategic communication plan to submit to the local government.

The two media are local daily papers and social media (Facebook).

The power of media both in political reason and direct

communication mean to the public is undeniably important. In the

political stage, Baines et al (2002) point that in the political

marketing planning, the politicians are required to set their

strategies in allocating the necessary resources to the targeting


process associating with the message distribution through press,

radio and television (both adverts and publicity).

Flowers et al (2003) reiterate that campaigns are systematically

structuring their messages, deciding which messages to transmit

to the public by the press and other means of campaign. In

addition to that, they applied hypothesis that successful message

dissemination is closely related to “who” is sending the message,

“how” they structure their message, and “when” they should

disseminate the message.

Let me present some advantages and disadvantages of the two

main communication vehicles as I have mentioned above:

a. Local paper/media (Tribun Timur and Fajar).

As explained in the previous section that these two papers are

the most frequently newspapers that reach the readers in South

Sulawesi in everyday basis. The mechanisms would be as

follows:

The tagline of this campaign “Unable to get there, Unable to get in,

Unable to get it, It’s the time to END it!” will be mentioned daily to

get the public get used to.9

9 The tagline here is intended to raise public awareness by highlighting that people with

disability are sick of exclusion and ignorance both from the government and community.

Therefore, this tagline is expected to be able to change public’s attitudes. It is the time for


Small surveys will be included to get the data of how many people

support this campaign.

A regular evaluation and data collection will be applied once in

three months to measure the progress of how many people access

the information about disability issue through this campaign.

The positive side of using newspaper as the communication vehicle is

it reaches people easily and fast. However, not all people are

interested to read “promotion” or “marketing” stuffs in the newspaper.

Therefore, direct communication is still needed in this stage. Another

downside of using this media is cost requirement. It is very costly to

put the advertisement in the papers, except if we have media partner

cooperation.

b. Facebook

Technology has reached people with almost no limit. The connection

of internet has abundantly spread all over the parts of the region.

Facebook identifies itself as one of the fastest and the most emerging

communication means in the social and cyber world in the most

recent time. People will simply “LIKE” the page and it functions as a

very valid and valuable trend in terms of introducing new thing to the

public.

them to get access freely and equally in almost all sectors, employment, education, health

services, wellbeing, facilities and other related infrastructures as well as opportunities.


The positive sides of using this social media as mentioned before that

Facebook is the most trending social networking vehicle this time and

it can reach people easily. It doesn’t cost as much as the budget spent

in the printed media as point (a). So, economically, it is the safest way

to do.

In the contrary, the audience target of this media is mostly they who

are still in the young age. Some people who are potentially to be the

supporters are not able to access Facebook or they are not willing to

associate with any social media for personal reason. So, using two

different media will be complimented each other.

VII. Coalition Building/Campaign Partners

Apart from the government sides, some groups have started to execute

similar campaigns but they are in different communication method and

target.

I prefer to make coalition with independent groups such as Human

Rights Commissions, ethnic groups, and related disabled people

organisations such as PERTUNI and GERKATIN. The collaboration is

expected to be able to bring significant power to persuade the


government during the lobbying process in order to approve the program

proposed.

Involving community as coalition or partner is good because it involves

multiple sectors of problems and community needs to solve. Apart from

that, when community is involved in the coalition, it will focus on local

issues rather than national ones which are very general. They will help

us, the lobby group to strengthen the position in proposing the policy to

the government (Berkowitz and Wolff, 2000).

Roussos and Fawcett (2000) find that communities have utilised the form

of coalitions to organise their resources to successfully resolve the

emerging issues they encounter. Communities have been able to

influence the programs, practices, and policies.

Ethnic groups in South Sulawesi are very influential and can be one of

the main drivers of policy making process. Collaboration with these

groups is undoubtedly will bring a huge contribution in generating public

awareness as well as attitude changes.

VIII. Conclusion

The strategy communication plan that I am proposing is designed to be

more effective and feasible. It does not give some ideas which are difficult

to do in terms of mechanisms and accessibility.

The main messages to transfer to the audience are to end the unfair way

and treatment as well as attitudes which have been addressed toward


people with disabilities in the provincial level, in this case South Sulawesi

as the case study.

The program to propose is initiative of involving this group into larger

sectors from employment opportunities, health services, education, well

being as well as supporting facilities in their daily lives. Therefore, the

key audiences are the local government, related departments and

politicians as the policy makers and intermediate audience such as

NGOs, Ethnic groups representing communities, universities and

academia since these groups are very potential to give influence to the

direct audiences mentioned previously in the policy making.

There are some barriers being expected, however, positive signs of

supports are also in place.

List of References

BAINES, P. R., HARRIS, P. & LEWIS, B. R. 2002. The political marketing

planning process: improving image and message in strategic target

areas. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 20, 6-14.

BERKOWITZ, W. R. & WOLFF, T. 2000. The spirit of the coalition, Amer

Public Health Assn.

BPS. 2013. Population [Online]. Available: www.bps.go.id [Accessed 20

October 2013].

http://www.bps.go.id/


FLOWERS, J. F., HAYNES, A. A. & CRESPIN, M. H. 2003. The media, the

campaign, and the message. American Journal of Political Science, 47,

259-273.

ROUSSOS, S. T. & FAWCETT, S. B. 2000. A review of collaborative

partnerships as a strategy for improving community health. Annual

review of public health, 21, 369-402.

Lobbying-Proposal-Disability Issues

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