Older Persons in Southeast Asia: An Emerging Asset

15. Evaluation and Implementation of Ageing-related Policies in Indonesia

392 Nugroho Abikusno 15 EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AGEING-RELATED POLICIES IN INDONESIA Nugroho Abikusno The existence of older persons among the population of the Indonesian archipelago, proclaimed by Soekarno and Hatta to be independent on 17 August 1945, has become increasingly more important. The Republic of Indonesia consists of more than 10,000 large and small islands and about 1,000 ethnic and subethnic groups. It is actually a very complex and diversified country in geographic, ethnic, religious, social, and cultural contexts. Indeed, Indonesia has made significant progress in its economic and human development which has resulted in better socio-economic indicators. The majority of the population resides on the islands of Java and Bali, where fertility and mortality rates have been relatively low. Therefore, the majority of older persons lives on these islands. The Javanese is the ethnic majority in the country, accounting for about 41.7 per cent of the total population. Muslims are the predominant religious followers, forming 88.2 per cent of the population of 201 million in 2000. Presently, the Indonesian population is considered an aged-structured population. The percentage of older persons — those aged 60 and above Evaluating and Implementating Indonesia’s Ageing Policies 393 — was 7.3 per cent in 2005, an increase from 4.5 per cent in 1971. This segment of the population is growing at a rapid pace and estimated to be above 20.0 per cent by the middle of this century. The percentage of its oldest persons (those aged 80+ and above) to the total population will grow even more rapidly from below 0.5 per cent in 1950 to slightly below 5.0 per cent in 2050; a more than tenfold increase in 100 years. Thus, the rapidly ageing population should become an important policy issue. Similar to many developing countries, Indonesia has just been experiencing a demographic dividend at the beginning of this century with some provinces experiencing this phenomenon earlier. There are five provinces (Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, and West Sumatra) having more than 8.0 per cent of its population aged 60 and above. These provinces were mostly located on the islands of Java and Bali, except for West Sumatra. In other words, Indonesia has been in transition into an ageing society. Therefore, there must be a commitment from the government at all levels — national, regional and local — to develop policies, programmes and the necessary budget for the establishment of an agefriendly system to accommodate a society for all ages. Changes have begun in the way the government views the process of population ageing since late 1990s. In the past, policies for older persons were not a major priority due to the fact that they represented only a small portion of the population. Government policies were mostly focused on the expansion of the young population. Still, the past government has prepared some policies — albeit only to a small extent — towards the well-being of the older persons, and these will be discussed in detail later in this chapter. The objective of this chapter is to discuss and evaluate the laws, policies, and programmes related to population ageing, which have been enacted and implemented; and provide recommendations for policy and programme development based on lessons learned in the past. Before that, the chapter describes briefly the profile of older persons in Indonesia. The role of international organizations, as well as civil society, in dealing with ageing issues in the country is also discussed. Current Situation of Older Persons The description of the situation of older persons in this chapter is based on a cross-sectional survey carried out throughout Indonesia’s provinces in 2006. This survey is part of recent developments for older persons 394 Nugroho Abikusno conducted by the working group of the National Commission for Older Persons (known locally as Komnas Lansia), which is the newly established commission set up in 2005, and responsible directly to the President. This survey aimed to collect information on older persons’ socio-demographics, residential environment, social and economic activities, health complaints, healthy lifestyles, psycho-social condition, and community acceptance. The survey used a purposive sample, which gathered information from selected elderly groups who were involved in the guidance of regional offices of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Therefore, the selected samples may not represent the nationwide figure. The number of respondents varied between 50 and 100 older persons in each province. The...