‘W'Watch Your Mouth,’ Governor’s Wife Who Called Trafficking Victims ‘Hedonists’ Told

December 04, 2011


A leading migrant workers’ activist has lashed out at the prominent wife of the West Java provincial governor, warning that her remarks blaming victims of human trafficking for their own misery were “dangerous” and misleading.

“A prominent person should watch his or her mouth, such statements are very dangerous,” Anis Hidayah, the executive director of the group Migrant Care, told the Jakarta Globe over the weekend.

On Friday, Netty Prasetiyani Heryawan, the wife of controversial West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan and the head of the West Java Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Agency, said that Indonesian women who go overseas for work and fall prey to human traffickers had only themselves to blame.

“They’re going abroad or just leaving West Java only so that they can live out their hedonistic lifestyles,” Netty said Friday. “And for these women seeking a hedonistic life, they end up becoming victims of human trafficking.”

Netty said that of the 192 victims of human trafficking from West Java this year, several were “not poor” and therefore had no reason for wanting to go abroad other than to pursue wealth and pleasure. 

Anis said Netty’s statement could lead people to unfairly blame the victims who are already suffering from abuse.

“Those people left their hometown to go to a foreign country simply because they had no choice, because they couldn’t bear the agony of living in poverty anymore,” Anis said.

She added that most workers who choose to work overseas understand the risks they might face.

“They know the risk of migrating is huge, but they go anyway because they can’t keep watching their children not going to school or even starving,” she said.

Anis said the government had failed to provide jobs for many Indonesians and therefore had no right to blame people for trying to make a better living by working overseas.

“Poverty is getting worse,” Anis said. “The least they can do is stop blaming the victims.”

Anis said to minimize the risk of Indonesian workers becoming human trafficking victims, the government must provided them with better training and preparation.

“These people are uneducated, they don’t know how to manage their money,” Anis said. “It would help if the government helped them learn about economics so they can plan and save and avoid being victims of human trafficking,” Anis said.

Earlier this year, Governor Heryawan issued a decree banning the Ahmadiyah sect from spreading its beliefs through any media in West Java and forbidding the group to display its name in public.

Activists criticized the move for contributing to religious intolerance in the province.



(from the JG)