Jakarta, Kartunet - This year, 300 Civil Servant (CPNS) positions were opened for persons with disabilities. However, these disability CPNS formations are not yet based on potential. As quoted from the statement by Azwar Abubakar, Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PAN and RB), in Viva News (June 6), 300 job openings will be available for persons with disabilities.
This number has increased from the previous year, 2013, when only 250 people were accepted. According to Azwar, they can be placed in special roles, for example, to operate computers or work in call centers.
"So that we can also train them to optimize their abilities. At least computers are everywhere," said Azwar at the Vice President's Office in Jakarta, Friday, June 6, 2014. This policy is an affirmative action effort to improve the quality of life for persons with disabilities. However, if viewed from the Minister of PAN and RB's statement, it is clear that there is still an understanding that persons with disabilities are only seen based on their shortcomings, not their potential.
This perspective obscures the fact that some persons with disabilities possess high educational qualifications and can work professionally in other fields requiring specific competencies. Whereas if they are only placed in administrative roles or as computer and telephone operators, their educational qualifications would go unused, even though they could actually contribute to other, more suitable fields.
If the system used still focuses on shortcomings/disability rather than potential, it will narrow the opportunities for competent persons with disabilities for whom positions are not opened in those specific fields. It is time for the Ministry of PAN and RB to understand this and open disability positions in CPNS 2014 based on quotas, while allowing them to apply for any position as long as their educational qualifications or skills are adequate.
Meanwhile, a total of 100,000 job openings will be available in 2014. 35,000 for central government and 65,000 for regional governments. The examination, meanwhile, will be held on July 2, 2014.
"This month, we will finalize the formations," he explained. This new policy should not, by any means, become a new form of discrimination against persons with disabilities. Further review is needed to ensure that CPNS positions for persons with disabilities are not yet based on potential.(DPM) Source: Viva News, June 6, 2014