Kupang – detikperistiwa.co.id
The Chairman of Relawan Peduli Rakyat Lintas Batas, a cross-regional humanitarian organisation, Arizal Mahdi, has issued a strong public critique following the death of a primary school pupil in Ngada Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, an incident reportedly linked to the child’s inability to access basic school stationery.
The case has drawn attention to the fragile social conditions still prevailing in parts of eastern Indonesia, where extreme poverty and limited access to essential public services continue to shape daily life for many communities.
According to Arizal, the incident should not be viewed as an isolated tragedy or a simple administrative failure. Instead, he described it as a clear manifestation of systemic shortcomings in the state’s ability to protect children living in conditions of extreme deprivation.
“This is not a story about one child alone,” Arizal said in a statement on Tuesday (4 February). “It is about a system that leaves children to shoulder the consequences of poverty without effective protection.”
Arizal openly questioned the national development narrative frequently promoted by the central government, arguing that macroeconomic indicators and statistical achievements lose their meaning when they fail to translate into the protection of life, dignity, and basic rights for the most vulnerable citizens.
“We must be honest with the President and with ourselves,” he said. “What kind of progress can be claimed if a child in a remote region can still lose their life over the most elementary educational needs?”
He pointed to a persistent structural gap between development planning at the policy level and social realities on the ground. Poverty reduction programmes and educational assistance schemes, he noted, often remain procedural in nature and fail to reach high-risk households in a timely, consistent, and sustainable manner.
Arizal also criticised the weak role of collective responsibility, encompassing local governments, community networks, and social and religious institutions, which he said should function as early warning mechanisms to prevent humanitarian crises at the grassroots level.
As a humanitarian organisation operating across regional boundaries, Relawan Peduli Rakyat Lintas Batas stressed that such tragedies must not be met solely with expressions of sympathy or symbolic gestures. Instead, Arizal called for substantive and measurable policy evaluations, particularly in relation to poverty data collection, the distribution of educational assistance, and child protection systems.
In the global context, he emphasised that child protection and the eradication of extreme poverty are not merely domestic policy concerns, but universal obligations that serve as key indicators of a nation’s credibility and moral standing.
“Development that cannot safeguard its children is not progress,” Arizal said. “It is an illusion sustained at the cost of human lives.”
The organisation urged authorities to conduct a comprehensive review of social protection mechanisms to ensure that similar incidents do not recur.
“A truly developed nation,” Arizal concluded, “is one that does not allow even a single child to die in silence.”
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