Some Indonesian officials were found to have been discriminating against people with determination (PWDs), pregnant women amd LGBTs when reviewing job applications for government service, according to Indonesia’s Ombudsman.
Millions of job applicants tried applying to some 200,000 civil-service jobs in Indonesia recently.
Indonesian Ombudsman, commissioner Ninik Rahayu reported that the defense and trade ministries and even the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), discriminated some classifications of job applicants.
“The Defense Ministry prohibits pregnant women from applying for a job, while the AGO and the trade ministry ban transgender people,” Ninik told the French new service, Agence France Presse (AFP).
“The AGO even made a hurtful statement that said ‘we only accept normal people’,” she added.
The Jakarta Post, for its part, has reported that AGO spokesperson Mukri said the office ─ which had reportedly gone as far as categorizing homosexuality and transgenderism as mental illnesses ─ were not interested in “odd” applicants.
“I mean, we just want the normal ones. We don’t want [to accept] the odd ones […]” Jakarta Post quoted Mukri as saying in a report by the Indonesian national newspaper, Kompas.
Meantime, Ninik said banning people from applying for a job because of their sexual orientation is unacceptable and a violation of human rights.
The AGO’s website made it clear that applicants must not be color blind, physically or “mentally” disabled including those who have ‘sexual orientation disorders or LGBT’.”
Amnesty International Indonesia called the restrictions a “hate-based policy.”
