The emergence of child “healer” Ponari in Balongsari village, Megaluh, Jombang, has given rise to heated public debate.
The healing practice has claimed four lives, and is now fuelling allegations of rights abuses, with activists calling for the so-called “magical” health activity to end.
Leading child protection advocate Seto Mulyadi and National Commission for Child Protection secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, said in separate visits earlier this week to Ponari’s home village that the government should take measures to stop villagers abusing the 9-year-old boy.
They said that despite the poverty in the village, security and education authorities should prevent local villagers from exploiting Ponari for commercial gain – with thousands of would-be supplicants visiting the village daily to have their illnesses cured – and allow him his basic rights as a child.
“The law guarantees Ponari’s human rights. Like his peers, the child has the right to go to school, to get a better education; and he also has the right to play games and, unlike this, live in a healthy environment,” Seto said.
Ariest also denounced the local police’s slow moves in stopping Ponari’s “health” practice from devolving into a three-ring circus, despite the rising number of dead and injured victims flocking to see the boy.
“Ponari wants to go school, but he can’t because many sides have abused him for commercial
interests; even his father was severely assaulted when tried to prevent his own son from being abused,” he said.
Ponari, a third-grader at a state elementary school in neighboring Kedungsari village, has not been in class since mid-January. The school has repeatedly asked his father, Kasim, to bring his son to school; but each time he tried, Kasim met
with strong resistance from villagers and visitors.
Villagers are lapping up the attention and milking the hype by setting up food and beverage stalls and parking lots for visitors, with daily turnover in the neighborhood reportedly reaching Rp 1 billion (US$84,745).
Balongsari village head Nila Cahyani denied the rights abuse allegations, but said her village had profited from Ponari’s visitors, the food trade and parking fees.
Villages in Megaluh district became a local focus of attention after rumors spread rapidly from mouth to mouth in the past month that Ponari could heal all diseases with a miraculous stone he once found near his house.
The provincial chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has delivered an official letter
asking East Java Governor Soekarwo to act quickly to stop the practice in an attempt to prevent more deaths.
“The ‘health’ practice must be stopped, because it has claimed four human lives and is raising an increasing public polemic,” East Java MUI chairman Abdusomad Bukhori said Wednesday.
He added the Ponari phenomenon went against Islamic teaching because it centered on a “miraculous” stone that could cure all sorts of ailments.
Some sick visitors said they felt better after visiting Ponari several times, while others, mostly suffering from degenerative diseases, said they had seen no progress.
Sociologist Bagong Suyanto has called on the government to give low-income people wider access to healthcare services, saying the Ponari hype was the reflection of a sick, impoverished society that had been denied access to the current expensive healthcare services.
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