Kemaren saya baca berita ini di Gatra. Cerita tentang satu keluarga yang hijrah ke Amerika Serikat demi kehidupan yang lebih baik. Tapi kehidupan yang lebih baik itu ternyata tidak bertahan lama. Si bapak di ciduk petugas imigrasi, si ibu terpaksa bekerja untuk membayar uang jaminan dan meninggalkan dua anak nya (6 tahun dan satu lagi masih bayi) di rumah setiap hari. Suatu hari si adik jatuh dari gendongan kakaknya sampai gegar otak. Seperti si bapak, si ibu pun di giring ke penjara dengan tuduhan menelantarkan anak dan tuduhan tuduhan lainnya. Anak anak nya di ambil hak asuh nya oleh pemerintah.

Tragis.

I feel bad for them, I really do and I hope they can get out of this horrible situation as soon as possible.

But I just have to say that I don't like the sneaky way the father took to be granted a political asylum. Si bapak, atas saran lawyer nya, menjelek jelekan Indonesia dan mengarang cerita bahwa dia di buru oleh pemerintah Indonesia karena di anggap membelot. Padahal, keluarga nya di Indonesia tidak pernah terancam keselamatannya.

Di sini memang banyak orang Indonesia yang meminta suaka karena merasa tidak aman lagi tinggal di Indonesia, apalagi sejak kerusuhan yang pernah terjadi pada akhir tahun 90-an. It's fine if that's what they truly feel deep down. I mean..we can't blame people who want to live their life in a place where they feel secured, where no one is threatening them and their family. It's their right.

But it's just not right when they use political reason to request an asylum where the underlying reason why they want to live in that particular country in the first place is actually economic opportunity, no more no less. It sickens me to think that they come up with bad stories about Indonesia that are not true to make their chances as high as possible. They give the country a bad name, and they take up the asylum quota that can be allocated for refugees that desperately need protection, because those real refugees are being persecuted in their home country.