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While most Jakartans tend to ignore the spread of HIV/AIDS in the city’s prisons, Baby Jim Salamah is doing something about the problem. One of the city’s most outspoken HIV/AIDS activists, Baby Jim takes it upon herself not only to educate inmates about preventing the disease, but also to disseminate information about the issue to the general public.

Baby Jim is a pretty cool name. How did you get it?

My name is Baby Siti Salamah, and my husband’s name is Jim. However, at the malls, for example, it gets annoying when I hear everyone saying, “Hey, baby.”

How did you start counseling prisoners about HIV/AIDS?

I was doing research for a role that I was playing in the theater. I was talking to different kinds of people — truck drivers, sex workers and their clients and that eventually led to what I’m doing now.

Why do you think it’s hard to get an exact number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in Jakarta?

Because there’s usually a stigma to taking the test. You have to consult with different kinds of experts before and after you’re given the test. That’s the protocol we use for prisoners, and most of them simply don’t want to go through that.

What’s the difference between HIV and AIDS?

HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is the name of the virus. It’s the condition without the symptoms. With AIDS, you have HIV and a manifestation of deteriorating health like a fungus infection, cough or flu.

Would you say that HIV/AIDS is spreading at an alarming rate through the country?

You look at the number of drug users and the number of people with AIDS and there’s a correlation between that and smoking, which is considered a gateway drug. Not having any formal sex education classes in the country is another reason why the disease is spreading.

Do you facilitate any kind of formal sex education at schools?

We do, but it’s quite a difficult task. We have to be careful not to step on Indonesian values.

Are gender roles a problem?

People sit around and accept these things silently, because of a lack of education. Harassing girls, for instance, now seems to be just a part of being masculine, and boys as young as 13 are seeing prostitutes. Society accepts or sometimes demands this. People are not properly educated. They don’t wear condoms, and usually they’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

And for girls?

On the other hand, we have the female, who should be a virgin, sacred, blah, blah, blah, she should be faithful. It’s completely unfair and puts women at more risk of acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

In your line of work, you must have heard a bunch of myths about HIV/AIDS.

I hear things like you can get AIDS from mosquito bites or touching someone with AIDS or even sharing a drink or food with them, things like that.

How many cases of HIV/AIDS are you dealing with now? Can you estimate the number of people inside Indonesia’s prisons who have AIDS?

Sixty to 70 percent of the population in big city prisons were involved in illegal drugs. Around half of that number were drug users who used needles.

Because they do not have access to sterile needles, around 80 percent of drug users who inject themselves contract HIV and hepatitis. And we’re not even talking about inmates who are sexually active.

Are you afraid of getting poked with a dirty needle?

Yes, but we take the proper precautionary measures. Prisons in the big cities are usually overcrowded, so it’s very humid when you’re inside them. Sometimes when there’s a breakout of pink eye, 50 or 60 people can come down with it.

How does AIDS spread inside prisons?

Mostly through dirty intravenous needles, which means the number of drug users inside prisons is high. Users normally resort to needles because they want to get high faster. But the fact is the needles they use and share with one another are not sterile. The chances are high then that blood-borne diseases like HIV or hepatitis will spread.

How do the needles get inside the prison?

There’s always a way they can be snuck in.

What are the conditions like inside a prison in Jakarta? Are they really that bad?

It’s mostly a corrupt culture. People pay the guards so that drug paraphernalia can be sneaked in. I think almost all Indonesians are corrupt. That’s the way we are. It’s embedded in our culture, from the trivial issues to the complex ones. Money talks everywhere and anywhere. If you pay a police officer on the side of the road to get out of a ticket, is that not corruption? We all do it and it seems to be in our system.

 

Baby Jim was talking to Zack Petersen.