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Darsem's Faulty Fairy Tale
Oei Eng Goan | August 15, 2011

Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, an Indonesian maid sentenced to die in Saudi Arabia, was reunited with her family in Jakarta on July 13, 2011 after the government paid a hefty fee to secure her release. (Antara Photo) Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, an Indonesian maid sentenced to die in Saudi Arabia, was reunited with her family in Jakarta on July 13, 2011 after the government paid a hefty fee to secure her release. (Antara Photo)
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Mike.Jkt
7:34am Aug 16, 2011

She owes me and every other Indonesian citizen that pays their taxes the money she was given...donation or no donation. I objected that the government paid a half a million US dollars on her behalf just to save her neck and this is the way she repays us?

Serigala-Berbulu-Domba
9:30am Aug 15, 2011

In my view the TV station should have conducted a poll to determine how the donation funds should have been utilized, since the original purpose behind the donations was taken dealt with by a payment by the Government.

I don't believe it was in any way appropriate that the Rp1.2 billion should have been given to Darsem, since that wasn't the premis under which the donations were made.

Folks shouldn't be surprised if, based on the Darsem experience, that people may be less willing to make donations to future worthwhile causes.

Roland
8:35am Aug 15, 2011

While of course this woman is completely wrong in her approach on how to handle the received money, I think it was also wrong from the TV station to give her the money in the first place. People were giving donations in solidarity to save her from a death sentence an not to enrich herself with it.

But I think in the end it is a social problem, as for some 1 Billion Rupiah sound like an unimaginable amount of money. Probably she will end up as many lottery winners who are wasting their new fortunes on stupid things and in the end they stand exactly where they started - with nothing.

On the other side, I can list at list one man who stole Billions of Dollars from the people of this country as is now getting hailed by the incumbent President as an idol young people should follow as he brought apparently prosperity to this country (of course the infrastructure is still a disaster, people are still living from the hand in the mouth, schools are still sub-standard, the healthcare system is just a huge question mark...but at least his family is VERY rich!). And of course another business man/politician who just received very recently a medal (from the very same president) for "extraordinary service to the integrity, viability and greatness of Indonesia".

So, I think Darsem (who had to go with millions other badly educated Indonesians overseas to work as here are not enough jobs in this country which allow all people of Indonesia truly live in prosperity - contrary to the President's remarks) is just a very, very, very small fish in the muddy waters of Indonesia.

Panchaali
7:35am Aug 15, 2011

Well, to be honest, I don't think that the public can really blame Darsem for the way she chooses money that they had voluntarily donated to her. It is "morally" suspect, if you like. But I would say that if the intention of the public was to advance the cause of overseas domestic workers, then the Rp 1.2 billion that was donated should have been used to set up funds for exactly that, perhaps using tvOne to be a conduit or a platform.

I would therefore say that the lesson to be learned here is that charitable outfits who wish to pool money from the public to channel towards worthy causes should make an effort to set up a sustainable fund that can help many people rather than donating that money just to help one person with no way to account for how the money is spent.

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The story of Darsem binti Dawud Tawa, a poor village woman who was nearly executed in Saudi Arabia and became suddenly rich upon her return home to Indonesia, is like a fairy tale. But it is not a good one and it contains a harmful message.

Darsem went to Saudi Arabia in 2006 to become a domestic helper, but spent most her time in jail for killing her employer, supposedly in self-defense, after he tried to rape her.

Under Saudi law, a convicted murderer faces beheading. But last January, the victim’s family agreed to pardon her crime, committed in December 2007, provided she paid them “blood money” of two million riyal, equivalent to Rp 4.6 billion or $530,000.

How could she pay such an enormous sum? As a domestic helper she earned only a meager income. According to maids who have worked in Saudi Arabia, salaries range from Rp 1.6 million to Rp 3.5 million a month, depending on skills and the chores performed. But luck smiled on Darsem, as the Indonesian government — after facing weeks of public protests after the beheading of another female worker, Ruyati, three weeks earlier — paid the blood money and Darsem was saved from the executioner’s blade.

Although many believe the uproar over Ruyati’s death was a show of sympathy and solidarity with overseas workers, others viewed the protests and fund-raising to help troubled workers as nothing more than a mockery of the government’s sluggish actions and negligence in protecting its citizens, especially unskilled laborers working overseas. “If it had not been preceded by Ruyati’s execution which had enraged the public, the government would not have acted that fast to pay the blood money,” commented one Migrant Care official who requested anonymity.

A few weeks after her return, Darsem received a Rp 1.2 billion donation collected from viewers of the privately owned television station tvOne. During the donation acceptance ceremony aired by the station, Darsem promised to give some of the money to the family of Ruyati, whose beheading had stirred public sympathy and in effect saved Darsem’s life by spurring the government to action.

It turned out, however, that she gave only Rp 20 million to Ruyati’s family, a very small amount compared to the money she had received.

Upon learning this, many people raised their eyebrows, wondering how a naive-looking village woman could become so selfish and greedy overnight after obtaining such wealth, the immensity of which she never could have dreamed of acquiring. Irgan Chaerul Mahfiz, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversees manpower, said the Rp 1.2 billion donation should have been given to the family of Ruyati, who suffered a far greater loss than Darsem.

Many people are also dismayed at Darsem’s lavish new lifestyle, building a Rp 50 million new house, buying new furniture, jewelry and paddy fields while contributing a mere Rp 500,000 to the mosque in her community. Some of her neighbors told the media that the 25-year-old mother, besides becoming arrogant after becoming a nouveau riche, had also divorced her husband.

When asked in an interview on tvOne how she had spent the donation and whether she had used it wisely, she replied sharply that since the money is now hers, she could buy anything she wanted to, including the gold earrings, bracelets, and necklace she was wearing as an investment.

“I can sell these gold items in case I need money in the future,” she said, adding that she had also planned to open a shop. She answered all the questions calmly, showing no regrets over public disappointment with her lifestyle and small donation to Ruyati’s family.

Logically, Darsem is right because it is now her money, which she obtained honestly and legally from voluntary donors.

But morally she is wrong because she has failed to meet people’s expectation that she would spend the money wisely to help relieve the suffering of other overseas workers, 24 of whom are still on death row.

Overcome by greed, she made a big mistake by forgetting her conscience, leaving behind only a small token of good human qualities such as love, compassion and charity. More importantly, philanthropists should not be discouraged from further lending a helping hand to the millions of other less fortunate people just because of the bad example shown by Darsem.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer.

Oei Eng Goan is a freelance journalist.