Julia is not just a feminist and femme fatale<\/p>\n
By Stevie Emilia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): She is known as a woman activist and feminist.
\nBut Julia Indiati Suryakusuma is certainly more than just that.<\/p>\n
Considered herself as an \"accidental activist\" -- since she
\nonly involved in five or six street protests in her entire life
\n-- Julia admits that she is a feminist.<\/p>\n
\"I say jokingly, if I am to be labeled a feminist, it has to
\nbe 'feminist and femme fatale', which catches people by surprise
\nbecause they see it as being contradictory and I love
\ncontradictions,\" said Julia.<\/p>\n
She received her master's degree at the Institute of Social
\nStudies in the Hague with her thesis titled State Ibuism: The
\nSocial Construction of Womanhood in the Indonesian New Order,
\nwhich was about the government-sponsored organization of civil
\nservants' wives, Dharma Wanita. Julia said she was labeled a
\nfeminist because she was outspoken and provocative -- and not
\nonly on feminist issues -- long before people dared to speak out
\nas they do now.<\/p>\n
\"I abhor hypocrisy and deceit, and feel that an important
\nmission in my life (not just my work), is to unveil the truth. I
\nsay things as they are, which often shocks people. Sometimes I do
\nit deliberately, to shake people up, because I think many people
\nneed shaking up. They live with so many constructed 'truths'
\nimposed on them that they don't really know who they are
\nanymore...,\" Julia said.<\/p>\n
Personally, she found feminism a useful way to look at the
\nworld. It made people see imbalances and injustices as well as
\npower relationships not only between men and women, but also
\nbetween people and the state, groups and nations.<\/p>\n
But Julia considers herself more a social scientist and a
\nwriter, a skill she nurtured since she was 18 years old through
\nher debut in the field of literary criticism, which won her some
\nwriting contests.<\/p>\n
\"For me, writing is my activism... My ultimate aim is to
\nraise people's awareness... I write to inform and hopefully to
\nenlighten, but also to debunk and demystify. You could say what I
\ndo is called 'passionate scholarship', which is socially engaged
\nin nature.\"<\/p>\n
Julia, who used to call herself an anarchist due to her
\nrebellious nature, has been linked with various groups, such as
\nthe Voices of Concerned Mothers and the Women's Coalition for
\nJustice and Democracy, which she helped found. But she has never
\nstayed in an organization for long.<\/p>\n
\"I find in that way I keep in a 'honeymoon' and 'romance'
\nstage, which is more productive and creative,\" said the mother of
\n24-year-old Aditya Priyawardhana and wife of actor-director Ami
\nPriyono. Her husband suffered a mild stroke last March but is now
\nimproving.<\/p>\n
Julia's life is far from being simple. In the pursuit of
\neducation, she had to make difficult decisions, such as leaving
\nher then 10-month-old boy to study abroad.<\/p>\n
\"It was not an easy decision, but it turned out to be the
\nright one. We are now the best of friends. Before I was his
\nmother and mentor, but now he's become my advisor and guardian
\nangel as well. I don't think I could ask for a more wonderful
\nson... Sometimes I wonder what have I done to deserve him, but
\nperhaps I did do something good after all,\" Julia said.<\/p>\n
In 1997, she had breast cancer and it took her a year to heal
\nherself. She did so successfully by using natural and traditional
\nmethods, including a five-week raw food diet to detoxify her
\nsystem and natural medication. She also studied enery healing
\ntechniques such as Qigong and Reiki, performed meditation, prayed
\nand have faith.<\/p>\n
\"I knew somehow I would get well and that this was just a
\ntrial for me to go through, to make me stronger...,\" Julia said.<\/p>\n
As the daughter of retired diplomat Iman Suryakusuma and
\nKarlina Karnasutisna, a former teacher, strength has a profound
\ninfluence on her life and what she became.<\/p>\n
Julia, who was conceived in Penang, Malaysia, was born in New
\nDelhi, India on July 19, 1954. She sampled different lifestyles
\nin countries where her father was assigned in places such as
\nLondon, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Germany.<\/p>\n
\"My childhood background made me an internationalist, which I
\nconsider myself to be, and does not detract at all from my love
\nof this country and people and, in fact, enhances it,\" said
\nJulia.<\/p>\n
But is she satisfied?<\/p>\n
\"I am happy with my achievements, but I never feel satisfied.
\nThere is always more to do and to learn, and in this way, I am a
\nperpetual student... Simply put, I want to continue to learn,
\nand it is in this way that I would like to produce knowledge. I'd
\nalso like to publish the work I have done in the course of my
\ncareer...,\" said the organizer of the International Women's Film
\nFestival in 1996, the first event of its kind, which was held on
\nInternational Women's Day.<\/p>\n
First, she plans to write more about her personal life. But
\nshe has to wait since she was working on the Indonesia Political
\nParties Almanac (API), which was released prior to the June 7
\ngeneral election and contains a directory of profiles of 141 then
\nregistered political parties at the Ministry of Justice, 10
\nessays and an appendix containing the election's regulations. The
\nbook was made by an independent team supported by 13
\nnongovernmental organizations (NGOs), such as the Women's
\nSolidarity, Indonesian Forum for Environment, Kalyanamitra,
\nIndependent Election Monitoring Committee and the Institute for
\nPolicy Research and Advocacy.<\/p>\n
Here are some excerpts of an e-mail interview with her:<\/p>\n
Question: What were the reasons behind the making of API?<\/p>\n
Answer: API was born and created within the context of the
\ncrisis. The crisis had to happen after decades of oppression,
\nexploitation and being bamboozled by all those corrupt, power-
\ncrazed officials. It is Indonesia's way of healing from an
\nillness that lasted for too long. Suddenly, all these parties,
\nhundreds of them, were born -- an abrupt explosion and reaction
\nto the artificially manipulated three-party system which
\nparalyzed our political system and minds. And suddenly, everybody
\nwas hankering for democracy and reform. That is all well and
\nfine, but how? Everybody was confused.<\/p>\n
API was a way to try to systematically untangle the threads of
\nconfusion and chaos by providing basic information on the parties
\nwhich were potential choices for Indonesia's future. We had to
\nembark on political education, and for that we needed tools, not
\njust information, but knowledge and new paradigms. I wanted to
\ncreate a tool which provided all these things, which were the
\nprerequisites for true change, a change toward democracy. The aim
\nwas to create a tool for political education, not just for the
\npeople, but also for the parties; a comprehensive reference to
\nthe political actors and processes during this reform period as
\nwell as raising issues crucial to Indonesia's transformation.<\/p>\n
Political education -- and changing people's mind-sets --
\ntakes place over a long period of time. But from the beginning I
\nhad a long-term vision for API. There is a tendency for people to
\nwant immediate results, immediate information and immediate power
\ninstead of a step-by-step creation of political knowledge, a
\npolitical society and system which truly serves the people. I
\nhope that API will contribute to that aim.<\/p>\n
Q: Is it going to be published annually?<\/p>\n
A: We plan to publish API annually as a political review journal.<\/p>\n
Next year's edition will contain an evaluation of not just the
\nperformances of the parties, but also various aspects of the
\nelections, such as the regulations and their implementation, the
\nvarious election-related bodies, its organization, the
\nviolations, the vote counting, the results and the performance of
\nthe election monitoring.<\/p>\n
API will also continue to profile the most important parties
\nand raise issues that should be brought up and dealt with by
\nparties and the government.<\/p>\n
Q: You said in your essay in API that one way to deal with the
\ncountry's structural violence was to turn to anarchy. Can you
\nexplain your opinion on the matter?<\/p>\n
A: Structural violence is the systematic use of violence by the
\nstate through their policies. Policies which impoverish the
\npeople and which confront the interest of the poor majority with
\nthe elite minority. They do so by: building infrastructure and
\nfacilities that favor the rich, necessitate the forced removal
\nand eviction of people from their land in the name of
\ndevelopment, destroying the environment, killing the diversity of
\nlocal cultures as well as biodiversity, using women as a means of
\nproduction of children, services, industry, to produce foreign
\nexchange without any form of protection or adequate compensation
\nin return, giving priority to the industrial sector rather than
\nlocal food production, destroying family life through development
\npolicies that are urban-oriented, sacrificing traditional village
\nlife, using religion to divide people, repressing creativity and
\nstifling freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
My use of the term anarchy here is of antiauthority. We have
\nhad to suffer an extremely authoritarian state for over 30 years.
\nSo by stating anarchy, I mean simply a reduction of state power
\nand a return of sovereignty to people. I used the term anarchy to
\nalso be provocative, because I feel that by provoking people, it
\nmakes them think. It doesn't always work. Sometimes it just makes
\nthem angry or confused!<\/p>\n
Q: So you see a need to reduce the power of the state to stop
\nviolence?<\/p>\n
A: Absolutely. It's possible if we change the system and the
\nbasic principles of state as embodied in the Constitution. The
\npresent Constitution should be at least amended, if not changed.<\/p>\n
The rest goes back to API's aims, which is to help empower
\ncivil society by providing information and knowledge which will
\nenable people to participate in state affairs and be involved in
\ndecisions concerning their lives. Education, especially political
\neducation, is crucial here.<\/p>\n
Q: With that opinion, what do you think of the present level of
\nviolence in the country now? Any differences with the New Order
\nrule?<\/p>\n
A: It's tragically still very high, as we can witness on a daily
\nbasis, because there has been no fundamental change in the way
\nproblems are dealt with. The approach is still confrontational
\nand power-oriented.<\/p>\n
To be quite honest, no, I don't think the present
\nadministration is any different from the New Order government.
\nAre we all blind? Come on, it's still the same old people playing
\nthe same old games under a different name!<\/p>\n
However, the momentum and desire for change and the
\npossibilities are there. But the risk of the old forces
\nreturning, not that they ever went away, is still great.<\/p>\n
Q: What kinds of violence do you see? And what does it show you?<\/p>\n
A: All kinds of it, from state violence, not just in the form of
\nmilitary, physical violence, but an abrogation of people's civil
\nrights in general, to emotional violence, which can be passive in
\nnature but is still very destructive anyway. It shows that we are
\nan immature, ignorant and undemocratic people unable to accept
\ndifferences and reconcile them in peaceful, productive and
\ncreative ways. We've got a long way to go.<\/p>\n
Q: So it seems like violence has become an acceptable solution
\nhere?<\/p>\n
A: Yes, people have been cultured to believe that violence is a
\nway to solve differences of opinions. Instead it sharpens and
\nexacerbates them, as we know. It's a vicious circle, one that has
\nto be stopped immediately. We are still very much a
\npaternalistic, feudalistic and hierarchical society, where people
\nlook up to leaders, but there is no leadership. Do we choose the
\nIndian or Singaporean model? Neither are really savorable. It's
\nreally problematic.<\/p>\n
Q: What are the causes of violence? Are they indicating something
\nto you?<\/p>\n
A: Injustice, fear, ignorance. Yes, it indicates we are in
\ntrouble and we have to do something about it before we annihilate
\nourselves!<\/p>\n
Q: Who is responsible behind the violence?<\/p>\n
A: All of us. But yes, the state, not just the government or
\nmilitary. Concerning the latter, you expect them to be violent
\nanyway and trained to be killing machines. I say all of us,
\nbecause we need to recognize the violence within ourselves and
\nthat there is a tendency to resort to violence, even so-called
\nreform groups.<\/p>\n
Q: What is a possible reaction toward violence?<\/p>\n
A: Most of the time, it is more violence. That's what we have
\nbeen taught. Violence begets more violence, everyone knows that.<\/p>\n
Q: What should we do then?<\/p>\n
A: First of all, we have to believe that there are alternative
\nways and that peace is the only option to be able to maintain
\nIndonesia's integrity to be one, which is at present seriously
\nthreatened.<\/p>",
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