Minister against change of family concept<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Population Haryono Suyono bristled
\nat recent suggestions that the concept of \"family\" be extended to
\naccommodate other types of relationships, including homosexuals.<\/p>\n
The suggestions were explicitly made by activists of non-
\ngovernmental organizations (NGOs) and women's groups during the
\nrecent Second Asia-Pacific Ministerial Meeting on Women in
\nDevelopment here.<\/p>\n
The activists are said to have planned to bring the notion,
\nthrough lobbying with country delegates, to the International
\nConference on Population Development scheduled for September in
\nCairo, Egypt.<\/p>\n
\"They want gay relationships and non-married couples to also
\nbe called families...but we'll do everything to ensure that only
\n`proper' family structure be maintained,\" Haryono asserted when
\nhe closed the congress of the Indonesian Family Planning
\nAssociation in Semarang earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Haryono took the issue, which was pursued by the activists in
\nthe name of human rights protection, very seriously. He said he
\nplanned to garner support for his crusade from some friendly
\ncountries, both developing and industrialized, which he will
\ninvite here for a meeting on population in August.<\/p>\n
\"We pledge that we will ask the world to keep on respecting
\nthe existing values of family,\" he said. \"Even if we have to use
\nthe language of Tarzan, we'll still do everything to make sure
\nthat the other countries understand our stance.\"<\/p>\n
He also reminded that the 1992 Indonesian law on the
\ndevelopment of population and prosperous families recognized only
\nmarried couples with or without children, a father and
\nchild\/children, or a mother and child\/children.<\/p>\n
During the June 4-17 Asia-Pacific Conference on Women here, a
\npreparatory meeting for the 1995 World Conference on Women in
\nBeijing, the association of women's groups who called themselves
\nthe Asia Pacific Women's Action Network lobbied many parties to
\nhave their suggestion accepted.<\/p>\n
They asked, for instance, that the official documents at the
\nconference acknowledge that \"lesbians face systematic physical
\nand psychological violence from family, society and state
\ninstitutions.\"<\/p>\n
Changes<\/p>\n
The women's groups also insisted that \"lesbian relationships
\nbe accorded recognition under the law\" and that \"denial of such
\nrecognition is a violation of human rights.\"<\/p>\n
Haryono's anger and the fact that the conference eventually
\nrejected the groups' calls for recognition of lesbian
\nrelationships notwithstanding, there is no denying that even
\nIndonesian society is undergoing substantial cultural changes.<\/p>\n
Despite claims that the nation is faithful to its traditional
\nfamily values, experts noted layers of the society which are
\nsurreptitiously discarding those very values.<\/p>\n
\"Yes, changes in the structure of family are already showing,\"
\nYaumil Agoes Achir, former Dean of the School of Psychology,
\nUniversity of Indonesia, and assistant to the Minister of
\nPopulation, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Examples of the ongoing trend are not hard to find. Ika (not
\nher real name), a woman in her early 30s and famous as both a
\nsinger and executive of a private corporation, is only one.<\/p>\n
The much-publicized woman can't seem to settle down and marry.
\nInstead, to appease her \"need to nurture\", she \"adopts\", though
\nnot in a legal sense, an orphan. To her, she is already a mother.<\/p>\n
Famous actress Dorce Gamalama, who underwent a sex-change
\noperation several years ago, adopted several children which
\nreceived no protest from the usually-sensitive public.<\/p>\n
Famous, single male hairdresser, Hanky Tandayu publicly
\nadopted a boy, without so much as a whisper from the public as to
\nwhat psychological impacts such an arrangement would have on the
\n\"son.\"<\/p>\n
Prominent researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
\n(LIPI) Dewi Fortuna Anwar also detects the change. More
\n\"conventional\" changes like the fact that more women are entering
\nthe work force have affected the structure or at least values
\nthat families traditionally held, she said.<\/p>\n
However, she is convinced that other, more drastic, changes
\nare also occurring. Many women, especially those who are highly
\neducated or have advanced their careers, have seriously
\nconsidered the option of living with a man out of wedlock, she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Not to be overlooked are women who choose to stay single
\nbecause they are more \"confident\" and would not accept men who
\ncannot live up to their standards, Anwar said.<\/p>\n
\"Many women are now more confident of their ability to be
\nfinancially self-supportive that they can be more `choosy',\" she
\ntold the Post.<\/p>\n
In short, options which less than two decades ago were not
\neven considered as alternatives are now being chosen.<\/p>\n
Demographic<\/p>\n
Agoes Achir agreed that changes are taking place, although she
\nconsidered them to be more demographic progress instead of
\ncultural. The increase in life expectancy to 64 years and the
\nfact that women outlive men mean that in the coming years there
\nwill be more female-headed households, she said.<\/p>\n
Increasingly high divorce rates also contribute to the growing
\nnumber of single parents, she said.<\/p>\n
As for the \"radical\", cultural changes of the concept of
\nfamily, Achir is optimistic that their speed is not yet
\n\"alarming\".<\/p>\n
She cited a number of sociology postulates which show that
\nfamilies, as a subsystem of society, have natural mechanisms to
\ndefend and maintain their identity even in the face of rapid
\nsocietal changes.<\/p>\n
\"We know that there will always be people who are so rational
\nthat they decide whether or not to get married based on
\ncalculations as to which one benefits them the most,\" she said.
\n\"However, I believe that many of those confident, independent
\nwomen still favor the institution of marriage over single life,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Despite her conviction that marriage and families will
\nprevail, Achir reminded that the rapid social, cultural changes
\nmean more efforts are needed to maintain the traditional values
\nand concept of family.<\/p>\n
Achir believes it is fitting to remember those values on this
\nNational Family Day, a day which is being remembered as the date
\nwhen in 1949 Indonesian families became reunited after being
\nseparated by the war for independence. (swe)<\/p>",
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