Momentous women's congress rectifies history<\/p>\n
By Debra H. Yatim<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Former minister of manpower, SK Trimurti, had
\nto use the service lift to take her upstairs for the one-day
\nseminar here under the theme: \"Indonesian Women: Looking Toward
\nthe Future Inspired by Aspirations of the Past\". Bad knees
\nnotwithstanding, the feisty 86-year-old decided she just had to
\nattend the session, which precluded the biggest congress of
\nIndonesian women in 70 years.<\/p>\n
Some 550 women from 26 of Indonesia's 27 provinces came from
\nfar and wide to attend the three-day convention ending Dec. 18.
\nAnd what a meeting it was.<\/p>\n
First of all, a little over 100 more women turned up than the
\n450 that were registered. As it was already the holiday season in
\nYogyakarta, arranging more rooms was no easy matter for the
\ncommittee.<\/p>\n
Then there was the small matter of a (male) manager not being
\nused to having his premises taken over by 15 women organizers
\nclamoring for better service. The manager decided that if the
\nwomen were not going to listen to him, than he was putting his
\nfoot down: There was to be no Congress Grand Opening at his
\njoint. He did not reckon with his superior, the owner, who just
\nhappened to be a woman.<\/p>\n
The grand opening went ahead in a toned-down manner, with
\nSultana Hemas, the wife of the sultan of the special territory of
\nYogyakarta, declaring it open with a gentle reminder that the
\ncongress bear in mind the \"lessons of history\", the fact that our
\nforemothers never went out into the fray with a war cry against
\ntheir menfolk.<\/p>\n
Well, since that was never the idea behind the congress in the
\nfirst place, the meeting went on full-steam ahead with the
\naforementioned one-day seminar. And if anybody entered the room
\nexpecting meek and mild Indonesian women saying their piece soft-
\nspokenly, they had another think coming up.<\/p>\n
First on the agenda was a wizened old woman, bent under the
\nburden of her years -- and her oppression. Sulami was a victim of
\nthe Soeharto regime. A member of the banned Gerakan Wanita
\nIndonesia (Gerwani), Sulami wrought a picture of active women
\nsilenced under the pretext of national order.<\/p>\n
Her presentation was discussed by Saskia E. Wieringa of The
\nInstitute of Social Studies, The Hague, Holland, who maintained
\nthat \"it is not by chance that women and their organization,
\nGerwani, were singled out of the slander (created by Gen.
\nSoeharto to associate Communism with wild, perverse, sexually
\nloose women)\".<\/p>\n
This first session drew forth many opinions from the floor,
\nfrom comments by young women mulling over what it must have been
\nlike to be active and then sliced down in the name of peace, to
\ndemands by yet other women who wanted to know what the organizers
\nhad in mind by bringing somebody from a long-silenced
\norganization into a national congress.<\/p>\n
That was only the beginning. As the day wore on, and as the
\ncongress proceedings began on the Tuesday, it was very apparent
\nthat these were no quiet homemakers, content to let their menfolk
\nlead the way. These were women who knew exactly what they wanted,
\nand that was a definite say in every aspect of social and
\npolitical life.<\/p>\n
And what did that encompass? No less than being agents of
\nchange for women's rights and the matter of gender equality
\nacross the board in Indonesian life. The congress members also
\ndemanded the right to become a pressure group in Indonesian
\npolitics, to become facilitators for women working toward
\ndemocratic change and to have a say in creating just laws more
\naccommodating to women.<\/p>\n
After three long, hard days of discussion -- three days in
\nwhich a farewell party was actually canceled because the congress
\nmembers preferred to continue slogging at the working agenda --
\nfinally at 5 a.m. on Friday, 18 Dec. a decision had been made.<\/p>\n
Not a consensus, mind you, as is usually the case in
\nIndonesian public life. But an honest-to-goodness decision: that
\ninstead of having an organization based on organizational
\nmembership, the coalition which initiated the congress could be
\nmade of individuals and institutions alike.<\/p>\n
The other decision that was made was that the coalition would
\nbe led by a presidium of 15, to cover the aspirations of groups
\nas different from each other as women farmers, fisherwomen,
\nlaborers, female street children, the urban poor, the rural poor,
\nthe elderly and infirm, professional women, sex workers,
\nlesbians, and students and women youths.<\/p>\n
A tall order by any means, \"but who is to say that women are
\none species?\" asked Myra Diarsi, one of the founding members of
\nthe Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy, who
\ninitiated the idea of the congress.<\/p>\n
\"The concerns of women encompass the concerns of all of
\nhumanity, and should thus be addressed,\" maintained Myra, at a
\ndiscussion the next day held by the Law Faculty of Gadjah Mada
\nUniversity to discuss Women, The Law and Politics.<\/p>\n
The congress itself was inspired by the first all-Indonesian
\nWomen's Congress held in 1928 when Indonesia had not even become
\na country, but was still an archipelago under Dutch rule.<\/p>\n
That first congress held from Dec. 22 to Dec. 25 inspired
\nIndonesians to commemorate Dec. 22 as the Day of Women's
\nEmergence. Through the years, the day was changed to Women's Day
\n(Hari Ibu), when schoolchildren from all over the archipelago ply
\ntheir mothers with flowers and poems in gratitude for all
\nmothers' sacrifices.<\/p>\n
Not enough, the congress decided. This year, congress members
\nmade the demand that Dec. 22 be returned to its original stature,
\nthat of acknowledgement to Indonesian women's political
\naspirations and their demand for a voice in public life.<\/p>\n
\"We like being mothers. But women cannot be defined by their
\nability to give birth alone,\" said Zohra A. Baso from
\nUjungpandang.<\/p>\n
The congress was also colored by the fact that a group of
\nwomen, claiming to represent eight groups and organizations
\nstaged a walkout on day three. Even though the steering committee
\nmaintained that everything was good and fine, and a reaching of
\nconsensus and one voice was never the goal of the congress, the
\nlocal media found it fodder for sensationalist reporting.<\/p>\n
Women's Congress Colored by In-fighting screamed one newspaper
\nheadline. \"Why put 500 women in one room, when with only two you
\ncan get enough fallout?\" inquired another local newspaper.
\nMeanwhile, the national press in Jakarta saw fit to ignore the
\nwhole meeting, deeming it not as important as two men in Jakarta
\nseeking a consensus to the shambles that the country is currently
\nheading for.<\/p>\n
Even though the press missed the whole point so shoddily, the
\nfact remains that the remaining 500-or-so women found it
\nimportant enough to continue with their discourse.<\/p>\n
\"This is one of the very few times we have been allowed to say
\nour piece without anybody demanding we try reach a common
\nplatform,\" said Yusan Yeblo of Irian Jaya. \"And why should we? A
\nmiddle-class woman from Yogyakarta would have absolutely
\ndifferent needs and aspirations from myself in Irian, while a
\nsister from West Kalimantan would need something different
\nagain.\"<\/p>\n
And hence ended a congress, the first all-women's congress
\nthat allowed everybody to say whatever they wanted without
\nanybody attending to tell them to shut up.<\/p>\n
As a little footnote: On day three a lone police officer came
\nand requested that the committee give him copies of all the
\npapers making their rounds to members of the congress. Because
\nvery few women came with their ideas readily packaged, he went
\naway with a meager three papers: one by the officially stamped
\nKowani condoned by the government, one by Saskia Wieringa already
\npublished as a working paper in November 1996, and the last one
\nby SK Trimurti which she had already presented at some other
\nWoman's Day event in 1991.<\/p>\n
The writer is a feminist based in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Window: This year, congress members made the demand that Dec.
\n22 be returned to its original stature, that of acknowledgement
\nto Indonesian women's political aspirations and their demand
\nfor a voice in public life.<\/p>",
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