Chusnul fights for democracy

Chusnul fights for democracy

Edith Hartanto and Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"I hated English". These words coming from activist turned
political scholar Chusnul Mar'iyah can't be more out of place.

"I used to think of English as a post-colonial language," she
said in her deep voice. But the hate dissipated when she pursued
government studies as a postgraduate student at Sydney University
in Australia in 1991.

"I told myself, how can I present my opinion to others if I
can't speak English?" she giggled as she reminisced at her cozy
office at the General Election Commission (KPU) on Jl. Imam
Bonjol in Central Jakarta.

Known for her passion on political justice and women's rights,
Chusnul, 41, wears many hats: lecturer, head of postgraduate
political study at the University of Indonesia, a member of the
KPU which is tasked with holding a democratic election in 2004
and founder of the Indonesian Women Coalition for Justice and
Democracy.

In 1999, she was involved in initiating conflict management,
following the first outbreak of sectarian violence in Ambon,
Maluku earlier that year.

As a founding member of Peka, an organization for peace and
gender equality, Chusnul once staged a meeting for Acehnese women
known as Duek Pakat Inong Aceh, the first after 400 years, to
solve the Aceh conflict.

"Women are playing a key role in determining the face of our
political structure, they gave birth to the country's children,
nurture them, but for years women have been overlooked by the
system," Chusnul said while holding the latest book that she has
read, Democracy, A Reader.

Chusnul's attraction to women's issues and politics dates back
to when she was just a little girl. Huge political change came in
the mid 1960s when she was only four-years-old.

"My father, Marlim Hadisujoso, was a Muhammadiyah Muslim
activist and a headmaster in Lamongan. I used to watch him chair
the meetings at home. In 1965 (a mass annihilation of the
communist supporters and the fall of Soekarno) many of our
relatives and friends went missing.

"My family had to hide our close neighbors and save them from
being executed. I felt that dramatic change, how people who used
to be close friends ended up killing each other just because of
differences in political ideologies. As I grew up I figured that
there must be a better way to avoid such violence," said Chusnul
who was born in Babad village in Lamongan, East Java.

Another unintended political experience for Chusnul was when
her father was forced to join the Golkar Party in its first
campaign in 1971.

"There was not much that a person can do under such an
authoritarian system. Again I thought, things should be better.
We have to have choices," she said.

"My mother taught me about feminism. She always told her
children to pursue their dreams and have the highest education
possible," she said.

Her religious upbringing with a Muhammadiyah family also
colored a unique perspective about inter-faith experience.

"For three-and-a-half years I was living with my auntie, who
is a Muslimat NU (Nahdlatul Ulama). People always talk about
these differences, competition and friction between NU and
Muhammadiyah. I found no such thing ... so here I am, I'm not a
fanatic Muslim, I can appreciate differences."

Muhammadiyah, an urban-based and supposedly modern
organization, has always had an uneasy relationship with
Nahdlatul Ulama which is seen as more traditional and rural-
based. The two are the biggest Muslim organizations in Indonesia.

Chusnul came to the crossroads when she decided to move to
Jakarta to pursue her study at the school of social and political
sciences at the University of Indonesia (FISIP UI) in 1979.

"I had a culture shock ... I'm also not as rich as my friends,
because many of them are children of ambassadors, ministers or
high-ranking officials. I had a lot of catching up to do,
including English," she recounted.

To make ends meet she became the caretaker of Wisma Rini, the
UI female boarding school. "That way I could live free of
charge."

During her seven years in Australia, Chusnul learned about
inter-faith ties and cross-culture, when she was living with
Australian scholars Professor Michael Leigh of Sydney University
and Dr. Barbara Leigh of The Sydney University of Technology and
practically became the family's cook.

"I lived there for free ... and imagine, they always
appreciated my cooking and they never bought pork because they
respected me as a Muslim."

Back from Australia on March 13, 1998, the witty and eloquent
Chusnul again found Indonesia on the brink of huge political
turbulence prior to Soeharto's downfall on May 21, 1998. This
time, she almost lost her precious students from UI.

"At that time UI lecturers were supporting the student
movement. I cried along with my friend Nuri, feeling guilty that
we had to use these students for a very risky movement. That
should not have happened had this country had a better system and
its leaders were not too cocky and greedy.

"My job now, along with other concerned scholars, is to make
sure that this country is going in the right direction towards
democracy via a free and fair election in 2004. Our job, is to
make sure that people will vote and every vote counts and that
there will be no 'golput' (a group of abstaining voters)."

"But I still want to fulfill my obsession, to write political
reference book for my students and a novel... until then, I still
have my herb garden at home in Depok waiting for me to nurture
and both of my parents in Babad to worry about."

In a world where conformity is the prerequisite for success,
Chusnul has become an icon by remaining exactly who she is: a
woman who enjoys wearing traditional clothing, scarf and sarong
combined with a black back pack on her slender shoulders.

At the end, Chusnul sighed and said: "I'm glad that this
village girl can now speak English. I don't compare myself to
other people. I just try to be myself, dare to live my own path."