Dear 'Mbak' Megawati, we long for your voice

Dear 'Mbak' Megawati, we long for your voice

Gadis Arivia, Chief Editor, 'Jurnal Perempuan', Jakarta

Mbak (Sister) Mega, I hope you are safe and sound when reading
this letter. It is indeed hard to maintain physical, let alone
mental, health when Indonesia is embroiled in so many problems,
most of which are beyond comprehension and sensibility. Take, for
example, the violence that has swept many regions, widespread
corruption and the Islamic fundamentalist movement that has
caused lots of trouble recently.

One more thing that may have escaped your attention is what
has befallen Indonesian women, who slightly outnumber the male
population but whose problems are always considered
insignificant.

We are used to this kind of attitude, but what is not usual is
that this attitude has been demonstrated by respectable
institutions like the People's Consultative Assembly and the
House of Representatives, as well as your own leadership.

Honestly, mbak, we had so much hope when you became the first
woman president in Indonesia's history. We held on to our hope
despite the fact that your ascension to the presidency caused
worry among women's non-governmental organizations, as your track
record never demonstrated an amity, or at least enthusiasm, in
responding to women's problems.

The biggest evidence of your indifference to the issues of
Indonesian women was the failure to include in a law on political
parties a clause stipulating that women should be allotted a
minimum of 30 percent of seats on the executive boards of
political parties. Various women's groups, including women from
the House of Representatives -- who number only about 9 percent
of the total House members -- fought hard and dear for the
acceptance of this stipulation.

Unfortunately, on Nov. 28, 2002, the law was passed and the
stipulation failed to be included. Sixty women sitting in the
balcony of the House were ignored and the desires of Indonesian
women went unheeded, again.

Mbak, you may argue that by stopping short of implementing
affirmative action your government has actually shown great
respect for women. This argument is exactly what the Star and
Crescent Party said about the quota, namely that the party would
provide equal opportunity to males and females.

You may also take pride in the fact that you have never begged
for a quota and that you are in your present position thanks to
your own capabilities. But you seem to have forgotten that you
are Megawati Soekarnoputri, daughter of Bung (Brother) Karno, who
once said: " ... there would never be any revolutionary victory
if there were no revolutionary women and there would never be any
revolutionary women if there were no revolutionary guidelines!"

Bung Karno's book Sarinah, which contains a lot of his ideas
about women, has been widely read, particularly by women.

And when you campaigned during the 1999 elections for the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), quite a
lot of Indonesian women supported you and pinned their hopes on
you. How could they do otherwise as you dwelled in your campaign
speeches on poverty, health and education -- areas inseparable
from the lot of women, who still live in poverty, are left behind
in education and have to face the grim reality of mortality when
in labor. Just check the statistics from Sri Rejeki Sumaryoto,
the woman you entrusted to assume the position of state minister
for women's empowerment.

I am not writing to lecture you on feminism. Academically,
feminism is not such a "horrifying" or "Westernized" term.
Indonesian has many feminists of its own, such as Kartini,
Roehanna Koedus, Dewi Sartika and the like. What have they fought
for? Nothing but equality between men and women and the creation
of a world characterized by gender-based justice.

Feminists hold it that women have had their rights taken away
from them in an unjust manner because they are women, and that
the oppression of women has continued from one generation to the
next because the patriarchal culture has been sustained. It is
undeniable that men have also suffered from oppression, but in
the case of women they have been subjected to oppression simply
because they are women.

Why don't you spend a little time talking to the women in
Aceh, Poso and Papua? These women can tell you about their
horrible experiences -- the violence they have had to go through,
rape and sexual harassment -- just because they happen to be
women. In a situation where violence prevails, women become very
vulnerable.

Not only have their lives been threatened but their dignity
and self-respect have been forcibly taken away from them and they
have been made slaves to the carnal desires of both soldiers and
non-soldiers. Women have heard and experienced these things: from
the cases of the jugun ianfu (the comfort women for the Japanese
occupation troops) in the 1940s -- cases which remain unresolved
-- up to the cases related to the May 1998 Jakarta riots in which
ethnic Chinese women were gang-raped.

When we talk about violence, don't you, Mbak Mega, realize
that in its year-end report, the National Commission on Women
recorded 3,169 cases of violence against women in 14 regions in
Indonesia. While this number may seem small it must be remembered
that quite a lot of acts of violence are never reported as
criminal acts, such as domestic violence and rape.

Women groups have in the last few years carried out peaceful
campaigns each Nov. 25, in connection with the observance of the
International Day Against Violence Toward Women. Unfortunately,
you have never take part in these campaigns or even shown your
support for them. Similarly, you were not quick in coming to the
defense of migrant Indonesian workers. You should have embraced
the deported Indonesian migrant women in Nunukan and told them
they were real heroines, at least for their families, as they
sacrificed a great deal to feed their loved ones.

If you think that the cases of violence against women, the
deaths of women when in labor, the death of migrant Indonesian
women workers and the involvement of women in political affairs
are merely personal choices or domestic problems outside of the
public realm, you are wrong.

Separating the public from the private has only affirmed the
exploitation of women and served as fertile ground for the
ideology of patriarchy. Please, don't worry, Mbak, feminists will
never wage a war against men, as they will only fight against the
injustices they have been subjected to. It is these injustices
that have often claimed the lives of women.

If I may take pride in Indonesian women in this reflection for
2002, it is in the fact that they are extraordinary: they have
kept their families going at a time when the domestic economy has
been chaotic and when many of their husbands have been laid off,
they have restored social awareness and mental health damaged in
the frequent violence and they have resisted all forms of
violence by opting to care for their fellow women instead of
resorting to aggressive acts.

Care, connectedness, closeness and peace are attitudes that
feminists have adopted as tolerant and democratic attitudes of
being. As a woman president, please, Mbak Mega, voice these
attitudes, this mode of being, to the respectable members of the
legislature and members of your Cabinet. We long to hear your
voice.

The writer is also a lecturer at the University of Indonesia's
School of Philosophy and Women's Studies Department.