Does Dharma Wanita help or hurt its members?

Does Dharma Wanita help or hurt its members?

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): For the first time in 20 years, Irmayantie, wife of a high-ranking government official, was able to express her own political aspirations in the recent general election.

"Boleh dong beda, we have the right to be different," said Irma, courageously parroting the popular slogan of a voter education campaign.

As a member of Dharma Wanita, the government-sponsored organization of civil servants' wives, Irma and its millions of members around the country abided by the obligation to vote for the ruling Golkar in previous general elections.

The reform era has ushered in major changes within the organization -- and there are even calls for it to be disbanded.

"In the past, we were supposed to support our husbands by joining Dharma Wanita and being involved in every activity," Irma explained.

Established in 1974, Dharma Wanita is the sole organization for civil servants' wives. Each government office has its own Dharma Wanita unit. Its membership system is automatic and compulsory. The position of civil servants' wives in the organization's hierarchy mirrors that of their husbands.

Binny Buchori and Ifa Soenarto wrote in Perempuan Indonesia: Dulu dan Kini (The Indonesian Women: Then and Now) that the establishment of Dharma Wanita was heavily tied to Korpri, the Indonesian civil servants organization.

"This is the biggest women's organization in Indonesia because it incorporates wives of millions of government officials," revealed the two writers.

During the Old Order regime, government officials were from multifarious political parties. The New Order government viewed this working condition as counter-productive because of possible ideological clashes.

Korpri was established in the early period of the New Order regime in l971 to consolidate civil servants into one body to support Golkar.

That left their spouses and relatives to deal with.

Dharma Wanita was formed to ensure that both husbands and wives had similar political aspirations, the writers said.

Wives of civil servants also were told they could hamper their husbands' careers if they failed to be active in the organization.

One of the organization' founders Mrs. Soepardjo Rustam, wife of the late coordinating minister of people's welfare, insisted that Dharma Wanita did not meddle in politics and only focused on the empowerment of civil servants' wives.

"It provides a wide opportunity for members to improve their knowledge, social, management and organizational skills," she once argued.

Dharma Wanita organizes diverse activities, such as social, educational and health programs, to improve members' welfare. It also supports government programs like family planning, etc.

"There is nothing negative about the organization's activities," she said.

Sociologist and women's activist Julia I. Suryakusuma argued that Dharma Wanita cemented the "follow-the-husbands" culture.

She believed the New Order government used Dharma Wanita to uphold the patriarchal system of men as the breadwinners and women as homemakers.

"I was very excited to do research on the function of Dharma Wanita as a state organization," explained Julia, who wrote State Ibuism, the Social Construction of Womanhood in the Indonesian New Order for her master's thesis at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Previously, government officials established informal organizations for employees' wives. The Ministry of Education and Culture had Idhata, the then Ministry of Industry a group called Rian and the Ministry of Home Affairs supported Pertiwi.

"The characteristic of the present Dharma Wanita and the previous informal wives' organizations is different," noted Julia.

Organizations like Rian, Pertiwi and others ran on the initiative of their members and were limited to dealing with their interests and welfare.

Dharma Wanita's annual programs, on the other hand, are determined by its national presidium body consisting of the respective wives of the attorney general, the chief justice, the Bank Indonesia governor and state ministers.

All programs must be implemented by Dharma Wanita units at central, provincial and regional levels.

"I remembered when I was a child, my mother was a member of wives' organization at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," recalled Julia. Her mother, she said, took courses in mechanics, health and nutrition and other useful subjects.

Since 1974, she said, the wives' organization was centralized and became a tool of the state. There also is no denying that the organization was influential in the past in garnering votes for Golkar.

Julia said Dharma Wanita was a unique subject for social and political study because there was no equivalent in the rest of the world.

"It clearly shows how close is the relationship between the women (civil servants' wives) and the state," she maintained.

Dharma Wanita's organizational structure is similar to the U.S. army's wives organization, said Julia.

"If you are somebody's wife, then you get the highest rank in that organization," she said.

The existence of Dharma Wanita reflects an authoritarian state system, military and feudal political culture, she asserted.

Julia acknowledged there were probably some benefits to joining Dharma Wanita, especially for women who have no chance to be away from their domestic roles.

"They can meet other wives and have a chance to exchange their experiences," she said.

Dharma Wanita also can claim to having protected its members by forcing the government to issue the special regulation PP 10, which bars civil servants from practicing polygamy.

PP 10 also regulates marital life of civil servants, including dealing with marital disputes and divorce.

"But the regulation actually came so late," Julia said.

She added that she heard from a reliable source that the regulation was pushed through at the request of several wives of high-ranking officials who wanted to prevent their husbands from having extramarital affairs.

In the New Order period, the state was the biggest capitalist enterprise. The link between the state and business was close, including the use of women as pawns, Julia said.

"Once you are in power, you are surrounded by money, women coming as bribes from business circles who want to take advantage of your power," she said.

"PP 10, which is meant as senjata pamungkas, potent weapon, could become a boomerang for the wives."

The civil service is a boys-only club. "They are clever enough to cheat their wives and institutions. Dharma Wanita's members must be very careful," she said.

Saparinah Sadli, professor of psychology at the University of Indonesia, commented that Dharma Wanita only reinforced women's secondary status in society because the organization positioned them as subservient and with an obligation to follow their husbands.

Saparinah, who is also chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, said the government must reconsider the existence of Dharma Wanita.

"In the present reform era, women must be given free options to join any organization, and the existence of Dharma Wanita is no longer relevant," she said.