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.