Erna Witoelar stays true to the fight in a troubled world

Berni K. Mustafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

What does it take to stand up against the world and not let up? There are different answers, but Erna Witoelar has one.

When she was the minister for settlement and regional infrastructure under the administration of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, she joined campaigns on several major issues.

Erna fought for consumers, for women, for poverty, for the environment and for the reform movement. And she is still fighting.

"Everything is interdependent; consumer protection and environment are very much interrelated. My concern for gender issues is because environmental and consumer problems have a more severe affect on women," Erna told The Jakarta Post.

Now she is into sustainable development. Sustainable development is a global campaign which focuses on a combination of interdependent issues like poverty, environment and health.

The wife of politician and former Indonesian ambassador to Russia, Rachmat Witoelar, she is in charge of organizing the preparatory meeting of ministers in Bali from late May to early June ahead of the World Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Supervising the preparation for the meeting, the biggest in Indonesia in many years, takes up most of her time.

But Erna is in her element.

"As long as I can remember, I have always been the head of class since elementary school," she recalled.

Later, she became a student activist while studying chemical engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

She graduated in 1974 and landed a job at a consultancy firm which matched her interest in engineering but not her character.

Erna left the firm for a job with the Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI).

Well versed in chemistry, she founded YLKI's research department and discovered her education background fit well with the social cause she fought for.

In fact, she debated with fellow chemical engineers who once had been her colleagues at ITB. "I am outside, they're inside."

But Erna was always eager to learn more, and so took a post- graduate degree in human ecology at the University of Indonesia. It was there that she was taught to think in a holistic manner.

In 1980 she co-founded the Indonesian Environment Foundation (Walhi) and became its first executive director. Six years later she led YLKI, and from 1991 until 1997 was the president of Consumers International, a global consumer watch dog.

Erna continued her career even after she went with her husband to Moscow, where he served four years as Indonesia's ambassador to Russia.

When she returned in late 1997, the reform movement was gaining momentum and she joined it by aiding non-governmental organizations with the help of donor countries.

After president Soeharto stepped down, she declined offers to become B.J. Habibie's environment or social affairs minister.

"I felt I was not ready, but people were saying 'you must accept, one day you will move inside and not just fight (from) outside'."

Eventually, she accepted a ministerial post under Abdurrahman's administration which lasted for only 22 months.

After a new Cabinet was installed by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, it did not necessarily mean she would get much time to relax.

She quickly found new issues to campaign on, among them, governance reforms and sustainable development.

But looking back, Erna never felt like she had done enough to ease the world's problems.

"It just feel so selfish if I don't do anything," she said.

She owes that gush of guilt to her father, a judge who she said had an untainted reputation, and under whom she had developed her sense of integrity and understanding of right and wrong. Those senses only became sharper when she joined ITB's student movements.

Back then though, she thought chemical engineering was anything but fun. "I never wanted to be a chemical engineer, that was my mother's wish," Erna said. "I wanted to be a ballerina."

In time, her study did prove to be a big advantage in her career, but she said her most important decision had been to marry her fellow student activist Rachmat before graduating.

With him Erna raised a family where she said debate and discussion has always been a way of life, and on which she looks back upon with great pride.

A seasoned politician at home, (Rachmat was among the youngest to make it to the legislature) a sharp critic herself, and three sons with an acute sense of politics, the Witoelar family thrives on democracy.

Amid her busy schedule, including during meetings with other ministers, she always manages to have time for her three sons.

"When they need me I am always there, that way they don't interrupt too often," she said.

On the other hand, Erna dispels the notion that stress at her work hinders quality time with her children.

Her father taught her about the world in black and white terms, and her sons now make sure she never becomes tired of keeping that view. "My children are my source of strength," Erna explained.