Ery Seda calls for national dignity

T.Sima Gunawan, Contributor, tabita@cbn.net.id

The Dani tribe in the remote Baliem valley in Papua could provide our troubled nation with a valuable lesson.

"The Dani people have maintained their dignity and self- respect, qualities we are now losing as a nation and also as individuals," said sociologist Francisia Saveria Sika Seda, who is fondly called Ery, reflecting on the general situation in the country.

It iw now more than a decade since she conducted a study on the tribe, but she was so impressed that the memory remains very much alive in her heart.

Indonesia has experienced a prolonged economic and political crisis. Hard times have led to tough competition and people will do anything to survive.

But dignity and self-respect does not really have anything to do with wealth as there are many rich, arrogant people who have less dignity, lower self-respect and poorer ethical values, according to Ery.

"Many people tend to take advantage of others and make use of them as tools to achieve their goal," she said.

Ery, 41, obtained her undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of Indonesia in 1987. She continued her graduate studies at Cornell University in New York, majoring in Asian studies.

Upon her graduation, she taught at the University of Indonesia but left for the United States four years later to take development studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she earned her PhD degree in 2001.

She said she never imagined she would become a sociologist.

"When I was younger, I wanted to be a French interpreter. You could learn the skills in a relatively short time and make a lot of money," she said.

But when she graduated from high school, her father suggested that she apply for sociology, which she did. Sociology was her first choice while her second was French literature.

"I was accepted by the sociology department. It took me two years to really get a handle on the subject," she said.

The more she learned about sociology, the more she fell in love with it. But she learned also to avoid taking things for granted.

Ery is now a permanent lecturer in the sociology department and the women's studies graduate program, both at the University of Indonesia, and an visiting lecturer at the Driyarkara Institute of Philosophy.

She is also the coordinator of the politics and women's program at the Centre for Electoral Reform (Cetro), and a member of the National Commission on Women's Rights.

Ahead of the 2004 election, Ery is quite busy, especially since the new Electoral Law No.12/2003 requires that 30 percent of a party's legislative candidates are women.

This law holds out a ray of hope for an increase in the number of women legislators as currently there are only 45 women out of 500 members of the House of Representatives.

This is pretty small considering that 51 percent of the population are women and 57 percent of the eligible voters are women.

"Women need to get into politics because, like it or not, every policy that affects a citizens comes from a political process. If we don't directly get involved in the process, our interests will not be accommodated," she said.

Ery cited as an example the bill on domestic violence, which had been before the House for three years but has not been debated as it is not on the priority list.

Many parties were making efforts to nominate more women for the legislative seats, but this would not necessarily mean that they were serious as the names of the women might be put at the bottom of the list. "Therefore, we should make sure that their names are put on top of the list," Ery said.

She praised President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is pushing her party to promote more women legislators, but she also criticized her for doing little to improvement the role of women. "Maybe she is afraid that it could backfire on her," Ery commented.

As for Ery herself, she made it clear that she had no interest in becoming a legislator. "That's not my world. I am not good at lobbying, socializing or networking. I am more interested in the academic world," she said.

Ery, who enjoys traveling and reading books, admitted that she had little time for socializing due to her overwhelming activities, but she is quite happy with her life.

Ery remains single and lives with her parents and her younger sister, a lecturer at the Chinese Literature department of the University of Indonesia, in their parents' home in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, but she finds no problem as respect her privacy.

"Actually I want to live by myself, but my father is concerned about security, which I can fully understand," she said.

Her father, Frans Seda, is a prominent economist and her mother is a former high school teacher of French and Germa.

"They taught us the importance of education. They said women should be well-educated so that they did not have to depend on their husbands," she said.

"They always told us, the children, to be independent, and allowed to make out own choices in life -- to study, to work, to get married or to become a housewife. Our life is our own responsibility and the question of whether we are happy or not, it depends on us," she said.

Her principle is to live with dignity and self-respect, to be herself, not to attempt to live up to other people's expectations, and not to hurt others.

"I want to make my life meaningful. And for me, the meaning of life is to be able to contribute to others," she said.

"As life goes on, we evolve and new meanings can well become part of our lives," she added.