Experts say regulations leave women unprotected
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Legal experts have bemoaned the lack of gender awareness in the making of city regulations which have resulted in the abuse of women's rights as reflected in the alleged rape of a woman nabbed in last week's raid on sex workers.
Legal anthropologist of University of Indonesia, Sulistyowati Irianto, pointed out that Jakarta Bylaw No. 11/1988 on city order which allows raids on suspected sex workers, including women standing on the street after midnight, as a glaring example.
The lawmakers ignore the fact that a woman might have to go out at midnight to work, to buy medicine for her sick children as an example.
"The lawmakers have the attitude that women standing on the street are bad women," Sulistyowati told The Jakarta Post.
Such conditions, she said, were reason enough for the country to impose the 30 percent quota for woman candidates in the legislature as the first step to improve legislation, which is mostly dominated by male perspectives.
Her remarks was made in connection with Saturday's incident when a 20-year-old woman, a resident of Bogor, was raped in two attacks at the Central Jakarta Municipality Office on Jl. Tanah Abang I, Central Jakarta, by two police assistants on duty.
The victim was walking home from work at a cafe in Sabang area nearby when four members of Banpol (civilian police assistants) arrested the woman and took her to the mayoralty office. One of them, Ali, raped her in a storeroom.
She was later dropped at Monas park, and again brought back to the mayoralty office by another police assistant, Wira, who later raped her on the office's staircase. She was later given Rp 10,000 (US$1.1) and ordered to go home.
The police have arrested the two and they were now under investigation. The chief of Central Jakarta operations control, Reski, said they would be dismissed in accordance with a directive of Mayor Hosea Petra Lumbun.
Separately, legal expert Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, who is a women's rights activist, said that police, father or teacher as guardian of women is a myth, because in most cases they are the ones who violate women's rights.
"Especially with the security officers, as they adopted the common notion that one is allowed to do bad things to 'bad women' who breach social norms by not being home at night."
While there is no law that imposes heavier sentences on public servants or security officers who commit criminal acts, Nursyahbani suggested that the court judges consider the defendants' position as an aggravating factor and therefore impose a heavier sentence.