First Lady visits Yogyakarta market

YOGYAKARTA (JP): As part of commemorations marking Kartini Day, First Lady Shinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid made an impromptu visit to Beringhardjo market in Yogyakarta on Friday to hold friendly dialogs with women vendors and coolies.

Accompanied by Ratu Hemas, wife of Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who is Yogyakarta governor, Shinta was greeted by Mayor R. Widagdo at the biggest traditional market in Yogyakarta.

The first lady very quickly became the focus of attention of all who were at the market place.

Women coolies are paid to carrying goods belonging to traders or market patrons.

In very intimate conversations with the "common people" the first lady asked about their lives and their families.

"How many children do you have? And how much money do you earn a day?" asked the first lady to one of the women coolies.

"I have two children and collect only between Rp 3,000 and Rp 4,000 a day. It is difficult for me to afford sending them to school. Therefore I need help," the woman said in Javanese language.

Similar questions were asked of a fruit vendor. To her surprise, the vendor said she could collect Rp 350,000 per day.

"Thank God that women can work and make money for their families, and supplement their husbands' income," she said.

The first lady was in Yogyakarta for a seminar which was held in remembrance of the heroin Kartini. The seminar was organized by the First Lady Secretariat in cooperation with Rifka Annisa Women Crisis Center and Institute for Women and Children Study (LSPAA) Yogyakarta.

In her address, the first lady said that many Indonesian women saw Kartini as a sacred women as if she had been a goddess.

"Such a view can make us fail to completely understand Kartini and her struggle," she said, citing artificial events such as Kartini Dress Contests usually held to remember Kartini.

Shinta said that Indonesian women had been victimized in development programs during the previous regime. "Behind the success of Family Planning programs, women were treated as objects. I'm not saying that such a program is bad. But since the program violated women's rights, we will not let it go on." (44/sur)