House bids farewell to dedicated Nafsiah Mboi

Legislators have been constant targets of criticism and jokes. A few do believe in their roles. One such outgoing member is a renowned advocate of HIV/AIDS, Nafsiah Mboi of the Golkar faction. Nafsiah, recipient of honors including the Satya Lencana Bhakti Sosial, 1989, and the Magsaysay Award, 1986, talked to Ati Nurbaiti of The Jakarta Post amid preparations for a paper on child workers, just one vulnerable group under her concern.

JAKARTA (JP): When this outgoing legislator talks about her days in the House of Representatives (DPR), she does it with sparkling eyes and a smile, reflecting a pride in the role she has played.

When attending gatherings by the Indonesian Heritage Society, of which Nafsiah Mboi is a founder, advocating against stigmatizing people with HIV/AIDS, or acting as the only Asian rapporteur of a United Nations committee monitoring the Convention on the Rights of the Child, she felt it "of great pride and satisfaction to represent the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia".

Also at many international events, Nafsiah, also a pediatrician, spoke as "a legislator of the Republic of Indonesia". The 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, where she delivered an address, is among the events she has attended.

It seems she doesn't need the legislator title when she sits on the Global Commission on Women's Health, for example.

"But there is more weight when you talk as a legislator," she said. "Whether at local, national or international levels."

Now Nafsiah, wife of a former governor of East Nusa Tenggara, Aloysius Benedictus Mboi, must find another source of income to enable herself to direct her energy into more public service.

"I used the DPR income to serve. It was enough," she said of her monthly salary of Rp 4.75 million including allowances.

Born in Sengkang, South Sulawesi, July 14, 1940, the 57-year- old grandmother of two said she still has much to give. "So much can be done."

Although formal forums in the House were not very fruitful, because of the many, disparate issues raised, she said low-keyed contacts with various officials proved effective many times; regarding the need of clean water and transportation in her province, for instance.

Through a political process she seems not to understand, Nafsiah was not reelected for the 1997-2002 period.

"I wasn't told what I did wrong," she said.

Nafsiah is not one of the "vocal" critics of the government, or so she thinks; in five years she was selected only once, by her faction to sit on a special committee, to draft a law on disability in 1997.

As a governor's wife for 10 years, from 1978 to 1988, and chair of the provincial Family Welfare Movement, Nafsiah said she knows the kind of language one should use with government people, and "I always talk based on data".

It sounds fine, but maybe some of her remarks were way out for this part of the world intent on stability and harmony.

For instance, amid the clamor to move Jakarta's Kramat Tunggak red-light district in North Jakarta to a far-off island, Nafsiah told a seminar last year that community leaders and decision makers should sit down with sex workers, who are "our fellow citizens."

A better approach to prostitution, she said, would be to make sure there were no sex workers under 18 years old, and encourage them to be strong enough to practice safe sex.

These are hair-raising ideas and still "NGO-talk", however mild Nafsiah may have put them in more formal forums.

She contributed to the drafting of the National Strategy on AIDS Control, which recognizes the use of condoms as a preventive measure. It is still controversial and Nafsiah tries tirelessly to convince the public.

Her citation that one woman in the world is dying of AIDS- related illnesses every two minutes, and every one minute two woman contract HIV, began to wake up people to the fact that the virus was reaching beyond prostitutes to wives.

Nafsiah understands concerns that advocating safe sex is condoning promiscuity. But she urges a gentle reminder to prevent the possible contraction of the virus by women, including wives: "In our culture, the strong must protect the weak," she said in 1995.

Disappointed

On Oct. 1, new House members will be sworn in and Nafsiah is very disappointed that no women from her province, East Nusa Tenggara, have been elected.

Maybe there were no competent women? "Nonsense, I could mention 10 Golkar members straight away who are as good as or maybe better than outgoing and new members. The trouble with women," she said, "is they just work, they're not active in seeking DPR seats."

If Nafsiah seems so spirited on being a legislator while the House has lost much respect, one must understand why she agreed to the position in the first place.

When studying in 1991 at the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States, the then Golkar secretary-general Rachmat Witoelar (now envoy to Russia) called her and asked about her willingness to be nominated.

"I said 'why me? I'm not a politician' and he mentioned four reasons," Nafsiah said.

One was that she "loved and was loved by the East Nusa Tenggara people"; another was Golkar believed, Rachmat said, that more opportunities should be given to women to conduct their political right, "and I had been pounding tables on gender equality."

The two other reasons were Golkar's perception of Nafsiah's high credibility in her professional field and that she was not only close to people and organizations, but also to government people and the academic world.

Selected nominees, Rachmat had told her, would help Golkar reach its goal to "improve the quality and image of the House of Representatives".

Believing Golkar was sincere in this goal, she said, this became her mission, for which "I have really worked hard" through serious preparations before speaking on causes regarding children and public health.

Being in the House was good while it lasted but Nafsiah is now rather puzzled on her party's requirement for good legislators: achievement, dedication, loyalty and a clean record.

"I'm a bit worried now about the future of the House. There seem to be no definite grounds as to what is the criteria for a good legislator."

Though a proud member, she said she realized the House is "extraordinarily dependent on the executive". Personal relations were "excellent" but the House was far from equal to the executive. "Is this what we want in our democracy? Where is the rakyat in Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR)?" These are very essential questions, Nafsiah reflects.

In politics, things should not be taken personally when one is no longer elected. Still, "It hurts," Nafsiah admits.

Family

Laughter fills the air when discussion shifts to the family.

None of the children seem to be interested in a political career. "But, oh, this house is so noisy when we gather and talk on things, including politics," she said.

As parents, the duty towards our children, she says, is to give them "a balanced view" to their sometimes bleak perspective of the country, "influenced by the media".

Their children are Tridia, a doctor, who like her mother also married a doctor, pilot Gerardus (Gege), and engineer-to-be Henry Dunant (Hade).

One demand of the parents is that their offspring seek challenges. Nafsiah was happy when Tridia and her husband, Nyoman Sudirga, finally canceled plans to practice in Bali and opted for East Timor.

"The choice was theirs, I just told them they should serve where they were most needed."

Actually, she had done what many Indonesian parents do -- used her connections in regard to her perceived interests of the children.

But what parent would go to the personnel department at the Ministry of Health to say: "If they ask for positions in Java or Bali (where doctors are relatively plenty) just say they're all full."