Indonesians women activists lead rallies in Huairou
By Santi WE Soekanto and Carla Bianpoen
BEIJING (JP): Indonesian women activists joining the Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum in Huairou, 50 kilometers north of here, will lead a number of rallies and hold a presentation today on the plight of their sisters back home.
Activists Tati Krisnawati and Emmy Hafild are planning to draw the attention of thousands of fellow activists to the suffering of Indonesian women workers at home and abroad.
They will bring with them several women workers who were once abused by their employers as well as traditional weavers from the island of Flores.
Many Indonesian women workers abroad are routinely mistreated by their employers.
Away from the grand UN officials meeting in the capital, grassroots activists have launched their own campaign in the name of women's rights.
They are holding discussions, workshops and rallies, several of which have been marked with anti-Indonesian government campaigns.
Indonesian women to the NGO Forum have encountered at least two difficulties: overly-tight security measures, which other delegations have also experienced, and a rift among themselves.
Several Indonesian women activists complained of being followed and harassed. The door to the hotel room of one delegate, for instance, was forced open by Chinese security personnel because she was a little late in opening it.
The Indonesian delegation has been divided into two camps: the first group led by the Indonesian Congress of Women (Kowani), staying in Beijing, while the other group staying in Huairou is made up of outspoken women's rights campaigners, including lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana.
The Kowani members, including deputy chair Kuraesin Sumhadi, took it upon themselves to defend Indonesia's record on human rights, especially in the East Timor province, during one rally.
They also took offense at the other group's decision to put up in one of the meeting places a poster depicting a woman in shackles.
Poster
The other camp, however, defended their hanging of the poster, saying that Indonesia has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which binds signatories to, among other things, "pursue..without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women".
Meanwhile, several terms have become buzzwords both in Beijing and Huairou, including "commitment", "implementation" and "women's empowerment".
On the latter, women activists agreed that "empowering dynamics" have started to influence women in Indonesia.
Tati Hartono and Kuraesin said that education, both at school and at home, is the major area in need of attention and support in order to achieve the quest for "equality".
"Text books, particularly in basic schools, should be replaced with ones which reflect gender equality," Kuraesin said.
The United Nations Human Development Report 1995 states: "A frustrating global pattern in women's lives shows them making rapid strides in education and health while lagging seriously behind men in economic and political status".
Meanwhile, Anita Rachman of Convention Watch Indonesia, a chapter of an international organization established to monitor the implementation of the UN convention on women, said that education, information and law enforcement are the basic requirements for the equality campaign.
Liman Walia Keliat of the Yayasan Pijar Podi in Medan added that efforts to make women economically sufficient can be started through small cooperatives like the one she organizes.
"Here in Beijing I feel like I'm given the spirit to continue my struggle and an affirmation that I've been doing the right thing," she told the Post.