Kamala, warrior for women's rights

Kamala, warrior for women's rights

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

What does it take for a woman to fight for her rights? A woman of conviction might say that it takes life-long commitment and the commitment of others.

Many women are impervious to the sufferings of their sisters, they live as though floating on a carpet, with little concern for the common people. Other women are so powerful that they abuse the weak and are saluted even so.

"We do experience burn-out. I think total rest is needed before doing it again," said Kamala Chandrakirana, chairperson of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan). She was referring to the struggle toward the recognition of women's rights in the country.

Last year she took a break, partook in exercise for the simple pleasure of it, and even underwent a medical examination, something which she never seemed to have time for before.

"This job is exhausting," 44-year-old Kamala conceded.

Besides providing recommendations on high-profile cases, the commission, said Kamala, also hears the stories of individuals and the hardships they have suffered.

Commissioners travel to locations where injustice or violence against women has been reported.

"Sometimes we have to postpone paperwork because circumstances require it. A group of women, for example, has the courage to travel from the Maluku islands to urge us to arrange a meeting with the President," she explained.

But long working days and her experiences in speaking out against cruelty have only made Kamala stronger.

The eldest of three could never have imagined that one day she would head the government-sanctioned body. When the United Nations officially named March 8 International Women's Day in 1975, Kamala was still a student at a prestigious high school in an upmarket neighborhood of Jakarta.

"I remember joining the movement after the May riots in 1998," she says.

The wife of a senior official of the World Bank, Scott Guggenheim, was among several prominent women, including former Komnas Perempuan chairman Saparinah Sadli, who confronted then president BJ Habibie to demand state responsibility following widespread violence in the city that year.

The decision was not impulsive as Kamala has a long history of involvement in human rights causes. While she avoids media attention, she is recognized as a leader who contributed much to the emancipation of women in the country.

The daughter of the country's top diplomat and respected intellectual, Soedjatmoko, Kamala has researched and studied various social matters pertaining to poverty and gender issues.

Holding a Masters of Science in Development Sociology from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and a graduate of Tokyo's Sophia University, Kamala has led nationwide efforts to confront the causes of poverty.

She also helped found several groups, such as the Indonesian Working Group for the Eradication of Structural Poverty (KIKIS) and JARI Indonesia -- an organization that works to empower rural people. Kamala is also a member of the board of ethics of the Indonesian Corruption Watch.

She has published a number of her writings and meticulously researched papers, including the well-respected Transforming Humanity: The Visionary Writings of Soedjatmoko, and Geertz and the Problem of Ethnicity.

She knows how it feels to be fighting for something that has been denied for centuries, not only here but also on other parts of the globe.

"We are in the middle of discussing priorities, there are three points that might be Komnas Perempuan's targets for our three-year term," she said.

Here women's rights are not just a matter of political rights or civic rights, protecting women is not even just the eradication of physical abuse, or the issue of domestic violence. Kamala explained that the first priority was the basic challenge of changing those regulations that disadvantaged women.

Second, she said was to counter the trend toward politicizing identity and religion. She cited the 1998 riots, in which women of Chinese ethnicity were victimized, and the application of sharia (Islamic law) in the country, whereby women were used as political symbols.

Kamala said the third priority would be to address the concept that "the stronger that women are, the stronger the resistance from their environment."

Now that she heads the battle, does Kamala think that she has what it takes? Can she bring about change? Like a true warrior, she says only one thing will never change: "We will never yield".