Kartini shed light on women
Kartini shed light on women
Of course, most Indonesians will remember April for the
elections. For the majority of Indonesian women, however, the
month of April, the beginning of spring in Europe and elsewhere,
is closely associated with Raden Ajeng Kartini from Rembang,
Central Java, who during her brief life fought for the right of
women to get an education equal to men.
April 21 is remembered by the nation as a festive occasion
when women and girls wear the traditional kebaya dress in memory
of Kartini.
Kartini's progressive ideas and ideals can be found in her
memoirs, originally written in Dutch during the colonial period
and translated into many languages, under the Dutch title Door
duisternis tot licht (From darkness to light).
My point this time is not to comment on Kartini's achievements
(how many women have visited her grave in Rembang, near
Semarang?), but to talk about how Indonesian women can still look
up to Kartini as a national heroine.
Anyone passing along Taman Suropati on Jl. Imam Bonjol can see
a small statue of Kartini. I hate to say that the statue has been
rendered too small in view of her service to the nation and does
not go with the surroundings. It would have been more appropriate
to place the statue in an office building rather than outside.
I hereby plead for a bigger Kartini statue the size of the
statue of the late General Sudirman recently erected by the
Jakarta administration.
Politics was not the game Kartini was playing in the 19th
century. She only wanted women to unite to make progress from the
darkness to the light, especially in education. Were she still
been alive, I am sure Kartini would not be too happy with the
fact that the daughters of one of the founders of the Republic,
Sukarno, are unwilling to join forces to form one strong women's
organization for the cause of all of the women of this country.
Instead, they compete fiercely by means of different political
parties under different names with identical ideologies.
GANDHI SUKARDI, Jakarta