Maria takes the route others ignore

Maria takes the route others ignore

T. Sima Gunawan, Contributor, Jakarta

tabita@cbn.net.id

Social injustice has long prevailed in Indonesia. And this is one
of the main concerns of Maria Margaretha Hartiningsih, the winner
of this year's Yap Thiam Hien human rights award.

Maria, a senior journalist with the Kompas daily for almost 20
years, won the award because of her consistency in struggling
against injustice through her writings.

The prize, named after a human rights lawyer, was first
awarded in 1992 in an effort to improve human rights in
Indonesia.

Maria said she was surprised when she learned about her
nomination for the award and automatically objected as she never
considered herself a human rights defender. But her colleagues
assured her that she deserved the award, and that she could also
serve as an inspiration to other journalists.

"I was only doing my job and I chose to focus on injustice,"
said Maria modestly.

When she covered tourism, for example, instead of highlighting
the glamour of the tourism industry, she dug out problems that
many overlook, such as women trafficking. In covering the housing
sector, Maria wrote more about the need for affordable homes for
the poor than the luxury housing market.

She is grateful to her colleagues and superiors at the daily,
who gave her room to develop her interests and always encouraged
her to move forward.

To make a difference, Maria has had to work really hard. She
is never satisfied with the information provided by official
sources and always checks the facts in the field to avoid
"talking news."

Surprisingly, Maria said that becoming a journalist was
actually not something she had wanted to do in the first place.

"I've liked writing since I was a child, but I didn't have any
desire to become a journalist," she said.

Born in Semarang, Central Java, in 1954, Maria led a hard life
with her mother, a poor vendor, after her father abandoned the
family when Maria was only a year and a half old. Due to
financial problems, her mother sent Maria to live with an uncle
in Bogor, West Java.

She later returned to Semarang, but after she finished junior
high school, she went to Bogor again as her mother could not
afford to send her to senior school. Her uncle then sent her to a
chemistry high school.

To nurture her love of writing, she enrolled at the then
Institute of Publicity (now called the Institute of Social and
Political Studies (ISIP)) in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta.

Two years after she was had joined Kompas she got an offer to
work at Hilversum radio in the Netherlands, but she turned it
down despite the attractive salary and benefits. "I believed my
place was here at Kompas," she said.

She deals a lot with issues such as housing, tourism, the
environment and gender. In her reports, she emphasizes the human
side, criticizing injustice in order to improve the lives of
those who are poor and marginalized.

During Soeharto's regime, press freedom was absent. But now
that the door is somewhat more open, another problem has emerged.
"It's about ethics," Maria said, adding that the press should
uphold ethics in order to avoid abusing its new-found freedoms.

There are two other problems facing the press today: some
media outlets are used as political tools, and there are people
who resort to physical force against media outlets they accuse of
libel, according to Maria.

"If the press gets it wrong, they should apologize, and the
other party should use the right to respond to the article in
question instead of resorting to violence," she said.

Maria was a visiting scholar at the Jackson School of
International Studies, University of Washington in Seattle, in
1997 and 1998. Last June, she finished her graduate program in
women's studies at the University of Indonesia.

As an avid reader, Maria has a collection of more than 2,000
fiction and non-fiction books.

Her favorite authors include Jumpa Lahiri, an Indian woman who
lives in North America and Xin Ran from China. Her favorite local
authors include Ayu Utami, NH Dini and Umar Kayam.

Traveling is another thing she likes to do. But it's not
traveling abroad to see beautiful panoramas or go shopping.

"I like visiting villages and observing the rural life of the
people," she said.

Maria remains single and lives with one of her cousins, his
wife and their two children, in Joglo, West Jakarta.

"Being single is a choice. I am comfortable with myself and I
don't care about what people say," she said.

The only thing that bothered her was her mother's expectation
that she would get married.

"If the idea that I was married would make her happy, then I
would be really sorry I did not make her happy. I loved her very
much," said Maria, whose mother died last year when she was on
her way home from covering the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg.

Maria lives her life, going with the flow. Believing in
kharma, she is always trying to do her best.

"You harvest what you sow," she said, describing her
philosophy in life.

"I have chosen to widen and to improve my knowledge to support
the ideal of a better life, an order where people respect each
other, where nature and all living creatures alike are also
respected; where people really understand about the essence of
humanity and life."