May rapes become political issue

By Julia I. Suryakusuma

JAKARTA (JP): Rape may appear to be personal in nature, with the trauma and pain only being felt fully by the victim. But in reality rape has very deep and broad ramifications.

This was obvious in the terrible gang rapes of women of Chinese descent during the riots of May 13 and May 14, 1998.

"The personal becomes political," feminists say, but on moral, social and national levels these rapes are every Indonesian citizen's responsibility, and also that of the state's.

Rape which occurs on such a large scale and using the methods employed during the riots in May marks the nadir of the Indonesian people's humanity. Thus the deeper significance of the rapes needs to be understood, so that we can start to embark on our moral and spiritual revival.

Many activities have been conducted by women's groups to address the May rapes. The Volunteer Team for Humanity has a hotline and counseling services. It also conducts investigations, documents cases, compiles data and engages in public education and training.

Mitra Perempuan, a woman's crisis center, held a panel discussion on June 29 on the psychological, social, political and legal aspects of the rape cases. Like the Volunteer Team, it also has a hotline and counseling services.

The Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy conducted an open forum on July 4 about violence against women. The coalition is also planning a series of events to raise awareness on the thorny subject, between July 24 (the day of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and Dec. 10 (Human Rights Day) this year.

On July 7, the coalition together with the Volunteer Team met with the Commission on Human Rights whereby the women's groups demanded a thorough investigation of the rape cases and an apology from the government.

After the meeting, the rights commission officially "condemned the act of sexual violence conducted on a large scale, that can be qualified as intimidation and even the terrorization of a certain ethnic group". It was only then that the government came out with a statement officially condemning the rapes.

On July 15, after a meeting with the Society Against Cruelty Toward Women, President Habibie himself strongly condemned the acts and expressed deep regret at the incident, but has yet to offer an apology on behalf of the government.

Initially, the government showed remarkable insensitivity about the rapes, reflected in the statements of the minister of defense, minister of justice, and even the minister of women's affairs.

In essence, they said that before there was any proof, the rapes were just rumors. This cavalier attitude incensed not only the women's groups, but also the public at large. "Does her daughter have to be raped first before she (Tutty Alawiyah, the minister of women's affairs) believes?" was one angry remark uttered.

Rape is an extremely sensitive and delicate matter and cannot be dealt with like other criminal offenses. The physical wounds of rape heal relatively quickly, but the emotional trauma may last a lifetime. After the nightmare of rape, a victim may not even be willing to come out of her room, let alone face a group of strangers to report her ordeal.

The difficulty to maintain a sense of self-worth makes many victims attempt to bury from consciousness the recollections of the cruel events that befell them. They may only be able to speak about the incident many years later, as in the case of the Japanese army's comfort women during WWII.

It is felt that reporting the incident to the military or the police would be akin to reporting a burglary to the thief. There is strong suspicion that the riots and rapes were organized, with the involvement of some members of the military.

In many people's minds, the military is a "killing machine", synonymous with violence and murder. There are strong indications, and also some evidence, of the military's involvement in violence against women in Aceh, Irian Jaya, East Timor and in the Marsinah case.

Rape is equivalent to murder: the killing of the soul. However, mass rape -- such as during the May riots, or in Bosnia, Cambodia, Korea, Liberia, Peru, Somalia, Uganda and many other countries where rape is an integral part of military strategy to paralyze the enemy -- has deeper implications not only for the victims, but also to society as a whole.

The rapes which occurred last May is an indication of the degree of sickness of present-day Indonesian society. The current crisis in Indonesia is of massive proportions, and is overwhelmingly deep and complex, ranging from a food crisis to a crisis in morality.

The crisis, which started initially as a monetary crisis, has become an all-encompassing one. Indonesians have reached the point of extreme and unbearable frustration. There is then a tendency to direct this frustration at the easiest target: Indonesian women of Chinese origin.

Racism and sexism are like twin siblings with ugly, sinister and frightening faces. The ethnic Chinese are targeted because they have been identified as having received special economic privileges in the New Order.

Women are targeted because ideologically, culturally and socially they are construed as weak and inferior. It is impossible to target the frustration at the ruling elite, who bear the major responsibility for Indonesia's present predicament, because they are protected by the military, who have a legitimate use of violence.

Therefore, Chinese women have become a "logical" target. They are unable to defend themselves, much less retaliate, especially if they are killed afterward. It is estimated that seven out of eight women who were raped last May were subsequently murdered.

Why have women's groups demanded an apology from the government? Not only is the state morally responsible for last May's tragic incident, it is also often guilty of engaging in violence against its own citizens, through neglect (not performing its responsibility to provide protection) as well as through outright repression and violence.

Indirectly, economic and political decisions which burden the people create conditions conducive to violence. An increase in economic pressure proportionally raises the rate of criminality and violence, including domestic violence, usually committed by men against women. However, all types of violence against women are used to control and limit them and confine them in their prescribed roles and behavior.

Rape is only one of the extreme forms of violence against women. Violence against women is not only universal, but also pervasive and endemic, and suffered by women during their entire life cycle, even before birth.

The practice of gender-based abortion is common in China, India and Korea. Within the first few years of a child's life, infanticide and genital mutilation may occur.

During childhood, molestation by family members or strangers, as well as child prostitution can take place. When they enter their teens, date-related sexual coercion, sexual harassment and rape may happen. In their reproductive years, violence committed by male partners, marital rape and psychological torture can occur.

Even in old age, inhuman treatment against widows and old women, isolation or stealing of possessions are known to happen.

Violence against women, whether subtle or blatant, whether physical or psychological, is considered commonplace and part-and-parcel of a patriarchal culture where men rule social bodies as well as the physical bodies of women.

Sexism is so deeply rooted, not just within conservative members of the society, but even among so-called "progressive" and "prodemocracy" men, who often unconsciously still behave in a discriminative manner toward women.

Violence against women is not only misdirected victimization, but also a means to reduce and oversimplify an extremely complex crisis. But conversely, perhaps we can also use it as a starting point to unravel the crisis that currently grips Indonesia.

Violence against women also mirrors men's fear, that of being manipulated by various parties, including the state, for its own benefit.

The urgently needed reforms in Indonesia clearly cannot be conducted with fear as a rationale. We have to understand why all of us -- women and men, old and young, indigenous and nonindigenous, military and civilian, the government and the people -- are so much under the grip of fear, and have such a need to identify the "other" as the target of our fear.

Fear is the source of violence, which becomes the main obstacle toward achieving the total reform -- and revival -- that we are all aiming for.

The writer is a social commentator and a women's activist.