Newly empowered Erna: 'Just do it'

By Endy M. Bayuni

JAKARTA (JP): For more than two decades, she has been fighting on behalf of the people against adversaries who have almost always been the government or the powerful corporations.

Erna Witoelar built her professional career and reputation by working and leading various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). All of her career, she has been on the front line in defending consumers, protecting the environment and empowering the marginalized indigenous people and the poor.

Today, however, the country's most prominent NGO activist is on the other side of the fence. Erna is now President Abdurrahman Wahid's minister of settlement and territorial development.

One of two women ministers in the Cabinet, she heads a new ministry which inherited most of the functions from the disbanded public works ministry and the office of the state minister of people's housing. If the two previous agencies sounded cold and technical, dealing mostly with construction of roads, irrigation and housing, Erna has given her new office a human face.

Her ministry, despite its technical sounding title, is about empowering the people, whether it is through urban or rural development, or human settlement development programs.

The poor and the marginalized, two particular groups she worked with during her long NGO career, will remain particularly dear to her in her new job. In her new capacity, Erna is now empowered to do many things she long professed.

"You have known me as a strong advocate of sustainable development. Well, now, here is an opportunity for me to do the things I believe in. So I'll just do it," Erna said in an interview with The Jakarta Post.

Her years as an NGO activist afforded her knowledge about the real needs of the people, which will be valuable contributions to the government's poverty eradication programs.

"I believe in a holistic approach," she said.

The past sectoral approach, for example, has resulted in the government building houses in areas where no one wanted to live. Housing is one particular field where she hopes to make her presence felt most. "Many people still live in cramped houses like packs of sardines, in inhumane conditions."

Land shortages, soaring cost of construction and various other problems make it seem an insurmountable order in providing housing for the people.

"I believe if you break the problem down to the smallest units, to the local levels, you will find programs that are workable and doable," she said.

Erna admitted the likelihood of a conflict of interest in her role as a minister and her past activism, saying it would be a tough challenge for her personally.

"In the old days, I had the luxury of speaking out against something just because I didn't like it. Now I can't simply speak out. I have to study up on them first, and do things."

Erna, who last year turned down an offer to serve as minister of environment by then president B.J. Habibie, said she found herself at ease working with Gus Dur, as the new President is popularly called, and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"The President and the Vice President are both very committed to the things I believe in," she said.

Erna recognized that some laws would have to be repealed to reflect the vision of the new government, but she would leave it to the President to fight the political battles.

"My job is to implement," she said.

"Now we have a government that is pro-people, pro-poor and pro-gender."

Born Andi Erna Anastasjia Walinono in Sengkang, South Sulawesi, on Feb. 6, 1947, she has been active in organizations since her student days at the Bandung Technological Institute, where she studied chemical engineering and graduated in 1974. It was through her college activism in Bandung that she met Rahmat Witoelar, a senior student leader. They married in 1972.

As Rahmat pursued a political career through Golkar, Erna decided on an NGO career, first working for the consumer agency, and since 1981 leading the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi). She is also well respected abroad, given the honor to lead the London-based Consumer International for two terms.

Erna virtually disappeared from the local NGO scene between 1993 and 1997 when she went to Moscow to accompany her husband during his term as Indonesia's ambassador to Russia. She managed to keep up her activities in international NGOs, even as she played the roles of ambassador's wife and mother of three.

On returning from Russia in 1997, she helped establish the Restoration of People's Empowerment (PKM), a network of some 100 NGOs active in managing social safety net programs to help people cope with the severe economic crisis.

Erna, who is the sister-in-law of popular columnist and political affairs talk show Wimar Witoelar, may at first appear to have a completely different workload from usual.

But if empowering the people is what her new job is really all about, then she is not only in familiar territory, but also armed with immense experience and knowledge in the business of empowering. She only needs adjust herself to the workings of the bureaucracy; with "less government role", the slogan of Abdurrahman, she should adjust in no time.

Erna's ministry is leading the government's drive to give greater autonomy to the regions, a move which she also believed would further empower the regions, and therefore the people.

The President's decision to abolish three ministries -- information, social services and public works -- came from his conviction to keep the central government's role to the minimum, delegating tasks to the regional administrations, and most of all, to the public.

"Ours is the first government ministry to implement the regional autonomy law. We have started in Aceh, and by January, we will hand over everything to the regions," Erna said.

Indeed, one of her first tasks after her appointment in October was restructuring the two agencies she inherited, including determining the fate of their 38,000 employees. She has overseen the transfer of 28,000 employees to regional administrations, retaining only 8,500 for her new ministry.

The central government's job from now on will be to set priorities and to channel funds. All the decisions will be made at the local levels, she said.

Do not expect instant results though because Erna practically had to build a new ministry, with a new vision and mission, and a new organization structure from the merger of the two previous government agencies.

She only managed to put her team together last week.

Erna said the coming year will still be a transition period for her ministry, and its work will continue to be more in response toward emerging situations, including dealing with 700,000 people displaced by unrest in Maluku, Aceh, Kalimantan and East Timor. Erna said about half of the refugees were unlikely to return to their homes and would have to be resettled.

"We hope from 2001 we can really work according to our vision and mission," Erna said.