Newly empowered Erna: 'Just do it'

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.