Ully Sigar Rusady -- mother of the disaffected

By Chris Ashton

JAKARTA (JP): For someone who has achieved national recognition in a number of different fields, the ability to avoid the limelight is a skill that Ully Sigar Rusady has worked hard to develop.

However, the presentation of the Bintang Jasa Pratama award for her efforts to preserve the environment by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri on behalf of President Abdurrahman Wahid in August, brought the 48-year-old woman back into the news again.

She is known mainly for two things, her folk music -- which makes her dubbed as the Indonesian Joan Baez -- and her environmental work. And, though her contributions to the latter are not widely publicized internationally, they would, if they could get a wider airing, make a good counterbalance to some of the environmental bashing that Indonesia has had over the last few years. Perhaps even less well-known is the way in which much of her work in the forests is carried out and that it directly benefits people as much as nature.

It was as a result of a chance encounter on the street in Jakarta's Blok M that her youth work first began. There, she made contact with the dropouts (sic), who would later form the core group of the Garuda Nusantara Foundation (YGN), which she chairs.

"Everyday when I left my house in Blok M, a group would be sitting right outside, talking. When I returned home they'd still be there, still talking, still playing cards. I used to feel sad just seeing these people with no home, no parents, no education. They had nothing. Worst of all they had no ambition, and not much of a future. They lived a hand to mouth existence and if they ate at all they only ate once a day," said Ully, whose real name is Rulany Indra Gartika Rusady Wirahaditenaya.

Conversations began with the street people and it soon turned out that they were as bored as they appeared to be.

It was from this initial encounter that the idea of forming a group for young disaffected people came about.

"When I first stared working with the dropouts everyone thought we were nuts. We only planted chilli bushes and tomatoes! But the important thing was the experience of planting the seeds and seeing the plants grow. There's a spiritual lesson in seeing this process. It made a big impression on the street people."

They have come a long way from planting tomatoes and chillies. The YGN, which became a formal body recognized by the government in 1985, now propagates endangered species and medicinal plants.

"The members call me Bunda, which means mother. So that's a very big family with a lot of responsibility", she says of the foundation's 25,000 formal members and more informal ones.

And like any good mother she cares about how her family is growing up. A training center called Hutan Rumah Kita (The Forest is Our Home) was then set up in the Badui forests in West Java. There, the members are taught forestry skills and jungle survival skills.

"A lot of the young people who join us are real urbanites, they have never been to a forest before. I tell them 'This is your home, I want you to feel what it is like. Feel the forest!' I make sure they get direct experiences of nature. I don't say, 'Oh, isn't the river pretty?' I make them jump into the water so they can actually feel what a river is like. Wet, real and alive, right?"

A sense of discipline underlies all the instruction that takes place in YGN. Members must be responsible for their actions.

And discipline is not just imposed from outside. She believes that the inner person must be developed together with the outer.

"We don't just teach them how to plant trees, we teach ethics and morals here as well. We teach them silat (martial arts), we do sports and we have lots of other activities. We also teach them concentration techniques to improve their mental vitality. We do this because we believe that if they want to work effectively with nature they must have a well disciplined mind and a good mental attitude. In essence, what I'm really trying to do is develop spiritual values."

Top class teachers who come from both the government and from NGO's are invited to work on YGN training programs. Now, members do not just include dropouts, but also older school children.

Leadership

Ully's approach to leadership is pragmatic, fair and honest.

"In my kind of organization I believe that a good leader should to be able to do everything that the members are expected to do. I'm not just a leader of this organization. I'm also a member of it.... My concept of leadership is this: lead from the front and be aware of the level of difficulty and danger of the activities of the membership. I don't ask people to do things that I wouldn't be prepared to do myself."

The stress of modern urban life can zap you of your vitality and make you feel prematurely old. Ully has a day-to-day strategy for dealing with this which has little to do with modern fads. It is inner directed and again, is based on a sense of self- discipline.

"Self-control is paramount, we must learn to find that balance inside ourselves where we are in control of ourselves and our emotions. To be able to do this you must have a certain level of self-awareness. Second, we have to learn to forgive people. The harboring of old resentments will make us old quickly.... Third, think positively about anything and everything."

The YGN experience aims to instill a sense of confidence in its members. "Self-confidence", she says, "is fundamental. You can't achieve anything without confidence. Unless you believe in yourself no one else will believe in you. We must always love ourselves. If you don't love yourself you can't love other people."

She won the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Global 500 Award in 1986 and her consequent work as a UNEP roving ambassador was helped a lot by her musical talent.

"The UNEP work has also enabled me to form networks with environmental groups in other countries. My colleagues there are aware of the YGN re-greening and tree diversity project in the forest. They call us The Children of the Wind, or the Silent Movement, because we don't seek publicity and our activities are rarely covered by the Indonesian mass media."

Nature Therapy Center

Some time ago Ully and a group of like minded friends started working on a nature therapy center in the mountains in West Java. It's called Sindan Gahuripan, a Sundanese name which translates as The Lake of Life. The site has hot mineral springs which will be used in natural cures. Herbs have been planted and they will be used in medicines produced at the center.

The project has two main aims. One is to establish a natural healing center and conservation area.

"We want to contribute to the local economy and to the quality of life. We have been buying the land from the local people and saying, 'OK you can live here and work the land as you and your ancestors did and we'll add to it by increasing the quality of the natural environment here.' We are buying the land from them and letting them use it within the context of our natural center. They continue to do their wet rice farming here."

The second aim is to provide paid employment for YGN members, who have been putting in medicinal plants, fruit trees and maintaining the site. They will sell the produce later on.

The Natural Therapy Center would be coordinated by the YGN.

Education is another element of the Sindan Gahuripan project. But quite distinct from Hutan Rumah Kita, the YGN training center, the courses offered at Sindan Gahuripan will be open to the public. The planned program include a conservation program, an eco-tourism program and a natural therapy program, a meditation program aimed at controlling stress, a beauty program based on the use of traditional herbs, jamu.

"I shall include music therapy and there will be an adventure course," Ully said.

Traditional healing techniques learned from the Badui will be used. The Badui of West Java are a direct and living link with the ancient Sundanese culture. They are very close to nature.

"They protect the forest and the life of the land. I learned a lot from them," she says.

Accommodation is being built in the Badui style with only natural forest materials being employed. No metal is being used in the buildings. Those wanting to go and stay at the center will be able to rent these small houses from the owners.

-- The writer has been working on a project called Meetings With Remarkable Asian Women since 1996. The project has as its focus the promotion of Asian women as very positive role models.