Wardah keeps social justice issues alive
By Herry Nurdi
JAKARTA (JP): Many television viewers still remember during a recent talk show how Wardah Hafidz maintained her cool and, without raising her tone, relentlessly shot questions and illustrations at an executive of the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR) which she accused of committing money politics.
Looking ill at ease but maintaining his party's innocence, the politician kept dodging Wardah's questions until the show ended.
The episode served to display that when it comes to issues of social justice and gender equality, the soft-spoken and cool- headed Wardah becomes tough.
She spoke of phone calls threatening her and other activists at the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) after her revelations of alleged abuse of US$800 million of social safety net funds by PDR and Golkar, and yet she went ahead and reported her organization's findings to the Election Supervisory Committee and Attorney General Office.
"She has guts, hasn't she?" said a woman reading a newspaper carrying a story on her visits to the two above offices.
Born on Oct. 28, 1958, in the East Java town of Jombang, which is often called the city of santri (students of Islamic boarding school), Wardah was raised on strong Islamic values.
Somewhere along the way, she cultivated a strong streak for independence. After finishing the Madrasah Mu'alimah (an Islamic high school), she balked from taking the path of her elders, namely going on to study at the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN). Instead, she chose to study the English language at the Teachers' Training College in the hilly East Java town of Malang.
Following her graduation in 1978, she went to teach English at the pilot school in Curug, West Java, before going on to study for her masters on sociology in Indiana in the U.S.
In 1983, because her contract had yet to expire, she went back to teach at her alma-mater in Malang, and was soon offered a position as a civil servant. She refused, and resigned.
"I just can't stand being a civil servant, because it's so bureaucratic," she said calmly.
The fourth of ten siblings, Wardah is the only one in the family to be actively involved in non-governmental organizations (NGOs). She soon made her name following her studies and writings on feminism.
Beginning in 1991, she expanded her attention and started to "fight" not only for the fate of women but for the poor, especially the urban poor. "I just feel that the 'stage' for women's issues is already packed (with other women rights campaigners)," she said.
The former editor of the Islamic Journal Ulumulquran admitted that her childhood and memories of her time with her grandfather contributed to her decision to become an activist for the poor.
"My grandfather was a penghulu (Muslim cleric) in my village, and he raised us to always be just, and to obey our religious teaching," she reminisced.
"Because he always told us to be fair and just, I became aware of (injustice) in my surroundings," Wardah said. She went on to describe how poor farmers in her village worked so hard that they did not even have time to say their salat (prayer). The fact that they abandoned their religious duty, however, did not seem to make them feel guilty, she said.
"While I and my siblings were always told that we would go to hell if we did not say our prayer," she said.
"That raised questions in me. Who's to blame when farmers had to abandon their prayer because they had to earn a living for their children? Where is justice in this situation?"
Those questions crystallized for Wardah in a conclusion: "The poor must be defended, their fate fought for."
She remembered her first advocacy case of a land dispute in Jelambar, West Jakarta, several years ago.
"Where is the justice when inhabitants of slum areas in Jelambar had to pay more for clean water than those who lived in (posh areas of) Menteng?" she said spiritedly.
Wardah takes pride when people call her "a bum" and often refuses invitations to seminars on the fate of the poor.
"How can we discuss the complicated reality (of the poor) from air-conditioned rooms?" she said.
Child
Married ten years ago to fellow NGO activist Wiladi Budihargo, Wardah remains without children. "We agreed not to have children," she said, explaining they were so busy and mobile they would not be able to give any child the utmost attention she or he deserved.
"Given my age now, I don't think it would be possible anyway," she said.
Wardah looked unfazed despite accusations that she was politicking when she put forward her organization's findings about the alleged misuse of funds for the poor for the demotion of PDR and Golkar. She remained calm despite terror threats she and her fellow activists have started to receive recently.
"Last Wednesday, May 26, a group of people staged a protest here," she said at her office in the Billy Moon housing complex in East Jakarta. "May be they were from PDR, because I saw at least one PDR activist."
On Friday, a group of unidentified people pelted a glass window in front of her office with stones.
"Then on Sunday, there was another demonstration but I don't know who they were and what they wanted. They were there only to condemn me," she said.
Some of the protesters carried banners which read, among others, "Wardah against populist economy." The protest ended peacefully after Wardah met them and shook hands with the protest leader.
The PDR has repeatedly denied Wardah's allegations of misused funds and even threatened to file a lawsuit against her.
"I am not afraid. Let's settle this problem through legal procedures," she said.
Since the start of the government's social safety net program, Wardah warned against possible abuse because the project was launched without a strong infrastructure or supervision. She urged international donors to delay the disbursement of some of the funds until the parties involved had clear programs.
She became the most often cited when reports recently surfaced that Rp 8 trillion of the total Rp 17.9 trillion social safety net funds went to undeserving parties. The regional affairs deputy chairman of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), Herman Haeruman, confirmed the "mistaken delivery".
There have been accusations that Wardah, too, has not been very responsible in managing foreign aid for her organization. She told The Jakarta Post, however, that indeed the Urban Poor Consortium is a recipient of a number of both local and foreign assistance including HIVOS in the Netherlands.
Wardah insisted the UPC was more of a people's movement rather than a NGO, and is focused on the campaign to empower the grassroots.
"The UPC is not developing the people, but being the people's partner," she said, adding that her sole goal is to help establish a strong organization of the people which will later be able to give them prosperity.