Wardah keeps social justice issues alive

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.