Women should fight for equal rights: Megawati
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Megawati Soekarnoputri has urged Indonesian women to fight, instead of beg, for equal rights as the 1945 Constitution guarantees all citizens equality before the state and law.
During the celebration of Women's Day on Monday at the State Palace, Megawati emphasized that women should not ask for special treatment in the cause of eliminating discrimination against women.
"Our Constitution clearly stipulates that we have to be free from discrimination ... but our efforts to achieve that objective should not be through discriminatory methods," the President said.
Megawati, the first woman president in the country, has always been considered to be insensitive to women's fight against discrimination.
She made the last gesture when she rejected the proposal to establish a 30 percent quota for women in the government and legislature, to be inserted into the law on political parties.
Megawati, born a daughter of founding president Sukarno, has repeatedly said such affirmative action would only create further discrimination against men.
The President has always underlined that women should not ask for special treatment but fight for equal rights, using their own strengths.
"We already have the regulations, so it is up to women to make the most of them and be bold enough to challenge those that undermine women," she remarked.
Megawati further criticized the country's traditional stance in which the interests of men, even from an early age, are prioritized over those of women.
"I urge all mothers not to differentiate in the treatment of their children, especially boys, because boys or girls are both same," she said.
The President also urged women to continue working hard, to master the sciences to enable them to become more educated and join political parties to seek power and better positions in all fields, including the executive and legislature.
Megawati also said that she had signed a presidential decree on a national action plan to eliminate women- and child- trafficking in the country.
"These crimes need to be eradicated because they violate human rights," the President said.
Citing an increasing amount of domestic violence, which covers almost 90 percent of cases of abuse against women, Megawati urged all wives to have the courage to take a stand against their husband, should they be abusive.
"As wives we should demand that our husbands treat us in a respectful manner and not be afraid of living apart, away from abusive husbands," she remarked.
The President stressed resistance to domestic violence, in line with the recent statement from women's activists who said that most women felt too isolated to report their husband's mistreatment against them.
Data from non-governmental organization Mitra Perempuan said that of 226 domestic violence cases they processed only 11.5 percent as far as court because most women chose to withdraw their complaints against their husbands.
The House of Representatives has prepared a bill on domestic violence, to be deliberated during the next sitting.
During the 74th commemoration of Women's Day, the government and central bank also signed an agreement to empower woman in the small- and medium-sized enterprises sector.
The agreement obliges the central bank to push for cooperation between banks and women's organizations to distribute soft loans for women.
The agreement, signed by State Minister of Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki Soemaryoto and Bank Indonesia Governor Syahril Sabirin on Friday, assigned both agencies to establish a task force to coordinate the disbursement of the loan in the country.