Women want domestic violence bill passed soon

Women want domestic violence bill passed soon

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At least 60 women's organizations, along with the national
women's rights body, want to make sure that violence in the home
is recognized as a crime -- before political squabbling waters
down the final draft of the women's rights bill.

The activists insisted on Monday that the bill on domestic
violence should be passed during the current term of the House of
Representatives, although there are only a few weeks left before
the new legislators are installed early next month.

Failure to pass the bill this month, said R. Valentina of the
Bandung-based Institute of Women, would raise the prospect of
another round of lengthy politicking, even at the regional
levels, and thus a delay in the regulations needed to handle
cases of domestic violence.

However, the women said that their struggle "to the last drop
of blood" in the words of Kamala Chandrakirana, chairwoman of the
National Commission on Violence Against Women, also means that
the bill should be largely in line with the draft of the House --
rather than that of the government -- because the House version
accommodates the interests of victims and survivors.

They announced during a press conference their concern of the
decision made in the House hearings last week to have a number of
crucial clauses discussed behind closed doors in working
committees.

In a statement signed by Kamala and Ratna Batara Munti, the
coordinator of the movement on the issue, they said the future
law should include an assertion that "economic violence and
sexual violence" were among crimes of domestic violence, and that
the "household" mentioned in the bill should include servants and
former spouses.

Fears aired by some legislators that all unemployed husbands
could become guilty of "economic violence" are groundless, said
psychologist Kristi Purwandari, as the bill defined such violence
as exploitation and manipulation.

The commission argued that "economic violence" must be
recognized because there were so many cases of victims being
neglected but not allowed to work, or forced to do certain work
like prostitution by the perpetrators.

In response to views among a number of legislators that
domestic violence was a private affair, researcher Musdah Mulia
of the Ministry of the Religious Affairs raised the
"extraordinary paradox" of repeated claims of Indonesia being "a
religious nation" while millions of people suffered from violence
at the hands of family members.

"How come none of the ulema (Muslim clerics) ever remind their
followers that a man's prayers will not be accepted if he
continues to beat his wife?" Musdah asked.

She cited government data in 2001 based on reports compiled by
non-governmental organizations, which showed that nationwide
there were 24 million known cases of domestic violence.

Ratna said the "passive" stance of the government, represented
by the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment "in a time when we
most need it" showed that the Ministry should be overhauled.