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.