Women's groups in search for meaning

Hera Diani and Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Juwita" has just ended her maternity leave after delivering her second son and returned to work as a journalist, putting in much more time than the specified eight-hour working day.

"I don't have enough time for my children now. I have to start working at 8 a.m., because the beat requires it. My first son is really neglected, he ignores his grandmother and skips school," sighed the thirty-something woman as she waited for her husband to pick her up after work late one evening.

There are so many women like Juwita, who choose to work to help support their families but find they cannot be the mythical "superwoman" in also taking care of all their family's needs.

Others put off getting married, only to find out later that their youth has disappeared, along with their ambition.

But as the country marks on Sunday the anniversary of the birth of Kartini, who is officially credited as a heroine of women's emancipation, the assumption might be that her descendants should have every reason to feel better about their position in society.

The woman of today has probably never had so many non- governmental organizations and institutions in her corner, as well as the first woman president at the helm of the country.

At the end of the day, however, the question of who is the modern Indonesian woman and what she really needs for true equality will probably remain unanswered amid the clamor of divergent agendas.

Lies Marcoes-Natsir, a consultant for Muslim gender and civil society at the Asia Foundation, said the efforts of women's groups were out of touch with the reality of life for many Indonesian women.

"Women's non-governmental organizations are losing their momentum. They have also failed to transform the concept of gender into something more real. To some people, they are just seen as an abstract concept, which doesn't touch their lives," she said.

She said there were major issues, like violence and regional autonomy, which were ignored by women's groups despite their impact on women. If both of these themes were correctly addressed in a campaign, they would gain much more attention and support.

With more access to funding from foreign donors in the reform era, women's groups should also have widened their horizons, including embracing women in rural areas, not only the middle to upper class, she added.

Some groups have failed to seize the opportunity because they have remained unable to formulate a perspective on gender and apply it to diverse issues.

"Every sector has its own gender perspectives. Like food, health and farming issues, there should be issues concerning women," she said.

Sita Aripurnami from the National Commission on Violence Against Women praised the efforts of women's organizations during the Old Order of Sukarno's presidency because they were more militant than those around today, but still remained in touch with the most pressing problems affecting women in society.

For women's rights groups, the most pressing thing to do is first identify existing problems and ensure that already designated regulations are implemented in full, she said.

"Take education, for example. The law doesn't discriminate on gender in education, however the reality is to the contrary. Many women, especially in rural areas, can't even finish elementary school," she said.

Labor activist Dita Indah Sari contended that affluent women remained the focus of the groups, but they now needed to reach out to the grassroots level, like manual workers and poor farmers.

Lies said that some newly established organizations have brought hope because they manage to transform their concepts into pragmatic realities.

She noted that Muslim women's groups fared better in translating the concept of violence against women or gender- related issues into the focus of their campaigns.

Some women's groups really have made a resounding difference, only for their campaigns to eventually peter out.

As president Soeharto's government teetered toward its inevitable end in the late 1990s, it was the Voice of Concerned Mothers (SIP) that brought to the fore issues of poverty, food scarcity and malnutrition amid the monetary crisis.

"The issues are more eye-catching than corruption and democracy but, unfortunately, it has just stopped there," Lies said.

"And now under a woman president, many groups have not seized the moment to push the women's agenda."

But women's groups could unite to lobby Megawati, who dismayed many by dismissing the campaign for affirmative action last year, to pursue gender-friendly policies, as the military has done on security issues, Lies said.

"Women comprise 51 percent of Indonesia's total population (210 million) and we can tell her that if she neglects women, she may topple. There are many things she can do, concerning women migrant laborers (TKW), violence against Acehnese women and much more.

"What we have now are wide open ways ... to struggle. What is needed is the reorientation of the movement's direction and further studies on the root of the problem," she said.

Women activist and legal expert Nursyahbani Katjasungkana is pleased by the growing number of NGOS dealing with women's rights.

"The more NGOs, the more the access for women to women's organizations that are campaigning and empowering both in politics and the economy. That's good. Our country is very large. No matter how big a woman's organization is, it's impossible for it to cover the whole area," said the chairwoman of the Coalition of Indonesian Women for Justice and Democracy.

She noted this was better than the past, when the main women's organization was the Family Welfare Movement (PKK), which only promoted women's roles as wife and mother and shied away from political issues.

Nursyahbani said that it's difficult to define a uniform vision of the present women's organizations.

"Of course, we share the universal vision that women's rights are human rights and that as humans, women have the same rights as men. But the implementation and the strategies may vary."

Nursyahbani said differences between women's organizations could still be bridged to find common ground.

"There is no single solution for problems as big as discrimination," she added.