Zumrotin: Outspoken consumer activist

Zumrotin: Outspoken consumer activist

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): Fear of becoming infected with HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, prompted Zumrotin K. Susilo, chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers' Organization (YLKI), to stop undergoing facial treatments.

"Blood may flow during the treatment and there is no guarantee that the needle used in the process has been sterilized," she said.

She did not hesitate to stop the treatment as she had nothing to lose. There were no wrinkles or pimples on her face. For her, the facial treatment was a way to cope with stress and boredom rather than a means of making her skin smoother.

Now she relieves stress or boredom in her garden.

"I get out the shears and cut the grass," she said.

Gardening is her hobby. Good food is another thing she loves. But don't ask her to cook because she doesn't like cooking. Although she is an epicure, Zumrotin does not eat out a lot because she prefers to enjoy food with her family at home. Indonesian cuisine, especially Javanese food, and Chinese-style seafood are her favorites.

"I don't like pizza, steak or hamburgers. They are not for me," said Zumrotin.

There is no political reason behind her taste in food. She is not anti-West: If she were, she would not be working for the consumer agency because the organization, which was established on May 11, 1973, receives most of its funding from the West.

The consumers' organization's overhead is as high as Rp 200 million a year and another Rp 600 million is needed to finance its activities. It receives Rp 50 million from the government and another Rp 50 million from members of the public who are concerned about consumer issues.

Other donations come from foreign development agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development, the Ford Foundation and the Asia Foundation.

"We have several major funding agencies because if we receive a huge sum of money from one single source, I'm afraid that would affect our independence," she said.

Zumrotin joined the consumers' organization in 1976. During the first six years, she was in charge of handling consumers' complaints, carrying out investigations and the resolution of individual consumer complaints.

"At that time, when I was tense, I just picked up a case which had not been settled, called the one who had made consumers suffer, and scolded him," she recalled.

Stress is not something that afflicts the 45-year-old Zumrotin very often because she loves her work. Serving the public through the organization gives her personal satisfaction -- an unexpected phenomenon she had not thought possible in her youth.

She told The Jakarta Post frankly that, in the beginning, she joined the organization without any strong motivation. In 1976, she was a bored full-time housewife who was badly in need of activities other than taking care of her children.

"I married in 1972 and during the next four consecutive years I had four children. If I had not worked, I might have had more kids," she commented.

She said she was glad when a friend, who was a member of the consumers' organization, asked her to lend a hand with its activities.

"At the beginning, our office hours were from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., because the majority of those who ran the organization were women. Well, we had to be at home when our husbands returned from work," she said.

But, as the organization grew, many new developments took place. There was more work and longer office hours were required. The women also realized that they had to play a bigger role in society.

Weak position

Zumrotin began to love the job and committed herself to the struggle to improve consumer protection, as she observed that consumers were always in a weak position. The outspoken activist, who studied industrial psychology at Gajah Mada University, Yogyakarta, was upset to find out how industrialists exploited consumers.

"At the university, we studied consumer behavior and analyzed everything about the consumer, but we had never touched on the behavior of business people," Zumrotin said.

It is easy for industrialists to exploit consumers, she said, because they have studied every detail of consumer behavior.

Working with the consumers organization, Zumrotin learned about what she had not learned in her formal education: the greediness of business people.

Zumrotin, who got married when she was still a student, had never graduated. She was so absorbed with her new family that there was no time left for her to finish her dissertation.

"I was frustrated. Every time I heard that one of my classmates had graduated, I felt very bad," she said.

Being active in the consumers' organization has helped Zumrotin cope with that frustration.

"I told myself I should not be less successful than my friends who graduated," she said.

"Am I successful now? I don't think so, but at least I am not left behind," she added.

Even though her salary is very small given the nature of her work, Zumrotin says she does not mind because it is not money she is looking for. She gains emotional satisfaction from serving the public through the consumers' organization.

"YLKI is just like my husband," she said.

The words popped out of her mouth, an indication, perhaps, of the depth of her love for the organization and her work. She said she had no problem with her family, since they supported her in her work.

People also love her -- in their own way.

When her father died early this year, a group of vendors who sell chickens at the Jatinegara traditional market in East Jakarta came to her home to express their condolences. It came as quite a surprise to Zumrotin, who did not know them. But the fact that Zumrotin is popular among Jatinegara traders is not surprising, because she regularly goes to the market and talks with the small-scale traders for her surveys.

In one case, after receiving complaints from consumers about vendors who cheated with their scales, Zumrotin checked with the traders.

"I learned that the traders did so because they had been cheated in the first place," she said.

The traders received only 99 kilograms out of every 100 kilograms of sugar they bought from the state logistics agency through the market cooperative.

"If I had not discussed it with them, I would not have known why they did it," she said.

She says she realizes that there may be people who do not like her and the organization, but she does not see that as a problem as long as they are not the people in need of protection.

Zumrotin's term of office will end in September this year. She was appointed chairwoman of organization's board of directors in 1989 for a three-year term, which was later extended. She will have to give up the position in September because under the organization's rules a person cannot remain in the position for more than two terms.

"But I will remain in YLKI as long as people still need me," she said.