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.