[Kabar-indonesia] Dozens of Javanese girls forced into prostitution [+JP: Sexual democracy]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: JP Op-Ed by Julia Suryakusuma: Sexual democracy: 
Variety is the basis of life 

Dozens of girls become victims of trafficking 

CIANJUR, West Java, Aug. 2 (Antara): At least 60 girls from Cianjur 
regency, West Java, have been trafficked to Batam island in Riau 
province and forced into prostitution there, a legislative councillor 
said Wednesday.

The secretary to the Cianjur Legislative Council's Commission VI for 
people's welfare, Rina Mardiyah, said that figure was based on a survey 
of a number of nightspots on Batam, which is located close to Singapore.

She said girls from Cianjur were found working in many Batam nightspots. 
They said they were forced into prostitution after being deceived by 
employment recruitment companies.

Rina said one 16-year-old girl was sold for Rp 4 million (US$439.56) by 
an employment recruiter to an entertainment center in Batam. The girl 
said the recruiter told her that she would be employed in Jakarta.

"But later the girl was sent to Batam (as a sex worker)," he was quoted 
by Antara news agency as saying.

Rina said Cianjur councillors attempted to take the girls employed in 
Batam back to Cianjur, but many refused to go home because they 
were too ashamed to face their families.

The coordinator of the Cianjur chapter of the Indonesian Women's 
Political Caucus, Titin Suastini, urged the Cianjur regency to take 
immediate action to stop the trafficking of women.

She said a number of entertainment centers in the Puncak resort 
area were reportedly centers for the selling of women. "The 
administration and police have to actively disclose such practices," 
she said. 

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The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Op-Ed

Sexual democracy: Variety is the basis of life 

Julia Suryakusuma, Jakarta

Earlier this year, I was invited by my old friend Dede Oetomo, Indonesia's 
most respected gay activist, to teach at a course on gender and sexuality in 
Surabaya. The course was conducted by GAYa Nusantara, an organization working for 
the sexual health of gay men, transgenders and male sex workers, which he 
co-founded. Recently the organization expanded into research and education but it 
has always been active in public advocacy.

The course covered a wide range of topics related to gender and sexuality, 
from sexual diversity, pleasure, prostitution and the sex industry, to media 
representation, religion, human rights and health and reproduction. I was asked 
to teach on my area of expertise -- gender, sexuality and the state -- which I 
have worked on since the mid-1980s. 

I have been involved in countless public lectures, seminars and workshops, 
but none anywhere near as colorful, unique and inspiring as the GAYa Nusantara 
event. The 22 participants consisted of 10 men, 11 women and one waria 
(wanita-pria, literally, female-male, sometimes also referred to as transvestite or 
transsexual). 

Professionally, the participants included NGO activists, psychologists, 
teachers, lecturers, health workers and one writer. There was a participant from 
Muhammadiyah, a Catholic marriage counselor and a gay theology student. About 
half were straight (some married) and the rest were a variety of sexual 
orientations, including one who was still questioning her sexual identity. 

There were four male gays (one who performs in drag shows, another a devout 
Catholic), two ODHAs (orang dengan HIV/AIDS -- people living with HIV/AIDS) one 
of whom was bisexual, and a number of gender transgressives, or transgenders. 
These are people who don't conform to the sex assigned to them at birth. 
Transgenders are neither male nor female. They are a sort of third sex and include 
transsexuals and cross-dressers. They are consciously androgynous, and may be 
intersexed, maybe not. 

Confused? Don't worry, because I'm not really dealing with technicalities 
here, but more the colorful diversity and the extraordinary atmosphere of 
openness, tolerance and acceptance that I found so wonderfully embodied in the 
course. 

People who are normally considered marginal, and sometimes outcasts were on 
an equal footing -- and in equal number too, therefore, not a minority -- to 
those who were sexually "mainstream". They were in fact, the most outspoken, no 
doubt because in "normal" society, they are outnumbered and often don't get a 
chance to voice their views or feelings. The discussion sessions -- informal, 
with a lot of camaraderie and laughter -- were sincere, open and sometimes 
very touching. 

Our sexuality is at the core of our identities, so its repression is very 
painful and can even "kill" a person. The bisexual participant spoke of how torn 
he was between his sexual leaning and his loyalty to and love of his family (a 
wife and a young child), whom he lived with and supported. He had only 
recently admitted publicly that he was HIV positive and wore a T-shirt announcing 
it. He pretended to be nonchalant about his condition, but you could sense his 
suffering. 

Every lecturer was asked to choose a film to illustrate her/his topic, to aid 
discussion. I chose The Stepford Wives, about a fictional town in American 
suburbia, where the geeky male inhabitants transform their wives, some 
originally very independent, into mindless, docile housewives and (sex)slaves by 
planting microchips in their brains. The reason for my choice was Stepford's 
similarity to Dharma Wanita, the civil servants' wives association, which in 
Soeharto's New Order epitomized the ideal Indonesian woman -- a meek appendage to her 
husband, which idealizes dependence. 

I said that in fact, we are all Stepford wives to some degree, as we are all 
programmed for ideological, political, cultural, religious and sexual 
intolerance. So few of us can be true to ourselves because the "microchips" planted in 
our minds and hearts from when we were small created stereotyping, 
discrimination and outright bigotry -- including toward the sexual identity of others. 
This is one of the reasons why Indonesia is so often wracked with violence and 
crimes of prejudice. 

The reality is that there have always been diverse sexual and gender 
identities in Indonesia, just as there have always been diverse racial, ethnic, 
religious, cultural, social, political, ideological identities and orientations. Our 
motto is "unity in diversity", but what we have had for a long time, and 
increasingly so, is fragmentation, including ethically and spiritually. 

The gender and sexuality course impressed me because it was one of the rare 
occasions on which I have ever encountered in Indonesia a real sense of unity 
amid very obvious diversity. And it is disappointing that I had to go to the 
margins to escape the fractured, conflict-laden fragmentation that is our 
bigoted mainstream today. 

But this is all wrong. Very wrong. As I sat in Dede's course, I couldn't help 
thinking of the Koranic injunctions to tolerance -- even celebration -- of 
difference, as God-given. These verses cite the diversity of humanity, its 
tongues and colors, as evidence of God's wonder (30:22). They even state that 
mankind was scattered by God "into nations and tribes" specifically "so that you 
might come to know one another" (49:13). 

It is sad beyond measure that what we are drawing from our hard-won 
democratization is more fragmentation and increasing religious and ethnic conflict. We 
don't want to know each other and are using our God-given differences to 
inspire hate and division. Religion should be a basis for overcoming division, not 
for creating it. 

So what's the solution? Perhaps our religious and political leaders should 
all just go and do a week of study with Dede and his gang of guys, girls and 
guy-girls. Who knows, some of them might like it more than they expect! 

The writer is the author of Sex, Power and Nation. She can be contacted at 
jsuryakusuma at mac.com and jskusuma at dnet.net.id. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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