[Kabar-indonesia] Interview: 'Women's movement needs to get its act together'

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post 
Saturday, September 2, 2006

Women's movement needs to get its act together'

Women gathered in a national meeting in East Jakarta this week, focusing on 
how they could better advocate for women's issues. Among them were lecturer of 
political studies at the University of Indonesia Ani W. Soetjipto, also of the 
Center for Electoral Reform and writer of Politik perempuan bukan gerhana 
(Women's politics is not an eclipse). She talked to The Jakarta Post's Adisti 
Sukma Sawitri on her views on the women's movement here. The following are 
excerpts of the interview:

Question: What is the current situation of the women's movement here?

Answer: The movements are exclusive and there are no main issues uniting 
them. Women groups are focusing on their respective activities instead of working 
with other possible allies, like those fighting for human rights, the 
environment and against corruption.

Instead, these potential allies are using women's issues to support their 
campaigns.

Women groups are also less coordinated and each of them thinks it represents 
the best issues. And they all compete to grab public attention. In the end, 
none of them sound significant.

Inconsistency is another problem for us. If we're professional, of course we 
have to stick with one issue that we agree on. In fact, we have so many 
interests. Often we deal with issues, which are global trends and what's catching 
international donors' attention to fund our activities. How much chance to women 
have to make necessary reforms here?

The chances are getting smaller because the country is moving to a 
consolidated government system after the fall of the New Order.

We lost the momentum a few years ago because we put so much energy into 
amendments to the Constitution, and setting up regional autonomy and 
decentralization. These reforms, however, have yet to improve women's welfare. Women are 
still the victims of every public policy process in our country.

In other countries there were similar transitions, like in Uganda, Rwanda and 
South Africa. But women activists there were well organized enough that they 
could bring women issues to the center stage of their governments' policies.

These countries allotted bigger budget allocation for women after 
governmental transitions. Whenever their people talk about democracy, women's issues are 
at the center.

Why have reforms so far not involved the women's movement?

Regional autonomy complicates things even further because we have different 
cultural, local political and social conditions in different regions.

In fairly homogenous regions like Bengkulu, the local movement could easily 
propose a larger budget allocation for women because things are less 
complicated.

But in regions like Banyuwangi regency (East Java) where the political 
temperature is high, it is harder for reforms. And Regent Ratna Ani Lestari faces a 
hard time because most locals have adopted fundamentalist beliefs that are 
against women being community leaders.

So what are the main issues that could unite women's groups here?

Globalization and fundamentalism are among our main concerns because they are 
related to the setback of women's access to education, health, politics and 
economics.

Globalization, through opening of labor markets, leads to many women becoming 
the slaves of multinational companies with low salaries so they cannot 
support their families.

These companies trap women in poverty with limiting access to education and 
health facilities so that they can keep their salaries cheap.

Meanwhile, fundamentalism takes us back to the time of our grandmothers, when 
women were expected to stay home and take care of their children. They are 
taught to obey whatever their husband says, even if it endangered their health 
and lives.

This issue is very difficult, it even divides the women's movement from the 
level of the state to that of our daily lives. Many women, even activists, 
still support fundamentalism.

Most women support the pornography bill because they think it's protecting 
them in terms that they would be safe if they dress properly in public. They 
don't realize that the drafted bill makes women "bad girls" that need to be 
controlled by the government.

Fundamentalism leads us not only into conflict with government policy, but 
also those who believe in conservatism, including women themselves.

What should be the strategy to improve the women's movement here?

Go back to the basics. We have to organize better, make good networks, and 
educate activists and their communities better, as well as empowering ourselves 
financially. We should not rely so much on donors and we should stick to our 
concerns. We could live without this financial support in the past and we 
certainly should be able to do it now.

That's why we're having this national meeting, to organize and to network. We 
also hope to talk to the government since they have been neglecting us ever 
since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono came into power.

He probably did not realize that most of his voters in 2004 were women. If he 
wants to win the next election, he had better help us now. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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