The Women’s Congress was held in Yogyakarta 14-18 December 1998, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the first All-Indonesia Women’s Congress (Kongres Perempuan Indonesia), which was also held in Yogya in 1928.
A committee of five from Jakarta were the main organisers. Among them were Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, Indonesia’s foremost feminist lawyer, and Australian-trained political scientist Chusnul Mar’iyah.
The congress was replete with historical resonances. The organisers wanted to hark back to the Kongres Perempuan of 1928, seeing a particular strength in the term perempuan (woman) over wanita (lady, the common New Order term for women). They also wanted to distinguish themselves from Kowani (Kongres Wanita Indonesia), which replaced the original Kongres Perempuan and which was later so thoroughly co-opted by the New Order.
Among the historically important figures in attendance was the octogenarian S K Trimurti, a nationalist, the first woman to hold a ministerial position in Indonesia (1947-48), and a national treasure. More remarkably, the first speaker at the seminar was Sulami – a former leader of Gerwani, incarcerated for almost two decades and speaking publicly for the first time since 1965.
Chusnul Mar’iyah in her opening speech stressed that the issues of most concern to women
should be placed on the political agenda of all the parties that will contest Indonesia’s first real election since 1955 this year. Nursyahbani Katjasungkana spoke of the need to recognise differences between the various groups of women.
Three particularly divisive issues surfaced on the second and third days of the congress. These were the inclusion of Gerwani and thus the legitimisation of communism, the inclusion of lesbians, and finally and most contentiously the centralism of Jakarta. There were strident debates and several disruptive tactics. A walk-out aimed to register a protest against what some saw as the Jakarta feminists’ overly radical and ‘fashionable’ agenda. It became so difficult for the Jakarta committee that an alternative committee of three non-Jakarta delegates had to be elected to chair the congress proceedings.
At one point in the proceedings a labourer, baby at her breast, took the microphone demanding to be heard, despite question time being over. Very eloquently she drew attention to the struggle of workers to find a voice in such a forum. This was not to be just a talk-fest for the Jakarta elite.
Many felt disappointed that the congress was unable to fully express the feeling of solidarity with which it had been originally conceived. But most felt it was an achievement to have come together as women from all over Indonesia and from all walks of life. For the first time in a generation they were able to express their views without constraints. The networking that went on was probably of far greater importance than the congress itself.
A presidium consisting of 14 representatives was elected with Nursyahbani as the Secretary General. This presidium, responsible for implementing decisions of the congress, comprises all groups represented at the congress, including farmers, labourers, lesbians and prostitutes. This is the first time that the claims of some of these groups as women have been recognised.
Inside Indonesia 58: Apr-Jun 1999
A hero passes on
Y B Mangunwijaya (always known as Romo Mangun) died of a heart attack on 10 February 1999, moments after presenting a paper at a Jakarta symposium. On 6 May 1999 he would have turned 70.
In Yogyakarta where he was buried, and in the Jakarta Cathedral beforehand, thousands came to mourn, among them President Habibie and Sri Sultan Hamengkubowono X. There were street kids, politicians, military officers, students, and East Timor activists.
Mangun was known as an architect, novelist, artist, social worker, parish priest, but above all as someone who always sided with the poor. In 1989 he took up the cause of farmers displaced by the giant Kedung Ombo dam. In 1984 he went on a hunger strike on behalf of squatters living under the bridge at Yogyakarta’s Code River.
He always wanted Catholics to do the best for the downtrodden, but never in order to catholicise them. He once told a Muslim friend: ‘Be a pious Muslim’. Most of all he was a teacher. His Basic Education Institute (DED) focused on primary age children. He had many friends among the young. Damairia Pakpahan, one of the young people who often accompanied him, wrote: ‘I feel he gave me an inner toughness with the stories of his own life as we traveled around Central Java, or in our work at Code River. Amidst our often depressing struggles he opened a critical dimension’.
(Inside Indonesia interviewed him in edition no.24, October 1990).
Inside Indonesia 58: Apr-Jun 1999
The electoral reforms
Parliament on 28 January approved the legal foundation that will govern the new political party system and the ‘99 election. A complete draft of the law had not yet emerged by mid-February. Here we note some points crucial for the outcome and credibility of the election.
Jim Schiller
Political Parties
With over 140 parties there will be clashes over who has the right to use similar names and symbols.
To be eligible to participate, parties must have executive boards in 9 (out of 27) provinces, and in half the towns and districts in each of those provinces.
New parties will need at least 10 seats in the national assembly to stand at the 2004 election.
An advisory team of 11 reputable individuals headed by Dr Nurcholish Madjid has been appointed to consider applications by the 140+ political parties to compete.
Candidates will be elected proportionally by province (thus not on a district basis as initially envisaged), but a party's winning candidates will be chosen on the basis of district results.
Managing the election
Election committees (KPU) at various levels will manage the campaign and election. All parties are represented, but government retains 50% of the votes. This is an improvement. However, some party seats will go to Golkar, so the government is likely to have a majority.
Independent Indonesian and international observers will be permitted to monitor the election. Management of the election will be more transparent than ever before. The risk of getting caught for those tempted to intimidate voters will be far greater.
The armed forces
The number of unelected Abri seats in the People’s Consultative Assembly MPR (super-parliament) has been reduced from 75 to 38. But this could still make the armed forces the 5th or 6th biggest faction in the MPR! In provincial and local assemblies they have been reduced to 10% of the seats.
Civil service
Parliament could not agree on whether civil servants should be politically neutral. The government then issued a compromise regulation, one it modified two days later. The regulation allows civil servants to vote and, provided they take leave from office, to join political parties. The revised regulation allows for one year of leave on basic pay. However, the ‘neutrality’ of the civil service can still be easily circumvented. Local civil servants could have their spouses or children run for office, or just take leave and accept payment from Golkar or other parties to make up for salary loss.
Electing the president
The new MPR will have 700 seats (old MPR 1000).
238 Seats will be appointed (old MPR 575), including 38 military, 135 regional and 65 group representatives.
Two big questions remain. Who will choose the 65 group representatives - newly elected national and local assemblies, or the present Golkar and army controlled assemblies? The law says they will be decided by the groups themselves! By what procedure will the new MPR elect the president? For example, if there are many candidates, will the candidate with the most votes win, or will a 50% + 1 majority be required?
Provincial and local elections
Local politics has the best prospects for empowering ordinary Indonesians and for giving the election credibility. Provincial and local assemblies will be elected at the same time as national assemblies, but there has been almost no public debate on how this will happen.
Inside Indonesia 58: Apr-Jun 1999
58: Off to the polls
April - June 1999
Politics and human rights
Off to the polls
The June Election - Jim Schiller
box - The electoral reforms - Jim Schiller
New Order old school
Opposition leaders are afraid - Arief Budiman
Blood in the streets
Demos reek of melodrama - Chris Brown
Not reformasi, transformasi
Student demands are too timid - Y B Mangunwijaya
Box - A hero passes on
Habibie's fling
The President wants a TV station - Ishadi S K
Tommorrow, in Timor Lorosae
Suddenly, freedom in East Timor is no longer a distant dream. -
Richard Tanter
Women on the move
Conference report - Krishna Sen
Box - Women's Congress
Coming out
For 32 years (ex)political prisoners were condemned to a life of
misery - Helene van Klinken
Box - Tapol troubles - When will they end?
Tragedy in Sumba
Analysis of a massacre - David Mitchell
Back on the beat?
Reforming the police - Adrianus Meliala
Society and economy
The price of rice
The role of Bulog - Jeremy Mulholland and Ken Thomas
Environment
Palm oil
Bad news for forests and people - Eric Wakker
Culture
Lightning!
Witty political theatre - Barbara Hatley
Travel
Climb a mountain
Eco-tourism in Sulawesi - Allyson Lankester
Regulars
Editorial
Your say
Newsbriefs
Reviews 1 - Kingsbury
Reviews 2 - Berman
On the net
Indonesian democracy on the net - Waruno Mahdi
Inside Indonesia 58: Apr-Jun 1999
57: No turning back
January - March 1999
Helping a neighbour
The new poor
Upwardly immobilised by the crisis - Lea Jellinek
Shelter from the rain
The crisis closes a shelter for steet kids - Jane Eaton
Tough, poor, unbeaten
On Atauro, drought is the real crisis - Gabrielle Samson
Help that helps
Targetting small business and farming - Vanessa Johanson
Globalisation challenge
Western economic control is the issue - Wim Wertheim
Pak Wertheim
Obituary - Herb Feith
No turning back
NGOs consider their responsibilities - INFID
Australia's response
Aid must address governance and rights - Philip Eldridge
Politics and human rights
Megamania!
Megawati's PDI triumph - Stefan Eklof
No shortcut to democracy
It's all about good policies and good institutions -
Olle Tornquist
Islamic conversations
Four Islamic leaders talk - Hisanori Kato
Who plotted the 1965 coup?
Colonel Lafief says he knows - Greg Poulgrain
Aceh exposed
A legacy of abuse and hurt - IRIP News Service
In the tiger's den
Marwan Yatim's story of torture - Marwan Yatim
Culture
Flower in the grass
Interview with Nyi Supadmi - Jody Diamond
Cockroach
Not a pest but an award winning comic - Laine Berman
Reviews
Beyond the horizon - Ron Witton
Saman - Marshall Clark
Travel
A river runs through it
Journey to a Sumatran village - Jim Della-Giacoma
Regulars
Editorial
Your say
Newsbriefs
Bookshop
The net
Inside Indonesia 57: Jan-Mar 1999
56: 15th Anniversary Edition
Oct-Dec 1998
15th Anniversary
Learning to talk
Habibie's weakness is a plus - Gerry van Klinken
Ballot ballet
The May 1999 elections - Kevin Evans
Raising the West Papua flag
Eyewitness account of demonstrations - Andrew Kilvert
Remembering May
Day of no laws
An Australian amid the Jakarta riots - Vanessa Johanson
Cleansing the earth
How the arts community took part - Marshall Clark
Jakarta's May Revolution
A comparison with other movements - Aboeprijadi Santoso
The morning after...
Habibie: those for and against - Loren Ryter
Rape is rape
Shocking report of Jakarta rapes - Sandyawan Sumardi
Orphans no more
Yogya had the biggest demo - Dwi Marianto
Economy and society
Who murdered the rupiah?
Expert comment on the fiscal crash - Sritua Arief
Tommy's toys trashed
The car industry and Suharto's son - Ian Chalmers
Women do it tough
How the crisis is affecting women - Charlene Darmadi
Worshipping cancer sticks
Cigarette consumption in Indonesia - Catherine Reynolds
Environment
'They just want love...'
Saving the orangutans - Willie Smits
Regulars
Editorial
Your say
Newsbriefs
Bookshop
On the net
Ed Colijn
Inside Indonesia 55: Oct-Dec 1998
Box - The Togian Islands
KATE NAPTHALI falls in love with the Togians, and discovers that health and education are major needs
Read more
The Suharto Government's political prisoners have only very rarely been allowed to speak. Here, for the first time, we have an autobiographical story written by a woman, the wife of an ex-tapol, the mother of his child.
Read more
Christmas in a prison camp
The following excerpts are taken from a diary of letters kept by an Australian woman who lived in Java, Kalimantan and Bali for nine years. In this letter, written in January 1978, the author describes her visit to a detention camp for women political prisoners Just after Christmas 1977. The prisoners have since been released.
The letter begins with a description of the long drive from Semarang west to Pelantungan where the camp was located up in the mountains. The visit was arranged by a Dutch pastor, 'Co'. Fenton-Huie was accompanied by the pastor's wife, Phia, and a Dutch nursing sister, Truus. After abandoning their car which could not travel the last stretch of the rough rocky road, the women had to walk the final kilometres to the camp, which also held 40 delinquent boys. The visitors shared a simple Indonesian meal in the house of one of the guards before entering 'a large barracks-type hall' to witness the camp's Christmas concert.
Read more
More than six decades after being inspired as an undergraduate in Sydney, Ron Witton retraces his Indonesian language teacher's journey back to Suriname