“The contemporary situation of women in Indonesian, a preliminary insight look”

Round Table 1: Women and Human security

Agenda:
- Gender politics and Political Culture
- Women at work and in public life
- The International influence on Condition of Women.
- Social Change and Women’s Role in Civil Society



“The contemporary situation of women in Indonesian, a preliminary insight look”

I. General framework
- Geographical and Population background
- Political and Economic Framework
- The Women’s movement

II. The situation of Indonesian women since independence 1945
- The political and social situation of Indonesian women during the Old and the New Order
- The very recent situation of Indonesian women

III. Concluding remark
- The internal and external factors that influence Indonesian women in rural and urban areas
- Women’s roles towards Indonesian civil society (strength and weak points, challenges and opportunities, constraints and hopes)


I. General framework

Geographical and Population background
Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia, between the Asian Continent in the North, and the Australian continent in the South, with its territory extending over 5000 kilometres from East to West and 1750 kilometres from North to South. It is situated along the equator, Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, stretching from 94 degrees – 45… to 141 degrees - 05 …East longitude in the West and the South bordered by the Indian Ocean and in the North by the South China Sea.
The Indonesian archipelago consists of 17.508 islands, of which some 6000 are inhabited. The major islands are Kalimantan with its Indonesian area of about 539.460 square kilometres; Sumatra, with 473.605 square kilometres; Irian Jaya, with 421.981sq.km; Sulawesi, with 189.216 sq.km; Java including Madura island, with a land area of about 132.187 sq.km. About half of Indonesia is forested and much of it is mountainous and volcanic.
Jakarta, on the island of Java is the capital city, with population of about 12 million people, out of the total population of about 215 million people. In fact the island of Java accommodates about 60% of the whole Indonesian population and the density is 814 per sq.km, while at the same time the population densities of the other islands are much lower, varying between 51 and 77 per sq.km. Of the total population, about 55% are women as they live longer than men, with a life expectancy of 64 years for women and 60 for males. The population is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi linguistic and multi-religious, with Islam as the largest upheld by the Indonesians. Although Indonesia has about 300 different ethnic languages, the Indonesian language as a national language (lingua franca) spoken across the country. The country acquired independence on 17 August 1945, after being colonialised by the Dutch back from the 16th century for about 350 years, and by the Japanese for about 3 years.


Political and Economic Framework

Since its independence, Indonesia has been a republic with a president as the head of government. The president and the vice president are elected five-yearly by the highest institution in Indonesia, the People’s Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat) The current president of Indonesia is the fourth since independence, and Abdurrahman Wahid as the president and Megawati, a daughter of first president, Sukarno as the vice president. The latter is also served as the general chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan). The members of the People’s Consultative Assembly consist of members of parliament, provincial appointees and other appointees from different institutions. At present there are 48 political existing parties represented by seven fractions in the parliament.
The current President is assisted by 2 coordinator ministers, 16 Ministers in the Cabinet, heading various Departments, 5 non-departmental state ministers, and 3 depoty ministers. The Present Cabinet is named the Cabinet of National Unity (Kabinet Persatuan Nasional), in which two ministers are women, namely the State Minister for the Empowerment of Women and the chief of (Menteri Negara Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Kepala BKKBN) and the Minister of Settlement and Regional Infrastructure (Menteri Pemukiman dan Prasarana Wilayah). The power of the government to make laws is a join cooperation with Parliament apart from the various Ministers, the Executive is also assisted by the Supreme Advisory Council (Dewan Pertimbangan Agung) which is responsible for providing advises needed by the President. There is a Supreme Court (Mahkamah Agung) for the Republic of Indonesia to hear and determine any civil or criminal proceeding under any law other than a disciplinary law and such jurisdiction and powers as may be conferred upon it by the constitution or any other law.
The Republic of Indonesia is a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Apart from that, Indonesia is also a member of the United Nations and has one served as the head of the Non-aligned Movement (1992-1995).
In terms of economic sector, Indonesia today suffered from severe economic setbacks; balance of payments disquilibrium, soaring unemployment, rapid inflation, acute foreign exchange shortage due to global economic crisis especially Asian crisis, high and rising debt services, low savings and low investment. In an effort to solve some of the problems, since 1983 the government embarked on a stabilization and structural adjustment program which was subsequently accompanied by a revision of the tax structure, new policies to attract investment and transfer of technology (deregulation and debureaucratization). Before Asian crises Indonesia has enjoyed a satisfactory economic growth between 6-7% a year, unfortunately this growth decreased severely within the fall of the New Order regime until the rise of Reformation era. Abdurrahman Wahid, the current president seems to have various difficulties to heal the economic sector in particular, and many other problems in general. The economy of Indonesia is at present dominated by at least four main sectors: agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and service sectors. The agricultural sector is the principal factor which enabled Indonesia to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production in 1992. The manufacturing and tourism as the second and third largest sectors and the service sectors has only emerged in the last few years which encompasses an extensive range of sub-sectors, inclusive of transport and distribution, hotels and restaurants, management, consultancy, banking, insurance, accounting, computer, engineering, and architecture, government and other services.

The Women’s movement

By virtue of its ethnic and traditional societal patterns, Indonesian women have been subjected to male authority, but up to date women’s participation in society and national development has increased significantly from the 1970s especially in the employed labor force, however, employment of women is mostly found at traditionally stereotyped sectors such as agriculture and services. Moreover, most of the employment opportunities for women are concentrated in the low pay, low skill occupations and only a few women occupy high level occupations in the public as well as the private sector.
As far as wages are concerned, there is no wage discrimination applicable to manufacturing enterprises. The principle of equal pay for equal work applies fully in the public sector. Further, the government decided that women should be granted maternity leave for three months: one month before delivery and two months afterwards. Some programs of the State Minister for the Empowerment of Women and the Indonesian women NGOs activities as well as those who struggle for a better environment of the situation of Indonesian women, therefore their supports are highly respected.
As a matter of fact, little is known about the relationship between Islam and women in Indonesia. A number of books, articles about Islam and women have been written on other parts of Muslim world such as Middle East countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, and African countries, but very little focuses on Indonesia. This relationship has become an interesting topic among other women issues. Studies on the relationship of political Islam and the New Order and the new trend of Islamic thought of neo-modernism have proliferated, yet very little that addresses women. Since Indonesia is a country that has the biggest Muslim population in the world, half of whom are women, there is definitely a need for studies of Indonesian women in general and Indonesian Muslim women in particular

II. The situation of Indonesian women since independence 1945 until present

The political and social situation of Indonesian women during the Old Order and the New Order


The first President of Indonesia, Sukarno wrote a book entitled Sarinah, among others in which he praised women, however in practice people might seen otherwise. Almost similar to other regimes in developing countries, Indonesia’s Old Order and especially during the New Order was repressive towards mass movement including women’s organization in order to ensure national stability. The government policy in 1970’s on restructuring political life by simplifying political parties affected women’s movement. During 1974 Family Welfare Movement (Pendidikan Kesejahteraan Keluarga), was founded to control women in the local administration. The Government grants the Indonesian Women Congress (Kongres Wanita Indonesia), an umbrella organisation of all women’s organisations. This funding only resulted the strength of the control of the government over the latter. In the same year other government-sponsored organizations such as Dharma Wanita, was established to replace all women’s organisations within government departments and institutions. Dharma Pertiwi, was established to replace women’s organizations within the armed forces. Sullivan comments that these organizations just reinforce the patriarchal ideology of the New Order that has located women as secondary citizens. The dual role of women as it was stated and was reinforced by state guidelines (GBHN 1978): the duty to fulfil the ‘essential nature’ as a housewife and as an educator of the younger generation, these roles according to some women figures sound that the state policy manipulates the notion of the family to ensure the stability of the country at the expense of women.
Although the existing system is oppressive one should not merely locate women in the object position, women as subjects of historical change should be taken into account and fortunately Indonesian women are not merely passive victims of this repression. Women have struggled in various ways to eliminate this oppression and even the repression over women encouraged the emergence of new women’s movements in the 1980s. These movements include: liberal women’s movements, NGO women’s movements and women students’ associations.
Indonesian women individually and collectively have been struggling to improve their own position and to challenge the patriarchal domination. Some writings of devoted Muslim women indicate that these women have challenged the role prescribed by the official view and conventional understanding of Islam. Muslim women’s organisations have campaigned for consciousness raising and have assisted women to improve their condition, however it is really a need of social, political and economic situation which encourages women’s advancement. In Indonesia context, one of them is the emergence of Muslim intellectuals who has brought about more liberating discourses on women.
There is no particular change of the status of women during Habibie’s era, for not only he governed the country in several months but also because he was the successor of Suharto and has always been one of his ministers during his regime. Although the first lady is a well-educated women [she is a physician] however, she did not seem to do a lot for enhancement of women.

The very recent situation of Indonesian women

The changing approach of the New Order and the emergence of Muslim intellectuals with a more liberating understanding of Islamic teachings concerning women issues have given a hope and opportunities to women. Various programs such as gender analysis programs have been conducted in pesantrens (Islamic Traditional Boarding Schools), and many gender awareness training held by the State Minister of Empowerment of Women. At present the office of the State Minister of Empowerment of Women is combined with the National Council on Family Planning, and the Minister is the general chairperson of the central board of Muslimat Nahdlatul Ulama. Her appointment and commitment to women issues has been recognised, therefore we hope that such programs including the family planning do not only emphasise on women as the users of contraceptives but also men. On top of that, the first lady, Mrs. Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid received her MA in women studies from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. Although this phenomenon is circulating among few of Muslim intellectuals, certainly this will gradually decrease one of the potential hindrances that may obstruct the bright future of Indonesian Muslim women.

III. Concluding remark

- The internal and external factors that influence Indonesian women in rural and urban areas
- The internal factor that influence Indonesian women, both in rural and urban areas among other is the acceleration of development during the New Order affect women in both areas, positively and negatively.

- The external factor that influence women in urban as well as in rural areas is that the rapid change of telecommunication has dominated the growing interest of women to the outside world especially with the booming of the internet, email, tall free etc. This will accelerate women’s knowledge and interest to science and technology. In terms of negative impact, this would lead to consumerism.

- The strength points will include: the large amount of female population, the increasing number of well-educated people especially women not only in conventional areas such as social sciences but also in science and technology, the increasing number of female labour force and high skilled labour, the good political will of current government towards women.

- The weak points would be the very slow changing within the society in terms of development of human resources especially of women resources, too many low skilled female labour, psychological or cultural hindrances.

- The challenges or opportunities include highly competition in various aspects of life, the limited availability of funding for women’s activities through government offices and or NGO’s, the cultural and religious conventional understanding towards women’s issues.
- Islamic teachings on human rights (including women’s rights)
- The implementation of human rights in practice: the case of Indonesia
- The Role of Government and NGO on Indonesian politics
- How the international influence produces social changes and effects women’s role towards Indonesian civil society.


Round Table 1: Women and Human Security
Icanas, Montreal, August 31, 2000
Sri Mulyati, McGill University