Friday 25 January 2013

Weakened Women in Today’s Indonesia

Jakarta Post, Thursday January 17, 2013

Weakened Women in Today’s Indonesia

BY ROSITA TANDOS


Albany, New York
H
istorically, women played an important role in our nation’s fight for independence. Today, women continue to be heavily involved in the development of our country. At home, women play a special role in the lives of their children as they are their first source of knowledge.
Despite all of the special skills women have, they have often become the target of jokes and cynicism in social life, public policy and in careers. Ironically, provocative, gender-bias statements have often come from respected representatives of the people. They disrespect women and unconsciously laugh at their failures to protect themselves, a set-back in the fight for equality.
The uproar stemming from a Supreme Court justice candidate who said that he would not consider handing down a death sentence to a rapist because rape might be consensual, is just another example of the weakness of women in the social structure.
Violence against women is shown in the media almost every day. Individual, cultural, institutional and/or structural oppression continues to push inequality and injustice for women.
Indonesian women are surrounded by at least three aspects that have become major sources of their daily problem. First, patriarchal ideology influences everyday life. The traditional and patriarchal family places women lower than their male counterparts, such as when it comes to accessing higher education, decent jobs and exercising their political right. Staying at home without making any significant financial contribution often prompts poor parents to arrange early marriages for their daughter.
Second, poverty is another common issue of developing countries. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that about 30 million Indonesians still live in poverty. Using the United Nations standard of poverty (US$2 per person-per day), the poverty-stricken population will reach 130 million. The sex ratio is 101 male and 100 female and 70 percent of the poor are women.
Inaccessible education and training skills have forced women to enter informal, low paying, even “dirty” jobs. Therefore, it cannot be denied that resource quality improvement for women remains unfinished, especially for government officials.
Third, globalization policies have transformed women into a commodity, intertwined, with family and state roles. Feminization of domestic work and the global labor market channels their “specialty” or skills to serve families and countries by working as overseas domestic workers. In return, they are considered heroines for contributing financially to both parties.
Transnational domestic work business involves many actors and billions of dollars. But, female migrant workers are still at risk and vulnerable to abuse and human rights violations. If the authorities are willing to address the problem, they should guarantee the protection of a woman’s right to health and safety in workplaces. In addition, the government should raise their status from unskilled to skilled workers to be protect them under international labor laws. Training to improve their skills and help them adjust to a new life should be mandatory prior to their departure.
The question then is: How can we solve these complicated conditions experienced by women and other marginalized groups? Lots of programs and policies have been implemented to improve human capacity. However, violations keep occurring due to lack of control, commitment and cooperation among stakeholders.
As Indonesian culture values are tightly bound by kinship, family should be considered a fundamental partner in finding solutions. To achieve this, we need programs to help strengthen families, to help them increase their incomes and heighten awareness among parents so that their children can have a better future. Of course, the voices family members should be heard and accommodated during the process of state intervention.
Communities have their own leaders who guide their members’ social, religious, economic and politic lives. Additionally, community and religious leaders should improve their values, fight for social justice and have equality for all groups. They are supposed to serve as spokesmen for the people’s needs, interest and concern, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, class, religion, and organizational affiliation. If this is done, a sense of community and resilience will develop and work effectively in response to any problems that arise in their daily lives.
Finally, the government, NGOs and the private sector should work together to support efforts to improve people’s lives. Engaging families, the youth and communities as partners will improve the effectiveness of public programs and services.
Creating one-stop services or integrative service for assistance can be realized through inter-professional leadership, collaboration and partnership. Applying this approach will help public services, avoid overlapping programs and simultaneously improve the efficiency of public programs and policies.


The writer is a PhD candidate at the school
of social welfare State University of New York in Albany, US
and
a lecturer at Syekh Nurjati State Islamic Institute (IAIN) in Cirebon
West Java.


Thursday 24 January 2013

Jangan Permainkan Tuhan


SELASA, 3 JULI 2012

SISI LAIN ISTANA

Presiden: Jangan Permainkan Tuhan

Jumat (22/06) pagi, udara Rio de Jeneiro Brazil, berasa sejuk setelah hujan berhenti. Di sebuah hotel di tepi pantai, Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono menggelar jumpa pers tentang hasil gemilang diplomasinya di Konferensi Tingkat Tinggi G-20 di Los Cabos, Mexico, dan KTT pembangunan berkelanjutan yang dikenal dengan sebutan KTT Rio+20 di Brazil.
SBY juga menjelaskan hasil pembicaraan bilateral dengan para pemimpin Negara lain seperti Perdana Menteri Inggris David Cameron, PM Rusia Vladimir Putin, Sekjen PBB Ban Ki-moon, PM Jepang Yoshihiko Noda, dan PM Norwegia Jens Stoltenberg. Dalam pertemuan itu, SBY banyak dipuji atas keberhasilannya menghindarkan Indonesia dari krisis keuangan dunia.
Seusai memberi penjelasan, SBY membuka kesempatan kepada wartawan untuk bertanya. Penanya kedua adalah Soegeng Sarjadi, tokoh lembaga swadaya masyarakat dari Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate. Ia melukiskan pemberitaan pers di dalam negeri seperti neraca yang terdiri dari kolom aktiva dan pasiva.
Menurut Soegeng, pemberitaan tentang SBY saat ini masih banyak masuk dalam kolom pasiva alias negatif, sedangkan di kolom aktiva masih kurang. Padahal, dari pengalamannya mengikuti terbang selama 90 jam lebih bersama SBY, banyak hal yang harus diberitakan dalam kolom aktiva, alias banyak yang membanggakan. Setelah pulang ke Indonesia, ia berjanji akan menulis tentang SBY lebih positif sehingga neraca lebih seimbang.
SBY mengatakan, pemberitaan perlu seimbang antara kritik terhadap kekurangan kerja pemerintah dan hasil-hasil sukses kerja pemerintah. Bukan dosa, kata SBY, bila pers mengemukakan hasil-hasil baik dari kerja Pemerintah Indonesia saat ini. Menurut SBY, perlu pemberitaan yang membangun optimism bagi bangsa ini. “saya pernah membahas soal hal ini dengan Pak Jakob Oetama,” ujarnya.
Menurut SBY, semua presiden di Indonesia sejak Bung Karno sampai saat ini ingin berbuat baik untuk rakyatnya. “Bila ada kekurangan-kekurangan yang ada, saya kira itu manusiawi,” ujarnya.
Kemudian, SBY juga menyinggung soal berita di Indonesia yang mengatakan Indonesia menuju negara gagal. “selama di Los Cabos atau di Rio de Janeiro, apakah kita mendengar dari para pemimpin negara-negara lain yang mengatakan kepada Indonesia, hai kamu ini negara gagal, pulang saja, urusin negaramu itu. Apa ada suara seperti itu?” kata SBY. Tentu suara itu tidak ada. Yang terdengar memang pujian. Banyak pemimpin Negara menyatakan ingin belajar dari SBY cara memimpin Negara yang terdiri dari 17.000 pulau dengan ribuan suku, agama, kelompok, dan sebagainya. Mereka ingin tahu mengapa saat ini keamanan bisa tetap terjaga.
“Jangan hanya karena satu atau dua titik, lalu disimpulkan Negara kita gagal. Saya pikir ini berlebihan. Kalau berlebihan, itu mempermainkan kebenaran, itu mempermainkan Tuhan. Begitulah dan terima kasih Pak Soegeng,” demikian kata SBY di Rio sebelum terbang ke Ekuador untuk bertemu Presiden dan Rafael Correa Delgado yang banyak memuji SBY.

(J OSDAR)