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Commentary: Meaningful push for change amid Kartini celebrations
Jakarta Post - April 21, 2014
Regardless of the allegations that maintain Kartini was murdered, due to her letters criticizing the Dutch colonial government and Javanese feudal society, her reported symptoms of eclampsia are similar to the hypertension and seizures experienced by many women today, from teenagers to women over 40.
It is the high incidence of maternal mortality that has driven women's rights groups and health advocates to push for an amendment to the 1974 Marriage Law, to raise the minimum age of marriage for women to 19 instead of 16. Thus, this judicial review request is one of the meaningful attempts to end the widespread suffering and deaths during all commemorations of Kartini Day, which falls on April 21, Kartini's birthday.
Back in the 1970s, the minimum age of 19 for girls was a compromise to reflect reality, as girls who had barely reached puberty were being married off, particularly in impoverished communities. The rate of child marriages and pregnancies remains high in a number of areas; health experts partially blame this on mothers who are themselves very young, but it is also a fact that it is legal for very young women to marry under the Marriage Law.
The urgent need to change the law in an effort to save women's lives is also why women's groups have successfully pushed for policies that result in more women decision makers, though this is only in the form of a 30 percent quota for legislative candidates.
We laugh at the display of apparently brainless starlets snapped up by political parties to meet the quota. But considering that in the 110 years since Kartini's death we are still witnessing an increase in the maternal mortality rate, at 359 deaths for every 100,000 live births compared to 228 in 2007, there is surely something very wrong, as we are now a member of the G20 group of large economies.
Even just outside Jakarta, many women still die from pregnancy or childbirth in Banten province, now notorious for its corrupt female governor and her dynasty, amid its low health budget, which has resulted in a scarcity of services for pregnant women.
Researchers blame the lack of female policymakers as one factor behind the lack of access to prenatal and postnatal care, and also this country's patriarchal structure, according to which women still depend on elders and their husbands to decide when to seek medical help – even when death is near at hand.
Even if the future legislature has more women, this is no guarantee of an introduction of national policies that will be sensitive to the specific needs of women, who account for 49 percent of the population. Therefore, women's groups have pledged to closely monitor the lawmakers, especially women.
They are also pushing for another way to realize the emancipatory aspirations of Kartini and other such heroines. This is through the introduction of a gender equality law, which would ban discriminatory policies like those seen in dozens of bylaws nationwide. Without such an umbrella law, efforts to annul these bylaws will continue to be fruitless.
A bylaw in Tangerang municipality, for instance, has attracted widespread protest as it allows law enforcers to arrest women suspected of soliciting for sex late at night. One woman was arrested while waiting for a bus to take her home from work. Despite a legal challenge, the bylaw was upheld, while the court in question said it had followed all procedures including consulting social groups – mainly Islamists.
Several copycat bylaws emerged as the state's message was clear: That it was legal for localities to introduce bylaws based on their needs for "public order", religious and moral values and customs, according to interpretations by local elites.
If we remain satisfied with present-day Kartini Day celebrations, which are purely superficial and only highlight "successful" women without pushing for real change, this is what, according to recent reports, we will get: Policies that are touted to overcome specific problems but which, in fact, only create more.
Furthermore, under the Helsinki Peace Agreement reached with former rebels, Aceh province is authorized to apply sharia law. Authorities there recently decreed that sharia should be applied even to non-Muslims, typically targeting young women's behavior and their choice of clothing.
In Gorontalo province in northern Sulawesi, female assistants to local government officials were replaced by males to prevent extramarital affairs. Now, in order to prevent adulterous liaisons during long lunch breaks, all civil servants in the province must attend religious lectures at the mosque after Friday prayers.
Some policies are quite frankly ridiculous and, if they were not so serious, farcical – but they sadly point to the impact of having too few women decision makers at the national and local levels, and even fewer who can prevent policies that may unwittingly hurt other women.
These pushes for change by women's groups come up against the constant obstacles of patriarchy and political compromise. For instance, political compromises by a government not wanting trouble and declining support from the regions, and Islamic groups, partially explains the formulation and application of sharia law in Aceh and the country's many discriminatory bylaws. This means the government virtually sacrifices its womenfolk, despite all the claims about progress by pointing to statistics such as the presence of more women in the labor force.
Based on experience, women cannot afford to assume that the winners of the legislative and presidential elections are wonderful and wise. They must improve democracy for themselves and their children, through the removal of values and customs that perpetuate discrimination.
Happy Kartini Day!
[The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.]
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