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Interview with Ruth Indiah Rahayu and Nugroho Katjasungkana
In May 1997, amidst a tumultous election campaign in Indonesia which became a democratic protest movement with huge crowds taking to the streets in hundreds of thousands, I interviewed Ruth Indiah Rahayu and Nugroho Katjasungkana, of the women's rights group Kalyanamitra, established in 1984. The remarks of each complemented the other with no discernible areas of disagreement. Therefore, in translating and editing the text I have combined what they told me into a single commentary. I began by asking about the development of women's organisations, formal and informal, under Suharto's New Order regime.
In the transition from the Sukarno era to the Suharto era, the New Order crushed independent women's organisations. It imposed a `national consensus' between the government and various social and political organisations around the official ideology of the regime (Pancasila). In May 1966, a special congress of the Indonesian Women's Congress, Kowani, was called to endorse this consensus. The congress amplified it in regard to women by identifying three basic elements of their role: as a wife; as a mother who bears and raises children; and in another sense as ibu bangsa, mother of the nation. The key objective was to assist national development through families that were `healthy, happy and prosperous.'
Three national organisations implement this programme. Dharma Wanita is an organisation for wives of civil servants, while Dharma Pertiwi is an organisation for military wives. The latter drew together separate groups which originally existed for the army, navy and air force. Third, there is the PKK or Building Family Prosperity organisation (Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga) which had existed earlier, and which extended into the neighbourhoods and the villages. In each of these, members' roles are linked to their husband's position. The chairwoman of Dharma Pertiwi is the wife of the military's Commander in Chief, and the lower ranks follow the same pattern. Moreover, it is all linked up: the PKK centre in Jakarta is run by the wife of the Interior Minister, while in the village the local PKK is chaired by the wife of the village head. During elections, the members are mobilised to support the ruling political party, Golkar, and get their children to do the same.
The basic political approach...