Desperately seeking Susis, Srikandis or state ‘ibu’ Julia Suryakusuma  ;  The author of State Ibuism

JAKARTA POST, 12 November 2014

                                                

                                                                                                                       

Who’s your fave wayang (puppet) character? For feminists, it would surely be Srikandi — the Xena Warrior Princess of the Hindu Mahabharata epic. Or if you want a more contemporary reference, Srikandi would be the Katniss Everdeen of the wayang. Like the heroine of The Hunger Games, Srikandi is renowned for her skills in archery, but unlike Katniss, who was forced to participate in the games, Srikandi loved going to war. More than that, she bravely challenged wrongdoing and patriotically defended her nation — and she was her own woman, independent and fearless. In everyday parlance, if you say a woman is a “Srikandi”, you’re calling her a superwoman or a heroine, someone who uses her talents or strength to serve others, whether it be her family, community or nation. When President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced his Cabinet recently, the media hailed the presence of eight “Srikandis” among his 34-minister Cabinet. This was record (23.5 percent), twice that managed by his predecessor, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The Cabinet was praised because it has the biggest number of female ministers Indonesia has ever had, and it is high even by Western standards. In the US there are four women out of 22 Cabinet ministers (18.1 percent), in the UK five out of 17 (29.4 percent), in Germany five out of 18 (27.7 percent). Unfortunately Australia lags far behind, with just one out of 18 (5.5 percent). There are also several firsts among the women appointed: Retno L. Marsudi, 51, is the first female foreign minister, Yohana Susana Yembise, 56, is the first female Papuan minister (for women’s empowerment and child protection), and Puan Maharani, 41, is the first and youngest female coordinating minister (for human development and culture). Two other firsts are Siti Nurbaya Bakar, 49, the environment and forestry minister, and Susi Pudjiastuti, 49, the maritime affairs and fisheries minister. Siti is a NasDem Party politician and former civil servant. Her environment credentials have been questioned from the start. Critics say she has never had any field experience, being mainly an academic and a bureaucrat. In stark contrast is Susi, the odd-one-out among her female Cabinet colleagues. She didn’t even finish high school and yet over 33 years she has built a business empire in fisheries and aviation. Talk about hands-on experience in the field! Two of the ministers are second-timers, and one a former “almost” minister. Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawangsa and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini M. Soemarno, 56, have both held positions in previous Cabinets. Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek, 65, was almost appointed to Yudhoyono’s second cabinet (2009-2014) but lost out to Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih, who died of cancer in 2012. All eight women have garnered a lot of attention, but no-one has been criticized as much as Susi: for her smoking habit, for sporting tattoos and for the fact that she has been married three times — twice to foreign men. Some posts on the Internet even questioned her nationalism. Hello? Marty Natalegawa’s wife is Thai; how come no one ever questioned his nationalism? So why is Susi being bullied? Sour grapes is one explanation, but I reckon it’s also because she doesn’t conform to the tired old patriarchal cliché of a “good woman”. In the New Order, women were defined by the ideology I call “state ibuism”, where they existed for the family, the community, the nation and the state. These state ibu were epitomized by the members of Dharma Wanita, the civil servants’ wives’ association, who derived their power from their husbands and the male bureaucracy. Whatever they did was not really for their families or communities. Rather it served the power interests of the militaristic, feudal and corrupt New Order state — and was often to the detriment of the women themselves. Can any of our eight ministers truly be called Srikandis? Very few are truly independent, and therefore fall somewhere along a continuum with Srikandi at one extreme, and state ibuism at the other. Puan and Rini are like state ibu because they wouldn’t have their jobs if not for their proximity to power (the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P] and its chair, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Puan’s Mom). Siti and Nila are poised somewhere in the middle, oscillating between state ibuism and Srikandiism. Being from Papua, Yohana isn’t imbued with Javanese feudal values, so she might be closer to the Srikandi side. Retno is steeped in the state bureaucracy of the Foreign Ministry, and has the coolness and poker face that befits a true diplomat. She also has smarts. If she has integrity, she might just earn her Srikandi wings. Khofifah is a long-term player in the political arena. She has many progressive ideas, but precisely for this reason people try to trip her up. Let’s hope she gets a better chance this time to let her inner Srikandi out. Susi is clearly the most unique, eccentric and by far the most independent. By virtue of her support for the PDI-P she is close to them, but is not beholden to them — like Jokowi is. She’s a hard worker, enterprising and gutsy and seems to be just the kind of gal that Jokowi needs. Could she also act as Jokowi’s alter ego? Remember the 1985 Madonna film, Desperately Seeking Susan? To make his “Working Cabinet” work, Jokowi probably wanted to put out personal ads like in the movie, desperately seeking people like Susi who don’t necessarily need to have academic qualifications, or political affiliations (read: backing), but who can really get the job done. But wherever they stand, let’s give all these eight women a chance and evaluate their performance after the first 100 days in office. The truth is, while it’s a positive gesture, doubling the number of women in the Cabinet doesn’t necessarily translate into far-reaching female empowerment, or more effective government policies. It’s not enough to have women in positions of power if deeper structural, political, institutional and cultural barriers remain entrenched in society: let the revolution begin! In the meantime, maybe the presence of the eight female ministers will inspire one of our talented film-makers to do a film called “Desperately Seeking Srikandi”. Let’s hope it will be as entertaining as Susan Seidelman’s screwball comedy! ●