Emmy Hafild di antara Feminisme & Aktivisme Lingkungan Hidup Julia Suryakusuma ;  Penulis, Aktivis Gender, dan Akademisi Indonesia

TIRTO.ID, 13 Agustus 2021

 

 

                                                           

Saya mengenal Emmy Hafild sejak awal 1990-an di berbagai pertemuan aktivis LSM. Sejak pertama kali bertemu, saya sangat terkesan dan kagum kepada Emmy, terutama oleh kepintaran, kepandaian berbicara, ketegasan, dan keberaniannya.   Pertemanan saya selama 30 tahun dengan Emmy memang terputus-putus, tapi ada dua momen yang signifikan. Yang pertama adalah di Tiongkok, ketika di tahun 1995 kami melakukan perjalanan ke Beijing menghadiri Konferensi ke-4 PBB untuk Perempuan. Kami disponsori lembaga dana yang berbeda, namun entah bagaimana, saya diajak Emmy masuk grupnya yang terdiri dari orang-orang Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (Walhi) dan Solidaritas Perempuan (SP).   Awalnya kami di Beijing, di konferensi utama, yang sekuritinya luar biasa ketat. Waktu itu kami berusaha masuk ke salah satu acara utama, tapi dilarang. Menurut petugas, kami harus memiliki kartu pas tertentu yang hanya diberikan kepada LSM pemerintah atau yang kami sebut GoNGO (government NGO). Organising committee meduga aktivis LSM berencana bikin demonstrasi dengan cara bertelanjang. Konon mereka sudah mempersiapkan burung dara dan selimut.   Ketika perempuan aktivis itu melepas busananya, petugas sekuriti melepaskan burung dara supaya semua orang melihat ke atas, kemudian mereka cepat-cepat menutupi badan telanjang para aktivis itu dengan selimut. Namun ada satu acara ketika semua perempuan diundang, yaitu pidato Hillary Clinton. Pada saat itu ia mencanangkan pernyataan yang kini menjadi slogan terkenal: “women’s rights are human rights, human rights are women’s rights”. Ia juga mengemukakan penyesalannya mengapa aktivis LSM dikucilkan di Huairou.   Ya memang, aktivis LSM “dikandangin” di Huairou, yang terletak sekitar satu jam dari Beijing. Meski demikian, rombongan kami sempat menggelar demonstrasi di sela-sela konferensi Beijing. Tapi akhirnya, kami digiring ke Huairou. Salah satu keuntungan berada di sana adalah tempat itu dekat dengan Tembok Besar Tiongkok.   Kami pun memanfaatkan kesempatan ini untuk menjadi turis: memasuki Tembok Besar, menjelajahi perdesaan Tiongkok, makan di rumah penduduk, dan mengunjungi resor alam. Di sana kami menemukan sungai indah dengan air yang sangat jernih. Tiba-tiba, Tati Krishnawaty dari SP membuka bajunya dan nyemplung ke dalam kolam. Kami awalnya melongo melihatnya, tapi akhirnya kami pun melakukan hal yang sama dan bermain-main air dengan riang gembira. Ternyata benar prediksi sekuriti konferensi—tapi ini terjadi di Huairou dan hanya untuk bersenang-senang, bukan untuk memprotes.   Di Huairou, Emmy membuat pameran tenun ikat Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) lengkap dengan para penenunnya. Emmy sangat bergairah soal tenun NTT yang masih menggunakan pewarna alam dan upacara adat yang bersifat memelihara bumi. Semangat Emmy bersumber dari kesadaran bahwa patriarki dan kapitalisme membuat ibu-ibu penenun itu tersungkur. Jadi, harus dilawan. Jelas sekali hubungan lingkungan hidup dengan feminisme buat Emmy.   Politik dan Lingkungan Hidup   Momen kedua interaksi intens saya dengan Emmy adalah di awal Reformasi. Saat itu partai politik hampir mencapai 180. Ini rupanya reaksi atas 32 tahun pengekangan kegiatan politik di era Orba yang membatasi parpol hanya dua (PPP dan PDI) plus satu Golongan Karya. Saya merasa, inilah saatnya gerakan perempuan dimunculkan ke dalam politik mainstream jika suara perempuan dan perspektif feminis ingin didengar.   Terinspirasi Emily’s List di AS, lembaga yang mendukung kandidat perempuan progresif, saya memutuskan untuk membuatnya. Saya menyampaikan niat saya ke teman-teman aktivis di berbagai LSM. Akhirnya upaya saya—yang dikerjakan oleh tim yang saya bentuk—didukung Konsorsium 13 LSM: Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI); Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (eLSAM); International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID); Kalyanamitra; Komite Independen Pemantau Pemilu (KIPP); Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan (LBH-APIK); Lembaga Lembaga Penelitian, Pendidikan dan Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial (LP3ES); Perhimpunan Pengembangan Pesantren dan Masyarakat (P3M); Solidaritas untuk Timor Leste (Solidamor); Solidaritas Perempuan (SP); Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (Walhi); Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI); dan Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia (YLKI).   Dari semua LSM itu, yang membantu dengan pendanaan hanya Walhi. Lembaga inilah yang memberikan kami sejumlah dana kecil (seed money) sebelum kami mendapat dana yang lebih besar dari Kedutaan Belanda dan UNDP. Akhirnya, buku Almanak Parpol Indonesia (API) terbit sebelum Pemilu Umum Legislatif digelar pada 7 Juni 1999. Buku setebal 730 halaman ini berisi profil 141 parpol, 10 esai oleh pakar dalam dan luar negeri, dan kronologi peristiwa politik. Saya merasa awal era Reformasi adalah momen untuk menandaskan pentingnya pendidikan politik di Indonesia, menciptakan sistem politik yang terbuka, dan memberi pengetahuan cukup kepada masyarakat untuk mengontrol pemerintah.   Visi saya nyambung dengan Emmy sebagai Ketua Walhi saat itu yang merasa sudah saatnya ada konvergensi antara aktivisme dan politik elektoral. Meski awalnya terlihat aneh bahwa LSM lingkungan hidup terlibat politik elektoral, sebenarnya ini logis sekali. Bagaimanapun, keputusan-keputusan mengenai lingkungan hidup pada akhirnya dibuat pada tingkat politik.   Saya menulis esai ini dengan kesulitan karena sedih luar biasa kehilangan Emmy. Ia bukan hanya teman baik, tapi juga sosok yang begitu dibutuhkan saat krisis lingkungan hidup sudah teramat buruk. Pada Senin (9/8/2021), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) menerbitkan laporan 234 ilmuwan yang kesimpulannya: lingkungan hidup sudah mencapai “code red for humanity”. Perubahan iklim ini meluas di semua benua, secara cepat, dan mungkin tidak dapat dibalikkan selama ribuan tahun.   Pada 1999, Emmy mendapat gelar salah satu Heroes of The Planet dari majalah Time. Tapi Emmy sebenarnya juga seorang feminis, pahlawan HAM, serta penggiat anti-korupsi dan good governance. Sebagai teman, dia sangat hangat, supportive, kritis, tapi tidak pernah menyimpan dendam pribadi. Dia, bagi saya, adalah penjelmaan semangat demokrasi. ●   Sumber :  https://tirto.id/emmy-hafild-di-antara-feminisme-aktivisme-lingkungan-hidup-giCC

 

Paris City of Light, City of Darkness (for now) Julia Suryakusuma  ;  The author of Julia’s Jihad

                                               JAKARTA POST, 18 November 2015

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

The first time I visited Paris I was 20, six months pregnant with my son Aditya. I went by car, with my brother, sister and Frans, a friend who was driving. On the highway, we got chased by a police car. We drove into a gas station and I got out. The police caught up with us and asked Frans, “Do you know that you were going over the speed limit?” “Yes,” Frans answered calmly, “there’s a pregnant woman on board and she needed to go to the toilet urgently,” pointing to me and my big belly as I rushed to relieve myself. The police could say nothing. They just nodded their heads and walked away. Obviously they had also had pregnant wives and knew that expecting women often needed to go to the toilet urgently due to the pressure on the bladder from their expanding womb. Since that time, I have returned to Paris alone several times — to visit friends, watch movies (Paris is one of the great film capitals in the world), walk along the Seine, visit Le Louvre, Montmartre, Centre Pompidou and other iconic Paris tourist attractions, and to just generally enjoy the beauty and charm of Paris and the joie de vivre of the Parisiennes. I usually stayed with friends who lived just across from the Notre Dame, so I woke up every morning to the clanging of cathedral bells. Except for the time when my wallet was stolen while riding the Metro, I felt safe in Paris. But at this moment, tragically, safe is not a word that I — or others — associate with Paris. The beautiful memories of the city in my youth have been brutally ripped away and La Ville Lumiere (the City of Light), is now shrouded in darkness and sorrow after the brutal attack by IS terrorists which claimed the lives of 129 people, critically wounded 99, and injured 352. It was the deadliest attack on France since World War II. No wonder, in his emotional address right after the attack, President Hollande stated “This is an act of war prepared from outside of France, […] against a free country, which speaks to the whole planet…. France will be ruthless against the barbarians of Daech [the French word for DAISH-IS]” Hollande wasted no time to prove his words. In less than 24 hours after making his statement, in retaliation for the Paris terror attacks on that fateful Friday the 13th, 10 fighter planes had dropped 20 bombs on IS training camps in Raqqa. I was horrified by the attacks on Paris, but while I understood the instant reaction of Hollande, I was also very worried by the potential repercussions of his immediate response. As we well know, violence begets violence. As president of France, I realize he is expected to demonstrate “strong” leadership at a time of great crisis, and to act according to how the electorate expects him to act. Unfortunately, this is not just about France. It’s about the world and about who will be affected by the actions that Western states like France and the US will take. It’s about the future of the world that my grandson — yes, the offspring of the baby I was carrying in my womb 40 years ago — will live in. I devoured everything that was written about the Paris attacks, especially analytical pieces that took a historical, reflective and considered perspective, to get a deeper understanding of the situation. Many discussed the unfolding backlash — not just from Islamist terrorists, but also from populist right wing parties, against refugees and immigrants in Europe, notably those from North African origin or those that embrace the Islamic faith. Angela Merkel is known for her open-door policy on refugees. After the Paris attack, she was heavily criticized and urged to reverse her stance and turn people away. She stood her ground, saying those fleeing war zones shouldn’t have to bear the blame for the terrorist attacks in Paris. Yes! You rock Angie! Just prior to the Paris attack, a Shia neighborhood in Southern Beirut was hit, resulting in more than 40 dead and dozens of seriously wounded. There were also deadly attacks in Ankara, Afghanistan, Pakistan and many other locations where Muslims died. But the (predominantly Western) media hardly made mention of those events, unlike their reportage of the Paris attack. Yesterday’s issue of The Jakarta Post published an article by Anis H. Bajrektarevic, chairman and professor in international law and global political studies, Vienna, entitled “No more war on terror, please, Europe needs de-Nazification”. He was of course, referring to right-wing fascist and neo-nazi groups. “Fascism and its evil twin, Nazism are 100 percent European ideologies. Neo-Nazism also originates from and lately unchecked blossoms, primarily in Europe”. Bajrektarevic also points out that terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology; “How can one conduct and win war on tactics?” Harleen Gambhir wrote about “The Islamic State’s Trap for Europe” (Washington Post, Nov. 15), about how Western states are playing into IS’ hands, and how protracted sectarian warfare in the Middle East is a clear and present danger to European and US safety and security at home. So, OK, bomb Syria. It’s like trying to kill one mosquito while a gazillion others are buzzing around and being born in ever increasing numbers. I am really looking forward to the time when I can go visit Paris with my grandson Amartya and tell him, “Amar, this is the great nation where the notion of Liberté, égalité, fraternité originated and inspired so many other nations”. I hope that France will inspire yet again. ●

Censorship in Ubud: Raising the red peril and the ‘Streisand effect’

Censorship in Ubud: Raising the red peril and the ‘Streisand effect’ Julia Suryakusuma  ;  The author of Julia’s Jihad

                                               JAKARTA POST, 04 November 2015

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

Who doesn’t know Barbra Streisand, the super talented singer, songwriter, actress, filmmaker and icon, one of the best-selling artists of all time, known for her songs like Hello Dolly, Send in the Clowns, The Way We Were and many others. But did you know she also gave rise to the term “the Streisand effect”? In 2003 Streisand attempted to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, which inadvertently drew further public attention to it. Since then, “the Streisand effect” refers to the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide something, remove or censor it, has the unintended effect of publicizing the phenomenon even more. In these days of the internet, something can easily go viral within a very short time. Even before it was named “the Streisand effect”, the phenomenon often occurred in Indonesia, especially during the New Order (1966-1998) when the censor-happy government routinely suppressed information and quashed dissent. Recently the Streisand effect reappeared in Bali, at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF), with the forced cancellation of sessions related to events that occurred in 1965. Known as the G30S Movement, it was triggered by the kidnapping of seven Army officers by a unit of the presidential guard on the night of Sept. 30, 1965, an event that the military blamed on the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). This incident led to one of the biggest massacres since the Holocaust, resulting in the deaths of between 500,000 to 1 million people. This year marks 50 years since 1965. At the recent Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) held between Oct. 14-18, where Indonesia was guest of honor, 1965 was a prominent theme. In some ways, this year’s 12th UWRF was an echo of the Frankfurt fair. As an act of solidarity with Indonesia’s theme in Frankfurt, the Ubud organizers adopted the same “17,000 islands of imagination” theme. They also featured sessions on 1965: three panel discussions, a book launch, an art exhibition and a screening of Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary film The Look of Silence. As the biggest literary festival in Southeast Asia, the UWRF had no difficulty bringing in more than 165 authors, artists and performers from some 30 countries this year. Even after the New Order officially ended in 1998, there are still elements of the power elite who are unhappy with the way some Indonesians have commemorated the killings of 50 years ago last October. A critical flaw of the Reform Movement in 1998 was that it retained many figures of the New Order, who are still alive and in power to today. The New Order’s state version of the events of 1965 provided the rationale for their rule, and was the basis for their security and law-and-order approach. Obviously a re-examination and questioning of these events — even today — threaten the status quo and the still deeply entrenched belief within the general public of the New Order version of 1965. If the FBF was out of reach — and out of the jurisdiction of the Gianyar Police — Ubud, a well-known center for art and tourism in the regency of Gianyar, was not. They pressured the organizing committee to cancel events in the UWRF related to 1965. There was no letter issued by the police instructing the festival organizers to cancel these events, therefore it’s not surprising that the organizers were criticized for capitulating too quickly. With the festival just about to kick off and under the threat of not being given a permit for the following year’s festival, the organizers took the path of least resistance: they gave in to police pressure. Witnessing the police slowly but surely dismantling the power of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in the past few years, what chance does a literary festival have? Perhaps this was what the Ubud organizers thought, forgetting that they have access to lawyers who could possibly have sorted things out, as the police had no legal injunction anyway. It’s difficult to judge: it’s simply a moral and political decision that the UWRF organizers had to make on the spot, as they felt too much was at stake. Where does the Streisand effect come in? Not from “bringing in the clowns” (the police), or “the way we were” (how the remaining New Order people want to be). I would say there are two ways the Streisand effect works. One is that by raising the red peril and the specter of communism, it brings the issue to the fore, exposing it more to public scrutiny. But what is even more important, is the issue of censorship. Besides the sessions on 1965, the police also demanded that a session protesting land reclamation in Benoa Bay be cancelled. Clearly, what the authorities really want to do is to suppress public dissent in general. After 17 years of the Reform Era, and a year of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s people politics in which they have slowly but steadily lost control, the remaining elements of the New Order as well as the power elite in general, are fighting tooth and nail to maintain their power and resorting to raising the specter of the red peril . Freedom of expression is one of the bastions of democracy. The increasingly sharpened polarization between the pro-democracy forces and the anti-democracy forces in Indonesia today is being played out in many arenas. The URWF was just one such arena. It should raise our awareness of the peril of New Order style censorship and the clamping down of freedom of expression in Indonesia, which we’ve fought so hard for. ●

Tribunal : How (not) to get away with bloody murder Julia Suryakusuma ;   The author of Julia’s Jihad

                                               JAKARTA POST, 30 September 2015

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

Viola Davis just made history by getting away with murder. Well no, she didn’t actually. She made history by being the first black woman to win an Emmy for her role as the professor and defense attorney in ABC drama series How to Get Away with Murder. But some people really do make history by getting away with murder. They don’t get Emmys, they get something more formidable: impunity. If getting an Emmy even once in a lifetime already counts as a worthy achievement, the impunity of these people is for a lifetime. Furthermore, this impunity allows them power, positions and possibilities for further abuse and atrocities. It also results in the perpetuation of a culture of political violence and denial. Today, on Sept. 30th, Indonesia will be remembering 50 years of silence and injustice — the “commemoration” of what is known as the September 30 Movement (G30S) — if one can call massacre a movement. The ensuing bloodbath in 1965 and 1966 targeted members of the now defunct Indonesia Communist Party (PKI), families, sympathizers, trade unionists, teachers, civil society activists and leftist artists, ethnic Chinese, sympathizers as well as innocent bystanders. The perpetrators were led by the military, but the massacre was conducted by religious-based and civil society organizations. The killings — considered the worst genocide since the Nazi holocaust — claimed from 500,000 to 2 million lives, depending on whose statistics you believe. Since Joshua Oppenheimer’s diptych The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014), which he claims to be his “love letter to Indonesia”, the tragedy of 1965-66 has again been brought to international attention. The 50th commemoration of Indonesia’s tragedy coincides with the 100th commemoration of the Armenian genocide (1915), which also has not yet been fully resolved. The genocides in both Indonesia and Armenia have been recognized by other states, but not by the perpetrators. In the case of Armenia it was the Ottoman Turks who killed an estimated 1.5 million people and confiscated or destroyed their property. In our case, the perpetrators are our compatriots, backed by the government. Will we suffer the same fate as the Armenians when we reach 2065, the 100th “anniversary” of 1965? In 2012, no less than the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), produced a very detailed report on the massacre, following four years of investigations. They concluded that the communist purge amounted to a gross violation of human rights, and was a crime against humanity. The government however rejected the findings and up to now has refused to issue an apology. This is despite the fact that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo mentioned the need for a national reconciliation to resolve past human rights abuses in his inaugural state-of-the-nation address last August. During the 2014 election campaign, even Jokowi was accused of being a communist. That’s pretty close to home, isn’t it, Mr. President? People like Kivlan Zen, a retired military general, said that an apology by the government would give a green light to the reemergence of the PKI. Hello? Kivlan reminds me of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who refused to believe that World War II was over, and remained hunkered down in the Philippines jungle for more than three decades. Hey, Kivlan, time to exit your jungle! But, the past is past. Isn’t it better to let bygones be bygones? The problem is, it isn’t. Past that is. Violent ant-communist sentiment is still well and alive. The families and descendants of the victims of 1965-66 are still being targeted, until today. Some examples: In West Sumatra in March this year, a rampaging mob targeted 200 victims who were gathered to celebrate the 15th anniversary of YPKP 65, an advocacy group demanding justice for victims of the 1960s violence. Similarly in Surakarta, Central Java, Islamic groups and the police cancelled a meeting by another victims’ group, organized merely to talk about their health and how the state could support them. However, the importance of recognizing the human rights abuses of 1965-66 is about our future, fate and identity as a nation. How can we move forward if we haven’t healed our trauma? Other nations such as Germany, South Africa and Spain have at least met partial resolution through truth and reconciliation tribunals. That is why the Indonesian People’s Tribunal (IPT 1965) was formed two years ago. Kivlan, and members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization, are afraid that the IPT 1965 will drag individual military perpetrators and members of NU to trial. This is not the aim of the IPT 1965. As Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, a human rights lawyer and the Tribunal coordinator told me, they only want to bring forth the notion of state responsibility. But, as Aboeprijadi Santoso wrote in this newspaper, “Any crime, political or otherwise, would normally be resolved at a formal state court. But when it comes to the 1965 atrocities […] few, if any, expect the state will do the job and resolve its own “crimes”. Hence, a people’s tribunal — being the only alternative […] should pursue the efforts.” How does the IPT intend to do its work concerning the 1965 events? It seeks to break open the taboos and veil that has obscured this humanitarian calamity through a series of events and publications both in Indonesia and overseas. The “verdict” of the IPT 1965, to be held Nov. 10-13, 2015 in The Hague, is of course a foregone conclusion. So what do they hope to achieve if the government has already rejected the findings of Komnas HAM, established by the state itself in 1993? The answer is we don’t know for sure. What is certain is that, unlike Viola Davis, by constantly denying the heinous crimes from the 1965 genocide, Indonesians will not be making history. We will simply be repeating it. ●

Sanitary pads, employment and nationalism Julia Suryakusuma  ;   The author of Julia’s Jihad

JAKARTA POST, 20 Mei 2015

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

You men out there, if you have ambitions to be on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world, would you be willing to wear a sanitary towel that had goat’s blood pumped through an artificial “uterus” to mimic a woman’s menstrual flow? Well, this is precisely what Arunachalam Muruganantham, a school dropout from a poor family in Southern India, did. It was, however, not out of any desire to be on a list featuring the likes of Barack Obama, Pope Francis, Jeff Bezos, Malala Yousafzai, Shinzo Abe, Beyonce and many others, but out of love and empathy for his wife. In 1998, newly married Muruganantham noticed that his wife, Santhi, used dirty rags he “wouldn’t even clean [his] scooter with” — for her periods. Santhi knew about sanitary towels, but said she could not afford them. Shocked at the extremely “unsanitary pads” his wife and, as it turned out, 88 percent of Indian women used at the time, he embarked on a years-long quest to make affordable sanitary pads. To make a five-and-a-half year story short, risking wife, life and reputation, he ended up creating the world’s first low-cost sanitary towel-producing machine. You probably wouldn’t normally associate sanitary pads with dignity, but that’s what they gave to Indian women, not to mention help prevent urinary tract infections and other diseases, as well as reducing maternal mortality rates. The user-friendly technology he used also made it possible for rural women to operate, therefore, creating jobs for them. When out of 943 entries, Muruganantham won first prize in a competition for a national innovation award and was given the award by the president of India, he was in the limelight. For Muruganantham it could have easily provided him with a (dirty) rags-to-riches opportunity. But no, instead of selling his idea to the highest bidder, he supplied his low-cost machines to the poorest rural communities, providing millions of women with employment and even the opportunity to own their own pad-manufacturing businesses. * * * Today, May 20th is the 107th National Awakening Day (Hari Kebangkitan Nasional) in remembrance of the 1908 formation of the first nationalist group, Budi Utomo. All well and good, but what does “national pride” or “nationalism” mean in today’s Indonesia? Large numbers of Indonesians struggle to find something that makes them genuinely proud of their nation. Instead they are bombarded with daily stories of rampant corruption and governing dysfunction. Most versions of Indonesian nationalism are what Jonathan Pincus, president of Rajawali Foundation (rajawalifoundation.org) calls “nationalism of resentment” rather than a nationalism of pride or achievement. Indonesia has a huge chip on its shoulder for being pushed around globally and historically so it’s understandable that being colonized for centuries is bound to foster feelings of resentment. But does that mean we have to kill off drug-traffickers to prove our pride and dignity? And how dare Malaysia say they originated batik and wayang (shadow puppetry) and claim the Tortor dance as being part of its national heritage! When are the country’s leaders going to focus on giving Indonesia’s younger generation national achievements they can be really proud of? Turbo-charging the country’s economy would be a good place to start. How about doing something instead like what Muruganantham did as a concrete form of economic nationalism? He started on a small, cottage-industry scale, but now his sanitary pad machine has been installed in 26 states in India and exported to several other countries. There are a lot of cottage industries in Indonesia as well. But unlike Indonesia, India has large-scale, globally competitive manufacturing. Indonesia is not a leading producer of any manufactured goods, so how about getting some inspiration from India? Recently, a blueprint was offered by Gus Papanek, one of the most sophisticated observers of Indonesia’s economy for over half a century in a book entitled The Economic Choices Facing the Next President, published by the think tank Transformasi. Co-authored with Raden Pardede and Suahasil Nazara, it’s about creating desperately needed quality jobs in labor-intensive manufacturing that could result in double-digit growth. It’s a once-in-a-century opportunity because as Papanek points out, China, the world largest exporter of labor-intensive manufactured goods, is less competitive than it used to be. “Wages are rising and the renminbi, China’s national currency, is beginning to appreciate against the dollar, euro and yen” (see “The stark economic choices facing Jokowi-Kalla”, The Jakarta Post, Oct. 14, 2014). Naturally, other countries, mainly in Asia, will take the share of China’s export market for labor-intensive manufactured goods. Besides having a large and rapidly growing labor force, Indonesia also has millions of workers employed in low productivity jobs in agriculture or the informal sector. The authors estimate that Indonesia can increase manufactured exports by US$110 billion over the next five years. “These additional manufactured goods, combined with the multiplier effect from higher domestic demand as workers spend their additional income, would create 21 million good, productive jobs by 2019.” As one might expect, there are a number of tough things that Indonesia has to do, among others: improving infrastructure (roads, power plants, etc.), reducing fuel subsidies, implementing tax reforms and perhaps even devaluing the rupiah. Way much more easily said than done, but this is what the book recommends. Obviously, I can’t do justice to all the things that the book says. So why don’t you download it (transformasi.org/en/) and read for yourselves? * * * This Wednesday, the Center for Pancasila Studies of Gadjah Mada University will hold a choir performance involving 5,000 singers. Well, that should provide us with the nationalism fix we need for the day, shouldn’t it? But we’re not talking about a day, but the future of the nation. Are we going to keep on operating in banana republic style and keep on exporting raw materials and agricultural products like palm oil? Are we going to allow ourselves to remain at the bottom of the most positive lists and the top of the most negative lists and persist in our “nationalism of resentment”? Or are we willing to try something different like what a school dropout in India did? Let’s throw out our 7 percent growth mentality like Muruganantham threw out his wife’s dirty rags, and go for “sanitary pads”: a double-digit economic growth mentality! ●