Keep the promise : End violence against women

Keep the promise : End violence against women Yulia Suryakusuma  ;   The Author of State Ibuism

JAKARTA POST, 06 Maret 2013

In two days’ time, on March 8, we will be commemorating International Women’s Day (IWD). What will you do to mark this important day?  The IWD adopts different local themes in different countries, but the UN is clear about the priority for this year: “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. It is not hard to understand why. According to UN Women, “Seven out of 10 girls worldwide will be beaten, raped, abused or mutilated in their lifetime”.  The violence starts at birth, and in India and China, even before that. “Gendercide” — defined as “the systematic killing of members of a specific sex” — is prevalent in these two countries. It accounts for 200 million “missing” girls — aborted, killed or abandoned simply because they are girls. Although the words “It’s a girl!” should be an exclamation of joy, as Evan Grae Davis says in his documentary of the same name, these are, instead, the three deadliest words in some countries. In a TED talk (itsagirlmovie.com), he points out that 200 million — the number that could be determined since records began a few decades ago — is more than the total number of fatalities in World Wars I and II, plus all the major genocides of the 20th century. And the stats are particularly bad in Asia, Evan adds. The traditional preference for boys means the one-child policy in China has led to forced abortions, female infanticide and the underreporting of female births.  As a result, there are now 37 million more men than women in China, and 1 million more boys are born per year than girls. Unsurprisingly, sex trafficking has reached epidemic proportions, with 70,000 child bride kidnappings. In 2011, the Thompson Reuters Foundation conducted a global survey of perception of threats ranging from domestic abuse and economic discrimination to female feticide, genital mutilation and acid attacks. Afghanistan came first on the list, followed by Congo, Pakistan, India and Somalia. In South Asia, fears of gang rapes, honor killings, dowry deaths and human trafficking are also common. Since the Arab Spring uprisings, cases of sexual harassment, abuse and rape have skyrocketed in Morsi’s Egypt. Protests against this rise have been to no avail, being met instead with more abuse, harassment and, yes, even more rape. But don’t think that Western nations are free from sexual violence; far from it. In the US, 12 million women and men are subjected to sexual violence annually. Data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 24 people become victims of rape or physical violence every minute. In fact, nearly one in five women have been raped; 80 percent of female rape victims were raped at the age of 25 or younger; 97 percent of rapists don’t spend a single day in jail; and 99 percent of rapists are men. Rape is considered one of the most underreported crimes in the US. How is Indonesia doing? Although the reform era promised democratization and respect for human rights, violence against women (VAW) has, in fact, increased since 1999. Of all forms of violence against women in Indonesia, sexual violence has increased the most, especially domestic violence and sexual assaults in public places (especially on public transportation vehicles). In some cases, the violence has been carried out by state officials: regents, mayors and lawmakers. Dian, a Jakarta researcher just returned from Makassar, Sulawesi, told me there were cases there of girls being raped and impregnated by their own fathers. Amazingly, this is not regarded as a criminal or violent act. Even if such cases are reported to the authorities, they are dealt with according to kekeluargaan (“familyness”) — a great Indonesian catch-all term that means to resolve conflicts by avoiding conflict. In this case, the baby is cared for by the family, a husband is found for the rape victim … and the father-rapist walks away, scot-free. And what about the recent case of a deputy principal at a Jakarta high school who threatened to fail a female student if she refused him oral sex? He is just one of many public officials in Indonesia who use their power to abuse women. Is there any hope of this situation ever ending? Perhaps. Remember the outrageous statement made by Mohammad Daming Sunusi, a justice candidate for the Supreme Court, who said the death penalty should not be applied to rapists, as both the rapist and the victim may have enjoyed the intercourse? The public outcry over what he considered a joke spelled the end of his career. Damning indeed! In India, however, it took the fatal rape of 23-year-old physiotherapy student in December 2012 in Delhi (dubbed the “rape capital” of India) to shake the nation out of its complacency about women’s rights. In the US, the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) was passed on Feb. 28. It had been adopted in 1994 and had expired in 2011. The new act is a revised version, and includes new protections for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community. On Valentine’s Day this year, there were marches in Afghanistan, human chains in Bangladesh, a debate in the British House of Commons and various events in countries from Australia, Germany and Kyrgyzstan to Somalia to support the “One Billion Rising” campaign. This is a global campaign initiated by Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler. Check out its “Billionaire of Moments” Facebook page. All this is good news, but it will take more than just campaigns and laws to fight the global scourge that holds back not just women but also the nations to which they belong. We are all responsible for VAW. It starts with us, not just once a year on IWD, but every day.  So, join the global movement, say no to violence (saynotoviolence.org), and keep the promise! ●

View Point: Enter the dragon; exit the eagle?

View Point: Enter the dragon; exit the eagle?

Yulia Suryakusuma, THE AUTHOR OF JULIA’S JIHAD

Sumber : JAKARTA POST, 30 November 2011

When European and Western hegemony was at its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, my late husband, Ami, often asked why people studied European languages instead of Chinese or Japanese. “Asia,” he said, “is where the future will lie.” If Ami were still alive, he would be justified in saying, “I told you so” (although Hindi, Korean and Indonesian would have been on his list now too!).

Even the US has cottoned-on now, shifting its gaze from the Middle East (where the Arab Spring is starting to look more like autumn) to Asia. The stable societies in our region continue to enjoy booming economic growth despite Europe and America’s financial crisis (which is not global at all, folks!).

That’s why US President Barack Obama hailed the decade-old “Asia-Pacific century” two weeks ago in Australia. He also announced that the US would establish a new foothold in the most dynamic part of the world by strengthening military ties with its longtime ally Down Under. It will deploy 2,500 Marine Air-Ground Task Force in Darwin by 2017 for the first time since World War II.

This generated speculation, controversy and anxiety. Some viewed it negatively, accusing the US of aggressive imperialist ambitions. They said that the move undermined efforts to make the region more peaceful and could tear ASEAN apart. Another analyst said the US had its sights on Timor Leste’s oil reserves and its troubled Freeport interests in Papua. Even our smooth-as-silk foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, questioned American motives, hoping the deployment wouldn’t create tensions in the region. Given the US’ reputation as a bullying Globocop, these reactions were not surprising, but were they right?

The Darwin base seems to me to be more recognition of American weakness than a statement of ambition. Surely it is really about the US trying to maintain its dwindling power as China rises? It seems to me that if China thinks the US is trying to encircle them, they’d be dead right.

And you can see why: China is currently the second-largest economy after the US, contributing 30 percent of global wealth. Even by conservative estimates, it’s projected to overtake the US as world economic leader by 2027. China is also the US’ banker as well as the world’s factory floor, with global markets flooded with Chinese goods — and takeovers.

In 2005, MG Rover became the last domestically-owned mass-production car manufacturer in Britain, snapped up by the Nanjing Automobile group. Imagine — the quintessential British sports car is now Chinese, or half-Chinese at least. (Well, better Chinese than belly-up, like the eurozone.)

The point is that almost everyone else in Asia expects China’s financial invasion to be followed by military expansionism. Their shared heebie-jeebies are driving them to band together to contain the dragon. Even Vietnam is burying the hatchet of the Vietnam War and getting cosy with America. Politics do make for strange bedfellows, but is their China-phobia justified?

Maybe — history suggests that every rising imperial power has expressed itself with military force: the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottomans, Russia, Germany, Britain, Japan and America. Why would China be different?

As China builds its military and buys more of the world’s resources to fuel its growth, it is less willing to hear Americans telling it what to do (on the US’ quandary re China, read http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/news/international/china_america_full.fortune/). It continues to back its pariah buffer state, North Korea;
it continues to incarcerate dissidents; its threats to invade Taiwan have not been withdrawn. And now, it is making serious claims in the South China Sea.

But while China may be a rising power, the US is still a great power — in fact, for all its many faults and failings, still the dominant global power. It still has the stronger military as well as global reach, with allies and bases all over the world, particularly in regions surrounding China (Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India, etc.).

It is determined to keep China hemmed in if it can. So, like it or not, there is a real possibility of eventual conflict in the Pacific between the eagle and the dragon, as many fear.

Like Indonesia, Australians know that if an attack comes, it will be from the North as in World War II (invasion via Antarctica might be a bit tricky). This means that a “love triangle” between the US, Australia and Indonesia has its own natural geopolitical logic.

Indonesia is of increasing strategic importance to the US because it’s the obvious leader of a regional neutral block. It also controls three vital deep-water passages between the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific: the Lombok, Malacca and Sunda Straits.

Australia is also a natural ally of Indonesia because of the similarities between them — yes, that’s right, I did say similarities. Unlike China, both are multiparty democracies and both have open economies (and have signed free-trade deals with each other).

And whatever misgivings Indonesians and Australians may have about the US, it’s still an open society and a genuine democracy, and China is neither of those things. Shared anxieties about China will make these similarities matter more than differences.

My Chinese calendar says 2012 will be the year of the Dragon. By the looks of it, so will be many other years to come. So Ami was right — start learning Chinese, folks! ●