FAITH IN INDONESIA

FAITH IN INDONESIA
The shape of the world a generation from now will be influenced far more by how we communicate the values of our society to others than by military or diplomatic superiority. William Fulbright, 1964

Thursday, October 24, 2024

ESSENTIAL QUALS FOR A MINISTER - BALLS

 GENDER EQUALITY?  NOT OUR CULTURE                  



Pick the woman,  Clue - she's in pink, not black

Half the 280 million people in Indonesia are women, though not in the 48-member ministry; just five were drafted by the fresh president Prabowo Subianto.  It’s a Cabinet fuelled more by testosterone than talent.

The Republic’s eighth leader was inaugurated in a stern khaki-coloured ceremony on 20 October where salutes out-ranked handshakes. No First Lady.  The prez was divorced 26 years ago and has since shown no interest in the other sex.

The official photos are not encouraging for bright girls seeking role models.  The happy chappies with new jobs, offices, limos and stooping staff tell the tale – ranks of middle-age blokes and occasionally a jilbab (headscarf) peering between shoulders from behind. 

The only dominant woman in the line-up is the bareheaded Sri Mulyani Indrawati, 62. The US-educated economist retains the Finance Minister’s job she held under Prabowo’s predecessor Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. (He previously included nine women in his 34-member ministry.)

Dr Sri, the former managing director of the World Bank, is the most powerful unaligned woman in the government.  The system allows ministers to be drawn from outside the Parliament.

She’s staying because even Prabowo understands that a woman can calm the markets better than a soldier, however many stars on his epaulettes. 

Scientific studies reportedly show that women tend to excel in “humilityself-awarenessself-controlmoral sensitivitysocial skillsemotional intelligence and kindness”, apparently making them effective leaders.

Had Prabowo picked one of his meritless military mates instead of Dr Sri the rupiah could have tumbled, the business lobby turned hostile and shoppers furious at price rises.

For the past decade Indonesia’s seat at the world’s debating forums has been filled by Retno Marsudi.  She was Ambassador to Norway, Iceland and then the Netherlands before becoming the nation’s first female Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

The apolitical diplomat seemed to present her country quietly and argue professionally.  She’s now the UN Special Envoy on Water.

Her replacement is a career politician with no diplomatic experience.  The mononymous Sugiono, 45, was a second lieutenant in the Infantry Corps before joining Prabowo’s Gerindra (Great Indonesia) Party.

Apart from speaking English, his other qualifications are being Prabowo’s personal assistant and pliant by repute. Prabowo is expected to show more interest in international matters than Jokowi and may become de-facto MFA.

Parliament ruled earlier this century that one in every three candidates on a party list should be female with a 30 per cent quota in the national and regional legislatures.  It’s never been reached, but is improving.

Last century the 32-year New Order government of Prabowo’s former father-in-law Soeharto had a membership of around nine per cent women in the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR People’s Representate Council).   It’s now 22 per cent, the highest in history.

Scenes of protests and celebrations in Constitutionally-secular Indonesia are not like those in other Muslim-dominated nations. Women are often a prominent street force obvious to any non-ideologue.

Though not to misogynist Prabowo who prefers the Soeharto system that had women in the home as breeders and feeders.  Their public life was constrained by activities around formal religious and state organisations like Dharma Wanita (women’s association) for the wives of public servants.

The Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga, PKK (Family Welfare Empowerment) is no longer important because so many women are in the workforce.  But its ten principles focusing on duties and household management are well embedded, still steering traditional community attitudes.

The greater imbalance is in Islam where men are in control. Women praying in mosques must sit at the back behind a curtain.  Occasionally a woman tries to question the culture but gets the sort of treatment experienced by Senator Fatima Payman when she broke Labor Party rules.

Outside politics and religion, Indonesian women are dashing ahead and leaving the lads having to learn ironing.  More women than men are getting into unis. About 60 per cent of graduating doctors are women.

Feminism is pushing in but the available head space is still polluted by politics and attitudes.  Two-thirds of State primary teachers are women, but only one third are principals. The figure is below 20 per cent in Islamic schools.

The nearest to a Germaine Greer social order table-tipper was the high-born Javanese Kartini Raden Adjeng (1879-1904) who bled to death during childbirth.  She was in an arranged marriage to a noble 26 years her senior and with three other wives.

Her letters to Dutch friends about girls’ education and social reform were posthumously published as Door Duisternis tot Licht (From Darkness to Light).  The bestseller had an impact much like The Female Eunuch.

Noting her nationalism first President Soekarno capitalised on her fame and created Kartini Day (21 April) as a national event, defusing her revolutionary sisters and their dangerous ideas. It’s now mainly a dress-up event lacking clout.

Nepotism thrives whatever the gender.  Megawati Soekarnoputri was Indonesia’s fourth president (2001-2004).  As Vice-President, she got the job when President Gus Dur was sacked.   Two attempts to get elected were crushed by voters; her daughter Puan Maharani is currently Speaker in the DPR. 

Mega’s Dad was Soekarno - her Mum his third wife Fatmawati, best known as the seamstress who stitched the nation’s first red-and-white flag.

Mega, 77, runs the Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, (Democratic Party of Struggle -PDI-P) an undemocratic leftish-nationalistic autocracy.

Chinese leader Mao Zedong is supposed to have said that ‘women hold up half the sky’.   That includes the clouds above the Indonesian archipelago though not its legislatures. 

Till that changes Indonesians will proudly sing their anthem praising equality and equity but rarely experience the benefits.  Likewise, the nation.

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 First published in Pearls & Irritations, 24 October 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/gender-equality-not-our-culture/

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