Why can’t we start liberating women from being ignored?

 

With the inauguration of Irwandi and Nazar as governor and vice governor on Feb 8, Aceh legally has new leaders. Despite all speculations and political analyses prior to election, Acehnese people have made their decision and it is time for Aceh to start its new days.
             Nevertheless, one question slips to our attention. Will the new government take account of women’s involvement? I consider the inquiry to be natural because it has been a public concern for a while. It does not belong only to women’s movement organizations, but applies to all who want to rebuild and build a new Aceh together. The concept requires restatement to avoid preconception that women’s role and contribution merely women’s concern. In fact women involvement is a common issue and is dedicated to create better life for all in Aceh.

The above notion is a precaution considering lack of women’s involvement in the election itself. There was no woman candidate in the provincial level and what is more worrisome that there was no candidate who brought the idea of gender inclusion in rebuilding process in their vision and mission, not even the elected candidate. Women were alienated and future development in Aceh did not seem to provide space for women involvement.

However, this is not too late. As the current governor is doing “window shopping” selecting personnel for his next cabinet, hopefully, qualified “Cut Nyak”, the Acehnese women, will explicitly be included in the next administration. Only then, women’s aspirations can be appropriately channeled.

Peripheral Issue

Looking back, the idea of gender inclusion has always been a peripheral issue and did not gain much attention. Let us look at UU-PA (Undang-Undang Pemerintahan Aceh - LOGA) approved on July 11, 2006. There was no section on gender inclusion at all. In fact, as we all know it, ever since its early process, women have presented their aspiration through any available forums in the legal drafting process of LOGA, and even escorted the result to Jakarta. However, still they failed to obtain maximum outcomes.

Sadly, the idea of women involvement was taken as a joke by some people: “How could women play a part in political party, they couldn’t even take a good care of their husband” (Suara Pembaruan, 06/22/06). That was an insult to women existence as well as disregarding their intellectual capabilities as though only men have those capacities and women entailed behind. In other words, politics is for men and house hold works are for women.

If we were to be honest, political decision can not merely rely on one approach. It was proven that the approach used by politicians and bureaucratic governing the province tend to think patricidal-andocentric: all matters only based on men point of view. In reality, gender issue is also part of social matter in Aceh that requires serious consideration.

Carrol Gilligan (1982) noted that men’s and women’s point of view is different. The difference derived from moral construct developed since their early life. Men are apt to individuality and separation from others. On the other hand, women are inclined to process and interrelatedness. Men find it easier to say right or wrong, win or lose, beneficial or detrimental, provable or imaginary, because their moral construct stands on single truth. Women, in contrast, have a propensity to consider an issue in relationship with other problems because their moral construct bolster plural truth. For that, in their approach, men tend to use ethic of justice, meanwhile women prefer ethics of care.

The two ethics approaches should better be synergized to enrich solution exploration on public concern. An approach that leans towards a single point of view has propensity of creating bias solution. Decent creativity is required to merge it with the other point of view, women’s. Having been synergized, the decision makers (men and women) are more likely to be able to create a just and fair society. As mentioned by Karlina Leksono (Kompas, 10/1/02), if we can fairly accept the two ethics as intertwined basic moral, we would be able to reflect ethics of justice to create just society and ethics of care to create good and care society, a place where all people would enjoy good, enjoyable, happy life. Ethics of care encourages kindness, dealing with people’s social characteristics; while ethics of justice promotes just institutions, dealing with policies.

History has proven that Aceh women were able to play a role before public and politics. The success was crafted with gold ink in Aceh civilization that also gained international recognition. Unfortunately, lately, the ability seems to vanish, because the door was sealed by bias religious scripts and interpretations or temporary politics vested interest. Aceh once had Cut Nyak Dhien, Cut Meutia, and Keumalahayati along with all others. Why do we proudly proclaim the names, but forget and shut the door for the new growing generations?

 
            Demographic wise, women are the majority, more than 52 % in Aceh population. They deserve to be reliable reference. Demographic statistics is also in line with daily social problems. What are women-related social concerns? Let us start with health care, education, economy and law. Health related issues, among which is high percentage of infant and maternal mortality caused by lack of nutrition and health care (Serambi Indonesia 11/2/06); thousands of babies who experienced malnourishment in North Aceh (Serambi Indonesia, 1/24/07) was also associated with mothers health status during pregnancy; not to include deaths during delivery process because of poor health care and services.

In education sector, data from Department of Education illustrated that the number of illiteracy in Aceh among its 15 – 44 years of age population is 44.833 people and most of them are women accumulating 28.238 people (SI, 2/27/06). In economic sector, small businesses are proven to be resilient in economic crisis and this sector is dominated by women; who often are bread earners. However, their access to financial support is still limited. In term of equality before law, domestic violence still progresses in addition to sexual abuses and rapes, which unfortunately, are still underreported.

Talking about tsunami relief projects, barracks condition , water and sanitation are still the main issues and women are the most vulnerable to the problems. They are susceptible for violence in the mix sex shelter also to diseases when lacking of clean water during menstruation and after birth. Additionally, when houses are built without proper latrine and kitchen facilities, again, the concern emerges; will men be able to represent women appropriately?

            Among others, these are the problems we now face. They materialize repeatedly and turn out to be irrefutable truth. Having women in decision maker level will not dramatically solve all the problems; nevertheless, at least we can try to resolve the dilemmas successively.

 

Epilog
            We should all  be rest assured  that women’s role in decision maker level does not necessary mean to compete against men. Neither does it to imitate western way of thinking along the feminist line of thoughts. It is dedicated in creating a better life for all in Aceh. Women can help provide comparative perspective on the problems, especially those related with women issues.

Regardless of  whomever the new leaders that the Acehnese have chosen, women involvement in the public sphere is a must. Only by taking them in, women’s voices can be heard. For that reason, women participation in Aceh Customary Law Board (MAA), Islamic Scholars Assembly (MPU), executives, legislatives, and other high governmental positions is imperative. Moreover, soon the province will have local political parties. Aren’t we moving towards new Aceh? Why don’t we start with liberating women from  being ignored? Isn’t that the most beloved people before God are those who love their wives (women) the most ? Let us hope to see the change starts in and from Aceh. (Translated by TA)