Faiza Mardzoeki: Women, Arts, Culture, and Activism in Indonesia and Abroad

The Tale of A Desperate Housewife-The Jakarta Globe

2011-12-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

The Tale of A Desperate Housewife
Lisa Siregar | November 28, 2011

Last Wednesday, the cast and crew of the play “Rumah Boneka” (“A Doll’s House”) filled the auditorium at the National Gallery in Central Jakarta, where they have been rehearsing intensively for the past two months.

Working on a set that resembles a comfortable living room, harpist Maya Hasa sits on a sofa as she practices her lines and gestures; she’s been rehearsing for four straight hours.

Behind the curtain, news anchor and talk show host Chantal Della Concetta is twirling around and bowing noiselessly in her ballerina flats.

“Dancing is so difficult,” she said. “To dance and to play piano is the most challenging part of this play because I have never danced and I am blind to music notes.”

While they come from different performance backgrounds, Maya and Chantal will both play Nora, the main character in “Rumah Boneka.” The play was adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” which premiered in 1879, by Faiza Mardzoeki, who has updated the work and made it relevant for Jakarta’s current social scene.

“It’s a good show for women, so we can reflect on whether it’s healthy to always follow our husband’s words,” Chantal said.

The play is staged by Institut Ungu (Purple Institut), a cultural center that promotes women’s rights through the arts. The two-hour play will have a four-day run, starting on Wednesday, at Gedung Kesenian in Central Jakarta. Maya and Chantal will split the performances, each starring in two shows.

Nora, a housewife, dutifully follows the whims of her husband, Tommy Herlambang, a successful banker and a domineering man. As the play progresses, Nora, who is a happy, perky and even childish woman, begins to question her married life, and her husband’s perception of her. Tommy views his wife as a trophy who should bend to his will, and Nora begins to wonder if Tommy will be her hero, which she expects him to be.

Since both Maya and Chantal have gone through divorces, they were thought to have the right life experience to tackle the role.

Chantal, a first-timer theater actress, said she found it hard to match Nora’s chirpy personality, but felt that she could relate to her character’s problems at a deeper level. She said Nora’s problems were relevant in today’s society.

Maya said she felt empathy for Nora, because she ended up being trapped in her own game. Nora is spoiled by her husband and flirts with other men, but remains a mother to her children and a schoolgirl in the eyes of her old friends, and displays a kind and innocent personality to her aunt.

“Nora has created so many worlds for herself and she acts differently for everyone,” Maya said.

“She is a stay-at-home woman and I think she is enjoying her life, but finds difficulty in juggling roles.”

For Maya, who juggles work, school and family every day, it was not difficult to tap into Nora’s character.

While Chantal is a newcomer to the stage, Maya is not. She said she was fond of theater when she was in school and has been involved in several plays over the past 10 years, including one that paired her with veteran actor Slamet Rahardjo. Maya also directed Slamet in her own play.

But Maya said memorizing the hundred of pages of dialogue since August was a challenge. The mother of three is also trying to finish an online course in music therapy, and said she had a difficult time adjusting to memorizing words instead of notes.

“You can give me hundreds of pages of music notes and I won’t have any problem, because it’s already in my system,” Maya said. “Memorizing words is far more difficult.”

Her character in “Rumah Boneka” has far more dialogue than any other character she’s played. Despite the challenge, Maya said she found the tempo and rhythm of playing music similar to the pace of acting. And while she enjoys theater, Maya is quick to says her roots are as a musician. “I will be a harpist until I die,” she said.

After working in front of the camera for eight years, Chantal doesn’t expect to be intimidated when she walks out on the stage. While she’s a news anchor, Chantal said she really considered herself a storyteller. “It used to be news, now it’s a script,” she said.

Chantal said she was at the stage in her career where she was open to learning new crafts, including acting. She took a leave of absence from her job as an anchor at Sindo TV to focus on the play.

“The only thing I am reluctant to do is actually sing,” she said.

Although Institut Ungu is a foundation with a feminist framework, Maya said she was not a feminist. Her belief is that men and women have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they complete each other.

“The play is feminist but I am not,” she said. “Certainly there are things that only men capable of doing, such as peeing while standing behind a tree.”

“A Doll’s House” itself is a story that is applicable to everyone’s life, Maya said.

“Everyone can find their own character and story in this play,” Maya said. She added that she was a huge Broadway fan of plays such as “Miss Saigon” and “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.”

“On the other hand, ‘A Doll’s House’ is a good chance to see some realistic theater in the city,” she said.

Chantal, though, finds it sad that the play, which premiered more than 100 years ago, is still relevant today. “It means that things have not been improving very well for women,” she said.

Solidarity, SlutWalks and the Stage-The Jakarta Globe

2011-12-20T06:28:00.000-08:00

Solidarity, SlutWalks and the Stage
Emmy Fitri | October 24, 2011

A few days before Jakarta had its first so-called SlutWalk last month in response to remarks made by the Jakarta governor about women, clothing and rape, activist Siti Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki was appalled at a number of “intimidating and scornful remarks” that were posted on her Facebook wall after she put up an invitation to the rally.

Faiza, as she is known, replied to some of the remarks and tried to reason with her angry male Facebook friends, but the reaction to what she and her allies were doing with their performance art demonstration was harsh and polarizing.

“Why is this woman talking so much, I wouldn’t be surprised if she became the next rape victim,” said one, according to Faiza.

Faiza was also disappointed after the rally when some photographers uploaded photos of the women with suggestive captions.

“We knew [the photographers] well but what we were doing was not a joke. I believe they also have sisters, girlfriends and mothers. Think about them before making unfunny jokes like that,” she said, referring to the photos taken at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

“They shot us at very low angles that showed our legs and put comments like, ‘Who would not want to commit rape if women are showing skin like that?’” she said.

Traditional Background

The September protest by about 50 women wearing short skirts came after Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo responded to the gang rape of a woman on a public minibus by saying miniskirts could be an invitation to rape.

“Wear sensible clothes, not ‘inviting’ clothes,” the governor said. He later apologized.

“What Fauzi Bowo said represents how most men respond to the tragedies that happen to women, like rape. Our public officials, and most men in general, think that these gender crimes are the fault of women,” Faiza said.

Born and raised in a conservative Muslim family, Faiza, who is one of 10 children, was a rebel from a young age. In her family, it was understood that a women’s place was in the kitchen and household chores were her reality while men were freed from domestic responsibilities.

Faiza frequently questioned why her male siblings were treated differently and allowed much more freedom than herself.

She was also known to skip her Koran lessons in favor of movies at an open-air theater, and her father, a staunch Nahdlatul Ulama follower, often disciplined her.

“I don’t know why I did that. Such a naughty one when I was small,” she said, giggling.

Now 39, Faiza hasn’t lost her passion for equality. She can easily be found among crowds of activists whenever women’s rights and social justice issues are being raised. In 2002, she helped found the Institut Ungu (Purple Institute), a non-profit group specializing in women’s issues presented through art and culture.

But she did not set out to be a crusader. After she graduated from high school, Faiza thought she would start working and earning money right away instead of continuing her education at a university. “I wanted to work as a secretary, wearing high heels and office suits,” she said.

She enrolled at a secretarial academy in Bogor and was also offered a part-time job at a doll factory near her uncle’s house. Her rebellious seeds seemed to blossom when she had to make do on a meager factory worker’s income. “My weekly wage then was about Rp 16,000 ($1.80),” she recalled.

Factory Work

“The experience of working in a factory somehow opened my eyes. I got along with labor activists really well and I thought ‘This is it, I found my crowd,’” said Faiza.

She helped activists gain access to her co-workers and later expanded her role by visiting different factories to talk to workers about labor rights.

She also fell in love with theater at a time when the labor movement was using performance as a way to reach the working class. She learned about both the labor movement and theater from Wiji Thukul, a well-known poet and activist whose unexplained disappearance in April 1998 is often blamed on the Suharto government.

When prominent female labor leader Marsinah was found dead in 1993 in East Java, Faiza was in the middle of a hiatus from labor organizing and found herself spending more time with her fellow stage artists.

“It was such terrifying news that I decided to keep a low profile because... you know what the situation was like back in Suharto’s era,” she said.

Faiza joined the NGO Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity) in 1997 and specialized in labor issues. Her secretarial career was forgotten permanently.

The Road Traveled

“I can’t believe my own life story when I look back on it all,” she said.

In time, she was drawn into the theater world. With Faiza leading the project, Solidaritas Perempuan produced a play, “Perempuan Di Titik Nol,” adapted from Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi’s “Woman at Point Zero,” in 2002.

With Jakarta in the grip of reformasi by that time, the play was a huge success that even caused a minor commotion when a handful of disappointed spectators who did not get tickets demanded a second performance of the play.

Now, through the Purple Institute, Faiza says she can channel her love for theater and be as outspoken as she wants.

In addition, when she moved to Sydney to live with her husband, Max Lane, an Indonesian studies scholar who teaches at the University of Sydney, she continued her education by studying literature. Dividing her time between Jakarta and Sydney, Faiza is set to stage “Rumah Boneka,” an adaptation of Norwegian playwright’s Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” on Nov. 30 at the Jakarta Playhouse in Central Jakarta.

“I got a grant from the Norwegian Embassy to learn more about Ibsen and then I totally fell for him. His works are masterpieces that withstand the test of time.”

“Rumah Boneka,” is about a woman who is questioning her marriage. “Most of us take marriage for granted,” she said. “But at some point women will ask if they’re doing what they want to do.”

Has Faiza herself ever been confronted with that situation?

She laughed and said her marriage was not something she planned or dreamed about in the past, but was a pleasant reality.

“My husband is more like a partner in crime to me. With him I can talk about everything. In that way, I have no reason to fear or repress anything.”

Juni Dahr & Ibsen in Jakarta

2011-12-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

Juni Dahr & Ibsen in Jakarta

Juni Dahr dan Seminar Ibsen, Sastra, Masyarakat dan Perempuan

2011-12-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

Rumah

Boneka: Sekarang Sebelum Terlambat
Foto: OktoMagazine/Juni Dahr, monolog A Doll’s House

Agama tidak ada bedanya dengan laki-laki, tidak bisa memberikan rasa aman kepadaku. - Nora.

Kutipan di atas diambil dari salah satu dialog penutup dari sebuah karya Henrik Ibsen yang diterjemahkan dan diadaptasi oleh Faiza Mardzoeki. Karya Ibsen tersebut akan ditampilkan di Gedung Kesenian Jakarta pada 30 November hingga 4 Desember 2011 . Dengan mengusung judul “Rumah Boneka”, pertunjukan teater yang diproduksi Pentas Indonesia dan Institut Ungu akan tampil dengan pendekatan teater realis, sebuah gaya yang mendekati kehidupan sehari-hari dengan detail kemampuan penghayatan naskah dan keaktoran para pemainnya.

Dalam konferensi pers yang diadakan di Galeri Nasional hari Minggu, 27 November kemarin, Faiza Mardzoeki menjelaskan alasan memilih dua orang untuk memerankan tokoh Nora dalam kisah Rumah Boneka. Ia mengatakan bahwa Nora akan mengisi sebanyak 95% dari seluruh jalan cerita, “Sehingga kami memutuskan untuk memakai dua aktor untuk memerankan Nora secara bergantian agar bisa menjaga staminanya.”

Adapun tokoh Nora akan diperankan oleh mantan presenter di beberapa stasiun TV swasta, Chantal Della Concetta dan seorang pemain harpa yang cukup terkemuka di dunia musik Indonesia, Maya Hasan. Beberapa pemeran tokoh lain juga hadir dalam konferensi pers tersebut, seperti Ayu Dyah Pasha, Ayez Kassar, dan Willem Bevers.

Ketika ditanya mengenai alasan mengapa memilih aktor-aktor yang kurang berpengalaman untuk dijadikan pemeran utama, sutradara Wawan Sofwan menjawab, “Kami bukan sekedar memilih pemeran yang hanya mampu berakting. Tapi kami juga mempertimbangkan dari sisi lain, seperti pengalaman yang pernah mereka alami.”

“Alasan kami memilih Chantal dan Maya karena mereka mempunyai pengalaman tersebut. Mereka mempunyai pengalaman dan ingatan mengenai relasi dalam keluarga sebagai pasangan suami dan istri. Selanjutnya mereka tinggal lebih mendalami peran-peran mereka tersebut,” tambah Wawan.

Acara konferensi pers tersebut juga kedatangan tamu spesial, seorang seniman teater yang sudah cukup terkenal di dunianya, yaitu Juni Dahr. Artis kelahiran 29 Juni 1953 tersebut adalah pemeran Nora dalam beberapa pertunjukan “A Doll’s House” dalam bahasa aslinya, Norwegia. Dalam kesempatan tersebut, ia juga memberikan sebuah pertunjukan monolog yang diambil dari adegan terakhir A Doll’s House. Dan pertunjukan monolog tersebut berhasil memukau para hadirin.

Lepas dari rasa penasaran tentang kemampuan para pemeran Nora, pentas Rumah boneka ini layak untuk masuk agenda kegiatan di minggu ini. Sangat wajib untuk perempuan, apapun statusnya, juga para pria. Bahkan tak terkecuali siapapun kita yang menghargai tiap relasi yang tercipta. Sekarang sebelum terlambat! (andreas@oktomagazine.com)

Teater Rumah Boneka Pentas Indonesia

2011-12-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

From A doll's House promotion-in Bahasa Indonesia

2011-12-11T01:24:00.000-08:00

Teater Rumah Boneka (A doll's House)-Perform at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta 30 Nov-4 Dec 2011

2011-10-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

“I have a duty no less sacred than that of being a mother, a duty to myself!”

Rumah Boneka, tells of a middle class family in present day Jakarta, a married couple that struggles with reevaluating the values of marriage and their family circumstances. Rumah Boneka also invites the audience to rethink their stance on morality, religion, and the social mentality contaminated with corruption and hypocrisy.

This theatre production is based on the classical masterpiece of Henrik Ibsen, Norway’s leading realist playwright. Ibsen’s play is being produced, translated into Indonesian and adapted to an Indonesian context by Faiza Mardzoeki. The play is directed by Wawan Sofwan and supported by artists hailing from Jakarta, Bandung. The music has been composed by Marcello Pellitteri, an internationally renowned musician from New York.

Women Center Stage (The Jakarta Globe)

2011-09-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

Women Center Stage at the Purple Institute
Emmy Fitri | September 18, 2011

Alone on a nearly bare stage: an actress delivers a monologue during an Instiut Ungu festival last year. (Photo courtesy of Institut Ungu)

Serious theater productions are often considered the exclusive domain of highbrow artistic circles. Which is why women’s rights group Solidaritas Perempuan was so surprised to see the crowds of people lining up to see its 2002 adaptation of “Perempuan Di Titik Nol” (“Woman at Point Zero”), a novel by Nawal El Saadawi about oppressed women in Egypt.

Fellow activists, celebrities, politicians and homemakers flocked to Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta to see the show. When they found the tickets were sold out, the crowd staged a spontaneous protest in front of the theater, demanding that another show be added the next day.

“It was beyond our expectations; quite stunning,” said Faiza Mardzoeki, the play’s co-producer. “There must have been thousands of women there. We held two nights of performances and both were full houses.”

Faiza and the rest of Solidaritas Perempuan were fascinated by the public response to the play. It led to numerous discussions within the group about how the performing arts could become an effective vehicle to promote their cause.

“We came to an understanding that we needed another form of media to present and promote women’s issues, different from what we were already familiar with,” Faiza said. “The tremendous support we got from people outside the activists’ circle demonstrated the possibility of using performing arts, like theater, to bring women’s issues to the mainstream.”

In response to the evident demand, Faiza, along with co-producer Yeni Rosa Damayanti and activists Irina Dayasih and Nur Rachmi, founded Institut Ungu (Purple Institute), a cultural center dedicated to promoting women’s rights through the arts.

Purple was chosen for its historical significance, having been regarded as a symbol of feminism since at least 1908, when the British suffragette movement adopted a color scheme of purple, white and green in protests demanding the right to vote.

Institut Ungu is working on another show with strong feminist themes, called “Rumah Boneka,” adapted from Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.”

The show will be staged at the end of November in collaboration with the Pentas Indonesia theater company and sponsored by the Norwegian Embassy.

“The primary idea behind the establishment of Institut Ungu was that we needed a special focus on using art as a medium to reach out to people about our cause,” Faiza said.

Institut Ungu held its first event in 2003, called the April Festival. It was organized to coincide with the week leading up to the anniversary of the birth of Raden Ajeng Kartini, a national heroine revered as a pioneer of the feminist movement here.

The daughter of a Javanese district head, Kartini campaigned for women’s rights in the 19th century, exchanging ideas with Dutch friends via mail. Her letters were later compiled in the book “Door Duisternis tot Licht” (“Through Darkness Into Light”).

Kartini was born on April 21, 1879, and the anniversary of her birth is celebrated throughout the country, but Institut Ungu wanted to reflect on the occasion in a different light.

“We picked the date because we wanted to deconstruct the way people understand Kartini and observe her birthday,” Faiza said. “Kartini Day, a national holiday, has been reduced and distorted to merely a ceremonial event. We wanted to counter that.”

The festival was designed as a cultural event created by women for women, bringing together poets, authors, musicians and artists from across the country.

The 2003 program included screenings of Indonesian and international films, a fine arts exhibition showcasing the work of women artists and a series of discussions on women’s rights and the feminist movement in Indonesia.

Singer-cum-author Dewi Lestari, whose debut novel, “Supernova,” was critically acclaimed, gave a talk along with poet and scholar Toeti Heraty Noerhadi Rooseno.

Author Djenar Maesa Ayu also launched her controversial short-story anthology, “Mereka Bilang, Saya Monyet” (“They Say I’m a Monkey”), during the festival.

“Of course, we also had men involved in the event, like singer and songwriter Anang Hermansyah,” Faiza said. “This kind of event is a good opportunity for women to delve into the many perspectives of their own rights and also to reflect on what men understand about women’s rights. Men can also learn about the rights of their counterparts.”

Aside from the April Festival, Institut Ungu has also active in putting on stage productions following the success of “Perempuan Di Titik Nol.”

Since the group was formed, it has staged a number of plays, including “Mereka Memanggilku Nyai Ontosoroh” (“They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh”), Faiza’s own adaptation of the novel “Bumi Manusia” (“This Earth of Mankind”), written by literary legend Pramoedya Ananta Toer, “Perempuan Menuntut Malam” (“Women Seize the Night”) and “Kartini Letters.”

Faiza said the group’s productions were labors of love. “We’re not like other nonprofit organizations that have a full-time staff and an office, because most of us have other jobs, too,” she said. “The office of Institut Ungu is currently at my house in Tebet, South Jakarta, which functions as the group’s headquarters whenever we have a project coming up.”

Despite the amount of work involved, Faiza said theater was addictive.

“We know it’s very costly to stage a performance, but we just keep going, especially when I’ve fallen in love with the script,” she said.

‘Rumah Boneka’ (‘A Doll’s House’)
Nov. 30 to Dec. 4
Gedung Kesenian Jakarta
Jl. Gedung Kesenian No. 1
Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta

Institut Ungu
Jl. Tebet Utara IVE No. 14
South Jakarta

Tel: 021 8304531

Reflections from Norway: Ibsen, literature and society

2011-07-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

Reflections from Norway: Ibsen, literature and society

By Faiza Mardzoeki

“What wisdom was I walking upon?”, I thought, as strings of Norwegian words felt the impact of my feet along the footpath between the Ibsen Museum in Oslo to the famous Grand Café. Embedded artistically in the footpath were 60 quotations from the works of Norway’s great dramatist, Henrik Ibsen. I was curious to know which quotes had been chosen. I was preparing to produce my translation and adaptation of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” for performance in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities, and had been invited to Norway for a week, with director Wawan Sofwan, at the invitation of Norwegian government to meet people working on Ibsen there.. “Which quotes had they chosen from A Doll’s House?” I asked myself. Perhaps those Norwegian words that I was looking down upon were that fundamental exchange between Helmer and Nora:

HELMER: First and foremost, you are a wife and mother.
NORA: That I don't believe any more. I believe that first and foremost I am an individual, just as you are.

This striking piece of street artwork - Ibsen Sitat – stretches to the Grand Café, a grand building indeed in the middle of Oslo. Here too Ibsen’s presence was strongly felt. “Henrik used to sit there,” said a waiter, “every day, as he worked on his plays.” Photos of Ibsen were strategically placed in several places.

(Ibsen Sitat-Oslo Centrum)

The sense of Norway’s pride in Ibsen was further reinforced by the impressive character of the Ibsen Museum and, of course, there too we had to pass along the Henrik Ibsen Gate. It was also possible to try to glimpse Ibsen’s daily life by touring through his home, which was also incorporated as part of the museum. The concern to make available all the manifestations of the impact of Ibsen’s works was shown in the lively decoration of the toilet walls; wallpaper made up of various reviews of his works.

The program that brought me to Norway was is another example of Norwegian society’s emphasis of making maximum cultural use of Ibsen’s contribution, as were the activities of all the institutions we met, funded by public taxes.

This effort to make Ibsen’s work a genuine treasure for the society has been an important inspiration regarding the link between literature and society. The idea that literature can play a major role in social and cultural change is one of the things that motivates the Institut Ungu, which will be producing A Doll’s House in Jakarta this year as well as organizing a public seminar around Ibsen, with Indonesian and Norwegian speakers.

Indonesia also has international level writers. There is Pramoedya Ananta Toer, whose works have been published in many, many languages as well as dramatists like Rendra and poets like Chairil Anwar. The characters of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s many novels, for example, would provide easily also 60 quotations for a footpath art work like Ibsen Sitat. Rendra’s and Anwar’s poems would also be such rich treasure troves.

“We fought back, Ma, as honorably and as well as we could.”

Yes, I could see these words by Minke to Nyai Ontsoroh, among many other words, embedded in art works that would make Indonesian literature also a treasure for Indonesians.

Unfortunately, there are no Pramoedya, Rendra or Anwar museums; no international promotion of their works and so on. Actually, there is also no significant funding for modern theatre at all in Indonesia. In fact, Indonesian children are not even taught to read an appreciate Pramoedya or Rendra or anybody else for that matter in the country’s high schools. Even after just a few days in Norway, however, the possibility of making a country’s literature a true treasure was underlined.

Faiza&Wawan, Ibsen Museum (June 2011)

Inspiration for producing Ibsen

The visit also provided inspiration in relation to the process of producing and adapting Ibsen’s work. Clearly, the programs run in Norway help concentrate and foster many approaches. At the Centre for Ibsen Studies at Oslo University, we were able to have a very lively discussion with a range of people, including from other countries, such as Bangaldesh, about how to adapt and produce Ibsen’s plays. The discussion also included Professor Frode Helland, Head of the research project “Ibsen Between Cultures” and the Bangladeshi theatre director Kamaluddin Nilu. A part of the discussion, about the need in Bangladesh to be sensitive about how to portray the position of children, emphasized the impact of context on the process of adaptation. It was another pointer to the need to have a critical attitude in reflecting on the impact of context – in our case of semi-developed 21^st century urban Jakarta.

This adaptation, interpretive aspect also came out in our meeting with Dr. Anne Helgesen from the Institute of Theater Science, University of Oslo. Her interpretation was emphasizing the position of children as just play-things for the parents. I could see that she was presenting a very sharp and vivid picture of the play-unrealness of the Nora Helmer relationship. The contradiction between a woman who starts to act as a child because she is treated as a child plaything, while at the same time being an astute and hardworking provider for the family was well drawn. In a particularly vivid method, she used puppets to represent the children, emphasizing even more the whole issue of “play-thing”ness.

In our discussions, she emphasized that many male directors of A Doll’s House have a very negative interpretation of Nora as hopeless, willing to abandon her husband and even the children. They are unable to capture the contradictions of Nora’s situation. Her approach is similar to the one I have used in my translation and adaptation. The exchange with her was very useful and watching the rehearsal inspiring and useful for our efforts in Jakarta.

Watching Hedda Gabler at the Saterhytten Bygdoy was also interesting and thought provoking. The performance I saw, with actors Juni Dhar and four others, was enjoyable to observe, despite out lack of Norwegian language. We had, of course, read the play already. What was interesting was its brevity. It was a one hour performance of a play, as with many of Ibsen’s, that could be for three hours. It clearly worked, aided through the artistic, innovative use of a house as the “stage”. The audience watched from inside the house, located in a forest, from very intimate quarters, able to see and respond to a blink or a wink of the actor’s eye. In Indonesia, we will also not be aiming for a three hour plus performance. The challenge will be how to shorten, adapt and creatively present our adaptation. As Juni Dahr emphasized in the discussions, it is very appropriate “to shorten the story as long as you capture the spirit of the story and its characters.” We are sure that Indonesians who come to watch “A Doll’s House” next November and December at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta will get an inspiring dose of the spirit of rebellion and progress that is embodied in Ibsen.

NORA: "I have existed merely to perform tricks for you, Torvald. But you wanted it like that. You and father have committed a great sin against me. It is your fault that I have made nothing of my life. Our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was father's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls." Nora, Act Three

(Faiza Mardzoeki is Director of Institut Ungu, Producer, Translator, and Playwright of a new Indonesian adaptation of Ibsen’s Doll’s House)

Grace Susetyo talks to feminist playwright Faiza Mardzoeki about the present status of women in Indonesian society and her recent production

2011-04-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

thebuzz - Volume 2 Number 7 : April 2011
Women in Indonesia — Striving for Equal Rights
Celebrated yearly on April 21, Kartini’s birthday stands as a reminder of the remarkable progress Indonesia has made over the past two centuries in achieving greater equality for women. Grace Susetyo talks to feminist playwright Faiza Mardzoeki about the present status of women in Indonesian society and her recent production at Komunitas Salihara.
http://www.kemangbuzz.com/content/article/view.php?edisi_id=13&art_id=123

Performing A Doll’s House and public discussion on Henrik Ibsen in Indonesia

2011-02-26T02:54:00.000-08:00

Performing A Doll’s House and public discussion on Henrik Ibsen in Indonesia

Soon in 2011...!

Nora’s Sister Theater Project
Performing A Doll’s House
and public discussion on Henrik Ibsen in Indonesia

Translation and adaptation by Faiza Mardzoeki
Will be directed by wawan Sofwan
Produced by Faiza Mardzoeki
ACTORS: There will be AUDITION for roles in this play very soon

Faiza Mardzoeki's Porfolio

2010-08-31T03:20:00.000-07:00

Writer/Playwright/Producer/Cultural event organizer/Activist

Literary, Arts and Theatre Experience, 1996-2010.

2009-2010

During 2009, I worked on the preparation of three projects which were realized in early, 2010.

(1) They Call me Nyai Ontosoroh ( theater project - Playwright and Producer)

I wrote and produced a new, shorter, version of my earlier Nyai Ontosoroh (2007).

This project followed on negotiations I conducted with the Tropen Theatre in Amsterdam and the Tong Tong Festival in The Hague during a visit to The Netherlands in 2008. There was agreement for performances of Nyai Ontosoroh in The Netherlands, however a new version would be required as the original staging had a long duration (3 hours 20 minites) and involved a large cast. I wrote a new version that could be performed with four actors and went for 1.5 hours.

As producer, I negotiated the contract for the performances in the Tropen Theatre for May, 2010 and at the annual Tong Tong Festival in The Hague, also May, 2010. The new version was also performed at an arts centre in the major city of Bandung in Indonesia and in Jakarta, before departing for The Netherlands. The new version was called They Call me Nyai Ontosoroh. I worked with the same director and with some of the same 2007 task, by leading roles were taken by new actors in 2008. I took a team of ten to The Netherlands, including the director, four actors as well as musical and video art designers.

The performances in The Netherlands, and also in Belgium, were successful, usually with packed houses. In the Amsterdam and Belgium performances, the performances received standing ovations. They were performed in Indonesian, with English sub-titles.

I do intend investigating how They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh can be brought to Australia.

(2) Festival April, 2010 – a feminist art and cultural festival (founder, director festival)

In 2009, Institut Ungu, of which I am director, began work planning a 2010 Festival April, building on what we had done in 2003. This was successfully implemented in April 2010. The Festival comprised:
• an exhibition of photography by women on the theme of “Desiring the Body”
• traditional dance, including traditional dance forms recently banned in some areas as being too erotic
• theatrical and musical performances by women playwrights or directors
• public lectures on the state of the women’s movement
• screening of documentaries about current conditions faced by women
• screening in factory worker communities of feature films which had themes relevant to the plight of women

The festival was attended by approximately 2,000 people and received good media coverage.

(3) ‘Nora Sister’s: The Future of Acehnese Women: Toward a Community of Solidarity and A Doll ‘House Play” (writer, producer and project director of seminar)

I also produced and adapted for performance excerpts from Hendrik Ibsen’s “Doll’s House” as part of a seminar held in Aceh, Indonesia on women’s advancement. The seminar was sponsored and funded by the Norwegian government. I was also overall coordinator for the seminar event itself. It was attend by 200 people.

2009

During 2009, I have been a resource person and advisor for the “All Sumatra Women’s Theatre Stage”, commenting on gender and theatre, especially in regard to writing and directing. The program is being coordinated by the well-known theatre group, Teater Satu, based in Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia.

2008

1. Women Seize the Night (Drama Monologue Project- Writer and Producer)

In 2008, I produced and co-wrote three short plays, each written to be performed by a single, woman actor, under the theme Women Seize the Night. These plays were performed together in three capital cities in Indonesia during: Jakarta, Banda Aceh and Bandung. The Jakarta production was performed in Jakarta’s main theatre venue. They received wide critical acclaim in the Indonesian media.

2. Brecht Forum, New York: Nyai Ontosoroh presentation.

While visiting the United States in 2008, I was invited to make a presentation on my play Nyai Ontosoroh at the Brecht Forum in New York.

2007

1. Nyai Ontosoroh (The Concubine Ontosoroh) (Theater Project-Plawright-Producer)

In 2007, I wrote an adaptation as theatre of what is considered the greatest Indonesian novel Bumi Manusia (“This Earth of Mankind”) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. I was producer for a major performance of this play in April, 2007 under the title, Nyai Ontosoroh (The Concubine Ontosoroh). It was performed in the Graha Bhakti Theatre, the largest theatre in the Jakarta Arts Complex. It involved a total production team of 125 people, and 25 actors.

More than 1,000 people attended each performance. It was widely reported and discussed in then ational media. The major national daily, Kompas, declared it at the end of 2007 as the iconic theatre work of 2007. As producer, I carried out all executive producer tasks, as well as raising all funds for the production, from local private donations and funding from international funders.

The Jakarta production was under the banner of Institut Ungu.

In addition to writing and producing, the Jakarta production of Nyai Ontosoroh, I co-ordinated efforts to arrange the production of my adaptation in seven other provincial capital cities in the same year. Local theatre companies which were interested were brought to Jakarta to workshop the script. These local directors and actors then produced their own versions during the course of the year.

In November 2006, I had been invited to the "International Women Playwrights Conference" held in Jakarta, to make a presentation session on Nyai Ontosoroh.

2. Women Theatre Scenario Competition

I was also the coordinator of a jury judging play scripts that took up the issue of the situation of women in Indonesia. This was part of the Women Theatre Scenario Competition, Justice for The Poor, World Bank Project.

2004

In 2004, I lived in Perth.

- Organizing and Programming Indonesia Film Corner co-operation with Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
- Gave a paper presentation at Amnesty International Conference on Domestic Violence issues. I gave paper on “Indonesian Women Migrant Conditions Abroad’
- Gave a paper in a forum “Activating Human Rights and Art”. Human Right Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia

2003.

Festival April - Women’s arts and cultural festival, April, 2003

In 2003, together with a number of colleagues, I established the Institut Ungu, a collective for the production and encouragement of the use of the arts for raising feminist consciousness. As Institute Ungu Program Coordinator, in 2003 I had overall coordinating responsibility for organisation of the Festival April, a three week long cultural festival of events by and/or about women. The Festival was held in the main arts location in Jakarta, the Jakarta Arts Centre. It was called Festival April, choosing April as a regular time slot, to commemorate the birth of Kartini, a women who pioneered activities for the advancement of women and girls at the turn of the 20th century. Her posthumously published writings are considered the first feminist writings by an Indonesia women. She was born on April 21.

The program included a Fine Arts Exhibition of 48 women artists from around Indonesia as well as 2 from Finland. It also included a Women’s Film Festival that exhibited 32 films from around Indonesia and the world. There was also a Women’s Literary Festival involving book exhibitions and a series of public forums, and writing classes. The Festival also included a day-long seminar on Art and Women’s Liberation as well as a closing evening event, involving a Cultural Oration by two leading literary figures and musical, dance and other performances.

Apart from coordinating the organisation of all aspects of this festival, I also had responsibility for coordinating raising the funds for this event. Sources of funds included cultural and women’s funding organisations, the Dutch and Finnish cultural assistance programmes and commercial sponsorships.

The festival was attended by more than 5,000 people and was well covered by the Indonesian media.

Peace concert - July, 2003

Representing, the Institute Ungu, I co-ordinated the production team for a Peace Concert for Aceh scheduled for July 11. This involved liaison with popular music bands, other musicians, as well as well known literary figures and the preparation and coordination of the programme. More than 1,000 people attended this 23 hour concert in Jakarta’s main theatre in the Jakarta Art Centre complex.

2002

April, 2002 - Woman at Point Zero (Perempuan di Titik Nol)-A theater Project (Initiator, Producer)

In my capacity as head of Division on Education and Organisation of the leading national women’s rights organisation, Solidaritas Perempuan, I initiated the project to produce a theatrical adaptation of the Indonesian version of Women at Point Zero, the novel by Egyptian writer, Nawal El Saadawi. I held the positions as Co-Producer as well as Executive Producer of the performance. I had responsibility for coordinating all fundraising and financing efforts, publicity and media relations as well as all aspects of production, including daily oversight of direction and rehearsals.

Women at Point Zero was performed in April 2002 to commemorate the birthday of Indonesian feminist pioneer, Kartini. More than 2,000 people purchased tickets to attend the performance over two nights at the Jakarta Arts Centre’s premier drama theatre. The performance was extensively reported by the national media and a vigorous debate on feminist issues was generated as a result of the pre-production and post-production publicity and discussion.

1996

- Active in theatre arena at Taman Ismail Marzuki, including in the PAS theatre group.
- join the Satu Merah Panggung theatre group under leading director, Ratna Sarumpaet in the production of her play, "The Last Party/Pesta Terakhir", 1996

Published Articles

1. "Polygamy is a form of violence against women", published in The Jakarta Post, July 2003
2. "INDONESIA: Fight broadens against anti-women laws ", with Max Lane, published in Green Left Weekly, 15 March 2006
3. "Govt ignores Indonesian debt slaves' plight ", Opinion, published in The Jakarta Post- August 24, 2002
4. A film review " Muladee" film published in Women Journal, and others reviews on website layarperak.com (in Indonesia language)
5. "Wajah TKI kita, budak yang tergadaikan, Sinar Harapan, 2002 (about Indonesian Migrant Workers in Indonesian language)

Profile appearance in the mainstream daily newspaper

1. Feature/people The Jakarta Post, 2007
http://faizafaiza.blogspot.com/2007/12/feature-about-faiza-jakarta-post-26.html

2. Feature The Jakarta Post 2010 http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/06/02/%E2%80%98they-call-me-nyai-ontosoroh%E2%80%99.html

3. Koran Jakarta (Jakarta Daily Newspaper) , Nama dan Peristiwa (Name and Events), 2010

TV and Radio Talkshow

1. Radio talkshow on women’s issue as resource person (2006, 2007, 2008)
2. TVRI as resource person about women’s issue (International Women’s Day) with Rieke Diah Pitaloka and Dewi Hughes (2008)
3. TPI (Television) As resource person, panel with Indonesian Manpower Ministry debating about Indonesian Migrant Workers (2003)

Other work and community experience

Employment: 1997 until November 2002

Perserikatan Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights)

I worked as Head of the Education and Base Organising Division of Perserikatan Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights), and organisation advocating women’s rights, migrant workers’ rights and otherwise working to advance the position of women in society.

My work included organising local community groups of migrant workers and their families in those villages where large numbers of people have become migrant workers outside Indonesia. This also including organising training programmes about how to organise as well as taking up advocacy of relevant issues at a national and international level.

I have represented the organisation in delegations to the relevant cabinet Minister, Parliamentary Committees and national and international conferences.

Community and other Activities

International Experience:

1998
- Participated in a 2 week Shelter Exchange Programme in Malaysia
- Participated in a Post Trauma Counseling Syndrome training programme organised by the Australian Embassy in Jakarta
- Participated in training programmes on lobbying at the United Nations organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia

1999
- Presented a paper at the Regional Conference on Action Research on AIDS and Mobility held in Malaysia.

2000

- Participated in the Regional Steering Committee meeting on CARAM (Action Research on AIDS and Mobility) and a training programme on Action Research methods in Chengmai, Thailand
- Participated in a one month training and familiarisation programme with women’s organisations in the Philippines, including visiting villages where large numbers of people have left to work outside the Philippines.

2001

- Attended and presented a seminar paper at the Conference on Discrimination, Racism and Xenophobia (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa. The paper was on “Racism and Modern Day Slavery among Migrant Workers”.

2004

National Experience:

1997- 2002 :

1. An active participant in many seminars, including as a speaker, on women’s issues, especially in relation to violence against women and also migrant workers. Also active in many campaign networks on these issues.
2. An active participant in 4 feminist training courses organised by Solidaritas Perempuan.
3. Carried out short-term research on trafficking in women on the island of Batam, a transit location for migrant workers. (1999)
4. Carried out action research in Canjur, Kerawang Lumajang and Salatiga, four areas supplying migrant workers. The focus of the research was the impact on the villages of the migrant worker phenomenon.
5. Implemented training programs in villages sending large numbers of migrant workers out of the country. The training courses covered issues such as their basic rights, how to organise and issues relating women’s rights and situation.
6. Carried out advocacy work in the media (press, radio, TV) and with government relating to the deportation of migrant workers from Malaysia to the Indonesian island of Nunukan, Carried out brief field work on Nunukan into migrant worker deportee conditions. (2002)

1991- 1996

- Field organiser in the Yayasan Maju Bersama, a foundation promoting the rights of factory workers.
- Participated in training programmes in labour issues
- Attended an Asia Australia Worker Links conference in Melbourne in 1993

Faiza Talked about Nyai Ontosoroh in Paris

2010-07-03T00:36:00.000-07:00

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Nora sister Seminar and A doll's house Ibsen in Aceh

2010-06-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

“The Future of Acehnese Women: Towards a Community of Solidarity”
Hotel Hermes, Banda Aceh, 28 April 2010,

Organized by Institut Ungu and Norwegian Embassy Jakarta and supported by Flower Aceh

Background

The seminar Nora’s Sisters has been organized 17 times in 15 countries around the world by Norwegian Embassies in cooperation with local institutions since 2006. The idea behind the seminars is to put women’s issues on the agenda in different cultures by using the writings of Ibsen as a source of inspiration.

Henrik Ibsen (1828 – 1906) was a Norwegian playwright who is the most performed writer worldwide after Shakespeare. His plays were highly controversial in his own time, and still remain contemporary in terms of topics and criticism – more than 100 years after his death.

The Centre for Ibsen Studies in Oslo is running a project called “Ibsen between cultures”. Its specific goal is to reach an understanding of Ibsen’s function as a global dramatist, i.e. how an Ibsen play is evaluated, and how the value of the plays are altered, shifted, transferred and appropriated, when localized in new cultural contexts.

Nora is the main character in Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House written in 1879. It was the first of Ibsen’s to create a sensation and is now perhaps his most famous play. It was controversial when first published – and is often characterized as the first true feminist play. The story portraits a woman who has been treated as a toy all her life – first by her father and then by her husband. Finally she is revolting by leaving her husband. Thus A Doll’s House criticizes the traditional roles of men and women in 19th century marriage. The end of the play, where Nora slams the door and leaves her husband has been subject to critics, interpretation and change ever since the original version and several alternative endings have been produced throughout theatres all over the world.

Both the topical interest and cultural flexibility in Ibsen’s writings make Aceh an interesting venue for a seminar of this kind. In the Acehnese context Nora’s life and destiny is highly relevant, as it is in many countries. The purpose of using Ibsen’s play as a starting point is to discuss under which conditions men and women are living together and what kind of expectations, traditions, laws and regulations that define their relationship, both at home and in society.

Consistant with the Acehnese context and cultural setting, the seminar is inviting panelists who can address these issues from different perspectives:
• How is the cultural and social history of Aceh encouraging women to take active part in society?
• What influence do Acehnese women have on their own situation? Where do they see themselves in 10 years? (since reformation era/post Soeharto era)
• What are the expectations for the future towards Acehnese women –from themselves, their family, the community?
• How can the women in Aceh create a community of solidarity, if they would like to change anything?
• To what extent is the current political and religious trends in Aceh conflicting Indonesian law and international obligations?
• To what extent is sharia law compatible with a society having modern aspirations?

PANEL discussion with opening A performance of excerpts from “A doll' house” by Henrik Ibsen, constructed onto a short dramatic piece by Faiza Mardzoeki and performed by Utami Aditia Wardani and Wawan Sofwan

NORA SISTER SEMINAR AND A DOLL's HOUSE IBSEN IN ACEH

2010-06-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.serambinews.com/news/view/29534/hari-ini-dubes-norwegia-buka-seminar-perempuan-aceh

Wed, Apr 28th 2010, 14:23
Hari Ini, Dubes Norwegia Buka Seminar Perempuan Aceh
Kutaraja
BANDA ACEH - Duta Besar Norwegia, Eivind S Homme, hari ini Rabu (28/4) membuka Seminar Masa Depan Perempuan Aceh (The Future of Acehnese Women) bersama Rektor Universitas Syiah Kuala, Prof Dr Darni Daud di Hotel Hermes Palace, Banda Aceh.

Seminar yang membahas tentang bagaimana sejarah dan budaya Aceh mendorong perempuan Aceh mengambil peran aktif dalam masyarakat ini, akan diawali dengan pementasan drama pendek internasional berjudul Rumah Boneka.

Menurut Direktur Eksekutif Institut Ungu, Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki dan, diskusi tentang masa depan perempuan yang dikenal dengan Seminar Nora’ Sister ini sudah diselenggarakan 17 kali di 15 negara di dunia. Untuk Indonesia kata dia, mereka memilih menggelar seminar ini di Aceh. Mereka menganggap Aceh sangat relevan untuk isu perempuan.

“Mendengar kata Aceh yang pertama terlintas dipikiran adalah negeri tempat perempuan perkasa, tempat pahlawan perempuan. Kami ingin menganalisa posisi perempuan Aceh terkini, kami harapkan akan ada analisa yang jujur terhadap keadaan dan posisi perempuan Aceh sekarang. Dengan analisa yang jujur mudah-mudahan para peserta yang hadir bisa mengambil langkah-langkah dan kebijakan yang tepat dan adil bagi perempuan Aceh,” imbuh Steering Committee kegiatan yang juga berasal dari Institut Ungu, Yeni Rosa Damayanti.

Drama pendek berjudul asli A Dolls House yang akan dipentaskan selama 30 menit ini, kata Yenni adalah drama paling kontroversial dan terkenal karya penulis drama Norwegia Henrik Ibsen. Sedang Norwegia dan Aceh lanjut Yenni, memiliki kesamaan kondisi tentang posisi perempuan.

“Norwegia adalah salah satu negara di dunia yang sangat menghargai perempuan. Banyak perempuan di sana yang menjadi pejabat publik dan memegang posisi penting di pemerintahan, kondisi ini mirip dengan kondisi perempuan Aceh di masa lalu,” info dia.

Pendiri Flower Aceh Suraiya Kamaruzzaman, seminar ini akan diikuti oleh semua lapisan masyarakat. Diskusi panel akan menghadirkan narasumber Wakil Gubernur Aceh, Muhammad Nazar, Dr Eka Mulyani (Wakil Direktur Pasca sarjana IAIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh), Ismayani (Kepala Badan Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak), dan Yuniyanti Chufaezah (Ketua Komnas Perempuan).

“Kami mengundang semua lapisan masyarakat, terutama pihak-pihak yang punya peranan penting untuk menyampaikan isi seminar ke lingkungannya, atau yang bisa mengambil kebijakan untuk kemajuan perempuan Aceh. Mulai dari pekerja di NGO perempuan, akademisi, pemerintah, anggota DPR dan DPRK, ulama, dan dari dayah, hakim perempuan, mahasiswa, juga perempuan-perempuan yang concern menangani masalah perempuan di Aceh,” pungkas tokoh perempuan Aceh ini.(ami)

http://tanahrenconk.blogspot.com/2010/04/dubes-norwegia-buka-seminar-perempuan.html
Rabu, 28 April 2010
Dubes Norwegia Buka Seminar Perempuan Aceh

Duta Besar Norwegia, Eivind S Homme, membuka Seminar Masa Depan Perempuan Aceh Menuju Masyarakat Silidaritas bersama Rektor Universitas Syiah Kuala, Prof Dr Darni Daud di Hotel Hermes Palace, Banda Aceh. Rabu (28/4)
Seminar yang membahas tentang bagaimana sejarah dan budaya Aceh mendorong perempuan Aceh mengambil peran aktif dalam masyarakat ini, diawali dengan pementasan drama pendek internasional berjudul Rumah Boneka. Drama pendek ini berjudul A Dolls House dipentaskan selama 30 menit karya penulis drama Norwegia Hendrik Ibsen.
Menurut Direktur Eksekutif Institut Ungu, Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki dan, diskusi tentang masa depan perempuan yang dikenal dengan Seminar Nora’ Sister ini sudah diselenggarakan 17 kali di 15 negara di dunia. Tapi ini adalah kali pertama di selenggarakan di Indonesia.

seminar ini diikuti oleh semua lapisan masyarakat dengan menghadirkan narasumber Dr Eka Mulyani (Wakil Direktur Pasca sarjana IAIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh), Ismayani (Kepala Badan Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak), dan Yuniyanti Chufaezah (Ketua Komnas Perempuan).
Diposkan oleh Cint@ Atjeh di 22:49
0 komentar:

http://tanahrenconk.blogspot.com/2010/04/dubes-norwegia-buka-seminar-perempuan.html
Rabu, 28 April 2010
Dubes Norwegia Buka Seminar Perempuan Aceh

Duta Besar Norwegia, Eivind S Homme, membuka Seminar Masa Depan Perempuan Aceh Menuju Masyarakat Silidaritas bersama Rektor Universitas Syiah Kuala, Prof Dr Darni Daud di Hotel Hermes Palace, Banda Aceh. Rabu (28/4)
Seminar yang membahas tentang bagaimana sejarah dan budaya Aceh mendorong perempuan Aceh mengambil peran aktif dalam masyarakat ini, diawali dengan pementasan drama pendek internasional berjudul Rumah Boneka. Drama pendek ini berjudul A Dolls House dipentaskan selama 30 menit karya penulis drama Norwegia Hendrik Ibsen.
Menurut Direktur Eksekutif Institut Ungu, Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki dan, diskusi tentang masa depan perempuan yang dikenal dengan Seminar Nora’ Sister ini sudah diselenggarakan 17 kali di 15 negara di dunia. Tapi ini adalah kali pertama di selenggarakan di Indonesia.

seminar ini diikuti oleh semua lapisan masyarakat dengan menghadirkan narasumber Dr Eka Mulyani (Wakil Direktur Pasca sarjana IAIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh), Ismayani (Kepala Badan Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak), dan Yuniyanti Chufaezah (Ketua Komnas Perempuan).
Diposkan oleh Cint@ Atjeh di 22:49
0 komentar:

Dari Website Kedutaan Norwegia di Jakarta

http://www.norwegia.or.id/News_and_events/Budaya/Ibsen-with-a-twist-in-Aceh/

Ibsen di Aceh

25/05/2010 // Kedutaan Besar Norwegia, bekerja sama dengan institusi lokal telah menyelenggarakan seminar Nora’s Sister di seluruh dunia, sejak peringatan tahun Ibsen 2006.

Ide di belakang seminar ini adalah menempatkan isu perempuan dalam agenda berbagai budaya dengan meggunakan tulisan Ibsen sebagai sumber inspirasi.

Topik dan fleksibilitas budaya (flexibility) dalam tulisan Ibsen menjadikan Aceh tempat yang menarik untuk menggelar seminar semacam ini di Indonesia. Lebih lanjut, kehidupan dan garis hidup Nora sangat relevan dengan konteks Aceh.

Drama Ibsen merupakan drama yang universal, sesuai dengan keadaan saat ini, dan permasalahan yang diangkat merupakan permasalahan umum sehari-hari. Dalam dramanya, Ibsen mengangkat pertanyaan seputar kekuasaan politik, idealisme, fanatisme, korupsi, lingkungan, anak-anak terlantar, kebebasan individu, permasalahan budaya dan sosio-ekonomi dan kesetaraan jender, serta hak asasi manusia.

Participants at the semeinar in Aceh. Participants at the semeinar in Aceh.

Salah satu aspek yang menyentuh Aceh adalah pertanyaan tentang hukum sharia; yang tidak hanya menyangkut isu tentang politik dan hukum, namun juga isu sehubungan dengan perempuan karena implementasi hukum ini akan banyak membawa dampak bagi kaum perempuan.

Setelah penampilan yang mengagumkan dari cuplikan drama Ibsen “A Doll’s House” yang disutradari oelh Fauzi Marzodieki dari Institut Ungu, seminar dibuka oleh Direktur Dewa Made Sastrawan, yang mengepalai Western Europe Desk di Kemlu, Duta Besar Norwegia Eivind S. Homme dan rektor Universitas Syah Kuala Prof. Dr. Darni Daud.

Diskusi panel yang dipimpin Debra H. Yatim menghadirkan pembicara Suraiya Kamruzzman dari Flower Aceh/Solidaritas Perempuan Aceh, Dr. Eka Mulyani, Deputy Director Studi Pasca Sarjana Banda Aceh IAIN dan Dr. Yuniyanti Chuzaefah, ketua Komisi Nasional Anti Kekerasan Terhadap Perempuan. Seminar ditutup dengan tarian tradisional Aceh.

Baru-baru ini Hari Kartini diperingati diseluruh Indonesia dan pergerakan perempuan menempatkan dirinya di urutan pertama agenda. Kedutaan Besar Norwegia ingin mendukung hal ini dengan menyelenggarakan diskusi antara perempuan Aceh mengenai masa depan mereka.

Kondisi seperti apa yang dapat membuat lelaki dan perempuan hidup bersama, harapan, tradisi, hukum dan peraturan yang menentukan hubungan mereka, baik di rumah maupun di masyarakat? Seminar ini dimaksudkan untuk memulai debat oleh dan untuk para saudara perempuan – dan saudara laki-laki – Nora di Aceh.

Kedutaan Besar Norwegia menyampaikan rasa terima kasih kepada Institut Ungu yang telah mengkoordinir acara ini, Kemlu untuk dukungan mereka, Universitas di Aceh dan kepada 150 peserta dan LSM yang telah berkontribusi terhadap kesuksesan acara ini.

ANTARA NEWS ON THEY CALL ME NYAI ONTOSOROH IN INDONESIAN LANGUANGE

2010-06-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

Perjuangan Wanita Jawa "Nyai Ontosoroh" Dipentaskan di Belgia

Sabtu, 29 Mei 2010 01:55 WIB | Hiburan | Seni/Teater/Budaya |

London (ANTARA News) - Nyai Ontosoroh, perjuangan seorang wanita Jawa yang mempertahankan hak dan martabat pribumi, drama teater garapan sutradara Wawan Sofwan dan produser Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki mendapat sambutan meriah penonton di Zuiderpershuis Culturel Centrum, di kota Antwerpen-Belgia.

Standing applause selama kurang lebih 15 menit menunjukkan antusiasme penonton yang memadati ruang pertunjukan usai menyaksikan drama teater "They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh," ujar Sekretaris III Pensosbud/Diplik, Royhan N. Wahab, kepada koresponden Antara London, Sabtu.

Dikatakannya cerita "They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh" merupakan racikan atau adaptasi Faiza yang didasarkan pada novel "Bumi Manusia" (This Earth of Mankind) salah satu karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer yang diterbitkan pada tahun 1980.

Penggarapannya membutuhkan waktu sekitar dua tahun sebelum dilakukannya pertunjukan perdana pada tahun 2007 yang lalu di beberapa kota di Indonesia.

Drama teater berdurasi sekitar 100 menit tersebut didukung empat tokoh utama, Nyai Ontosoroh yang diperankan Sita Nursanti, Annelies oleh Agni Melati, Minke diperankan Bagus Setiawan, dan Willem Bevers sebagai Meneer Herman Mellema.

Riki Destiawan yang juga pernah manggung di beberapa tempat di Belgia bersama grup Lungsuran Daur pada Oktober 2009 yang lalu juga ikut mendukung drama teater tersebut sebagai Music Director.

Pertunjukan di kota Antwerpen-Belgia tersebut merupakan rangkaian terakhir pertunjukan drama teater "They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh" di Eropa yang sebelumnya telah tampil di beberapa tempat di negeri Belanda.

Kepiawaian Faiza dalam membuat naskah cerita drama berdurasi asli 180 menit tersebut mampu membuat penonton larut dalam cerita yang mengisahkan perjuangan seorang wanita pribumi di Jawa Timur menghadapi realita ketidakadilan hukum yang dirasakan di masa lalu.

"Penonton seolah-olah benar-benar berada di dalam cerita tersebut", demikian pengakuan Made Wardana, seorang penonton yang sengaja datang dari kota Brussel hanya untuk menyaksikan penampilan drama teater tersebut.

Dalam pembuatannya, Faiza harus memangkas sekitar 400 naskah halaman cerita yang asli menjadi 60 halaman naskah peran. Dan tidak hanya itu, Faiza juga berkonsultasi dengan artis kawakan Slamet Rahardjo dan Jajang C. Noer demi meningkatkan kualitas cerita di dalam naskah.

Pertunjukan seni teater ini merupakan hal yang baru bagi promosi seni dan budaya Indonesia di Belgia, terutama drama teater yang disampaikan dalam bahasa Indonesia di depan publik Belgia.

Menurut Royhan N. Wahab, promosi seni dan budaya Indonesia dilakukan di Eropa khususnya Belgia, biasanya menggunakan media film maupun media seni tari dan musik yang sering kali didengar oleh telinga masyarakat Eropa menggunakan bahasa Indonesia.

Namun kali ini, melalui seni peran teater, bukan hanya seni teater Indonesia saja yang dipromosikan, namun juga bahasa Indonesia-nya.

Pusat Budaya Indonesia yang baru diresmikan Dubes Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, Maret lalu secara bertahap akan menjadi sentra promosi seni dan budaya Indonesia di Eropa khususnya di Belgia dan Luksemburg.

Seni drama teater Indonesia bisa menjadi salah satu andalan promosi seni dan budaya Indonesia di dalam Pusat Budaya tersebut ke depannya, demikian Royhan N. Wahab. (Ant/K004)

COPYRIGHT © 2010

The Jakarta Post Review on They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh

2010-06-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

A concubine’s plight:A concubine’s plight: Nyai Ontosoroh, played by Sita Nursanti, takes the center stage in Faiza Mardzoeki’s adaptation of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), titled They Call me Nyai Ontosoroh, performed at Amsterdam’s Tropen Theater last month. A concubine’s plight: Nyai Ontosoroh, played by Sita Nursanti, takes the center stage in Faiza Mardzoeki’s adaptation of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), titled They Call me Nyai Ontosoroh, performed at Amsterdam’s Tropen Theater last month.

Feature-The Jakarta Post
‘They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh’
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Wed, 06/02/2010 9:05 AM | Feature
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Faiza Mardzoeki’s adaptation of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), staged at Amsterdam’s Tropen Theater last month, shed the spotlight on a situation many tend to forget, which is as relevant today as in previous centuries.

Unlike the original version where Minke, the Javanese student educated at the exclusive Dutch-language school and of royal Javanese birth, plays the main protagonist, Faiza’s Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh lets the woman (Nyai) take the lead and tell her story.

Mardzoeki’s adaptation of the play was a short version of the three-hour original performed in 2007 by nine different directors in nine different Indonesian cities. This shorter version, titled They Call me Nyai Ontosoroh, was commissioned by the Tropen Theater.

Written and produced by Faiza Mardzoeki, and directed by Wawan Sofwan, the play uses flash back techniques with video art by Ariani Darmawan and Yudith, two experienced film and video artists.

The music was directed by Riki Setiawan, and Deden Bulqini was responsible for the stage design. The cast comprised Sita Nursanti as Nyai Ontososroh, Agni Melati as Annelies, Willem Bevers as Meneer Herman Mellema, and Bagus Setiawan as Minke.

Performed last month in Amsterdam, the play starts at a point when the original story almost ends.

While opening her old suitcase, the one that she brought with her when she was sold to the Dutch man Mellema — and which would be used again by her daughter who is about to leave her for Holland, Nyai reminisces about her life.

Her memories first take her back to the time she entered Mellema’s house as an uneducated young girl chosen to be the white man’s concubine. She remembers the process of “assimilation” she underwent, in which she acquired knowledge, learned how to speak Dutch fluently, became well versed in literature, and gradually turned into a woman of means and authority, until she ultimately succumbed to the sad reality that she was just a nyai (concubine) without any rights, not even those of a mother.

As known from previous adaptations staged in Jakarta, this play is about the fate of a Javanese girl sold by her father to a Dutch man, to become his concubine. Her master, the manager and shared owner of the farm that she helped develop, educated her. They had two children, a son and a daughter, who were lawfully acknowledged as children of the Dutch man.

Nyai Ontosoroh, however, remained non-existent in the eyes of the law. So when her master’s son — from his wife in Holland — came to scold his father for having left his mother and for his relationship with a “native”, Nyai’s life took a turn for the worst.

Her husband stopped defending her, only visited home sporadically and eventually died. Meanwhile her daughter Annelies fell in love with and married Minke, a Javanese who joined the ranks of those fighting against the Dutch. When Nyai’s husband Mellema was no longer around, his Dutch son demanded custody of Annelies.

And so it happened, that in spite of the impressive speech Nyai Ontosoroh delivered in court to keep her daughter, the Javanese concubine’s right as a mother were dismissed by the court. Her daughter Annelies left for Holland, taking with her the mother’s suitcase filled with the burden of the past. Nyai defended her right, in vain.

Although the story follows the lives of four characters — Nyai Ontosoroh who evolves from helpless girl to a strong woman undeterred by Dutch authorities, her master Mellema who initially teaches her everything to make her a “lady”, their daughter Annelies who has nothing of her mother’s strength but falls in love with Minke, the Javanese Dutch-educated aristocrat who turns against the Dutch with his sharp writings, Nyai Ontosoroh’s character clearly dominates all the scenes. This is Faiza’s way of imparting her view about women’s role in society.

Yet, the acting and timbre of Nyai’s voice did not convey the character’s strength, let alone evoke a thrill. In general, the roles appeared well studied, but only Willem Bevers gave a convincing portrayal of his character Mellema.

Nevertheless, They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh is a reminder that repression stimulates reaction, and that women, or minorities for that matter, can’t be silenced forever. Faiza Mardzoeki deserves credit for having taken a local story to tackle this big issue, and for succeeding in bringing the performance to Amsterdam, The Hague and Antwerp.

Faiza, 36, who was born into a family of 10 children, soon discovered her status as a girl vis-à-vis that of her brothers. Working in a garment factory was even more of an eye opener, as she experienced the abysmal working conditions female workers were subjected to.

Faiza has been a longtime activist, an active member of the NGO Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity) and co-founder of the Ungu Institute, which promotes the empowerment of women through cultural activities. Although she has always loved going to the theatre to watch plays, she only recently started writing scripts. Last April, she staged an adaptation of Ibsen in Aceh.

They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh was staged in Amsterdam’s Tropen Theater on May 20 and 21, at the Tong Tong Festival in The Hague on May 23 and 24, and in Antwerp on May 25.

The rise and fall of Indonesia’s women’s movement

2010-05-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

The rise and fall of Indonesia’s women’s movement
Dian Kuswandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/21/2010 11:07 AM | Feature
A | A | A |

Girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. Boys are made of snips and snails, and puppy-dog tails.

The famous lines — made popular through an old nursery rhyme — might sound nothing but funny to us. But if we look beyond those amusing words, we will soon realize they are ridden with gender stereotypes.

Yes, like it or not, the rhyme assumes that women should possess loving, kind and sweet personalities – as opposed to the tough, rough and aggressive traits said to belong to men.

And poor Kartini. Although she has been hailed as Indonesia’s first feminist, the Javanese aristocrat, who was born in 1879, was actually the “victim” of this kind of gender construction. Over the past decades, her image has been “remodeled” to reinforce the country’s patriarchal culture, as revealed by feminist scholar Saskia Eleonora Wieringa.

As far back as Indonesia’s colonial period, “Kartini was actually depicted as a brilliant and rebellious woman who fought for women’s right to education,” said Wieringa, who currently visited Jakarta to attend the April Festival, a celebration of women.

During the Old Order regime under former president Sukarno, she went on, Kartini symbolized the struggle against Dutch colonial arrogance, as her mother come from an oppressed working class background.

But then, “the New Order regime tamed [the image of] Kartini and narrowed her to a woman with a domestic role,” said the professor at the University of Amsterdam. “Her spirit and fight against male domination were thus erased,” she added.

So thanks to Soeharto’s New Order regime, we have until today acknowledged Kartini as nothing but a graceful Javanese aristocrat, with decent manners. And because of that, every year when we celebrate Kartini Day on April 21, we witness children marching in colorful traditional costumes and women slaving over cooking contests, flower arrangements and fashion modeling. The essence of Kartini’s struggle, thus, has shifted away to irrelevant issues.

So, what makes this changing image of Kartini important today? Well, realize it or not, it has marked the rise and fall of the women’s emancipation movement in the country.

Mariana Amiruddin, director of Jurnal Perempuan Foundation, explained how powerful the image of Kartini created by Soeharto remains until today, with women still trapped in the New Order’s “motherly” concept of “good women”. Exacerbating this, she went on, were religious doctrines of fundamentalists reinforcing this perception of the role of women.

So today, the concept of the ideal woman has been reduced to the following: “Indonesian women are supposed to embrace Eastern and Islamic cultures, where they dress in appropriate clothing that covers their aurat [parts of the body that are mustn’t be showed], as well as become good mothers who serve their husbands, nurture their children and support the family,” as stated by Mariana, also during the April Festival.

This kind of narrow perception on the role of women, Mariana said, has hampered the efforts of today’s feminists to fight for women’s rights. When these feminist groups fought against the recently passed Pornography Law, for example, they were accused of being immoral, while they actually tried to protect women from being criminalized by the law.

“Today, we [feminists] are no longer perceived as the guard of the Reform Era,” Mariana lamented. “Instead, we’re known as groups of girls who are out of control.” Feminism, on the other hand, she added, was seen as a doctrine preached by immoral liberal activists.

“No matter how many times we told them about Kartini, they still think feminism came from the West,” Mariana said.

Parallels can be drawn between today’s Indonesian feminist movement and Gerwani, the Indonesian Women’s Movement that was destroyed by former president Soeharto following the 1965 tragedy – which was blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

“Although we haven’t been jailed or murdered like Gerwani members, we feel the old New Order’s practice of barring [women’s] freedom has now been revived,” Mariana argued. “While Gerwani was besmirched for being PKI’s affiliate during that era, feminists today have been accused of being part of Western movements aiming to destroy Indonesia.”

Gerwani – a mass women’s movement with millions of members from the grassroots and global community – was known as group of young and brilliant women activists fighting for women’s rights in the fields of ideology, education, politic and economy – all inspired by Kartini’s progressive ideas.

An expert in Gerwani history, Wieringa, said the destruction of the organization marked the worst setback for the Indonesian women’s movement. Yes, while there once was a progressive and influential women’s movement, Indonesia today has turned into a breeding place for kuntilanak wangi, or perfumed female ghosts – a term Wieringa used to depict women groups carrying out Soeharto’s patriarchal agenda.

These kuntilanak wangi, Wieringa explained, were groups of women wearing fashionable clothes and perfume.

Instead of voicing women’s rights like Gerwani did, these women worked on “diverting” women’s focus on domestic issues such as “dapur – sumur – kasur” (kitchen, bathroom and bedroom).

Under government-controlled organizations like Dharma Wanita, Dharma Pertiwi and PKK (Family Empowerment and Welfare Movement), these kuntilanak wangi had buried women’s critical thinking on violence and oppression.

And as mentioned before, we can see how successful they were from the way we narrowly celebrate Kartini Day.

Women’s voices: Four women perform a play titled Kartini’s letters for the opening of the April Festival at Goethe-Haus in Jakarta, on April 3. The four-day festival themed “Raising Women’s Voices” celebrated Kartini Day. Courtesy of the Institut Ungu/Aji BaskoroWomen’s voices: Four women perform a play titled Kartini’s letters for the opening of the April Festival at Goethe-Haus in Jakarta, on April 3. The four-day festival themed “Raising Women’s Voices” celebrated Kartini Day. Courtesy of the Institut Ungu/Aji Baskoro

April Festival’s director Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki said that a number of feminists like herself were concerned that Kartini’s inspirational ideas had been lost along the way, and all she would be remembered for was her politeness and her dress sense.

“Kartini, thus, has lived among us only as a myth – a polite Javanese aristocrat, who finally had to accept the fact that she had to share her husband with other women – although she never agreed with polygamy,” Faiza said. “No one will remember her as a rebellious figure with progressive ideas.”

Of course, like the feminists have suggested, the Reform Era in 1998 has given women opportunities to revive the real spirit of Kartini. However, as Mariana suggested, the Reform Era was nothing but “a short-term honeymoon” moment for women’s movement.

When the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid changed the name of the ministry of women affairs into the ministry of women’s empowerment, for example, feminists felt very confident about their cause. In addition to that, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) was given full support to continue its investigation into the May 1998 tragedy, where many Chinese women were sexually abused.

“During Megawati’s era, we were more enthusiastic because the first woman was finally installed as a president amid opposition from some religious leaders,” Mariana said. “Megawati then also succeeded in passing the law on domestic violence.”

Celebrating women’s achievement even more, she added, was the policy of granting women a 30 percent quota of seats in the Parliament.

However, this celebration of women’s movement had to end in 2005, when Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono won his first presidential term.

“The year marked the introduction of the pornography bill, which was mentioned by President SBY during his first [presidential] speech,” said Mariana. “He even took the opportunity to comment about women’s belly buttons!”

And from that moment on, she went on, the women’s movement in Indonesia started to lose its ground. While battling against the criminalization of women, feminists have been labeled as “Western devilish agents”, gaining a bad reputation in society.

Celebrating Women's "Herstory"

2010-05-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Life
April Festival: Celebrating women's `herstory'
Dian Kuswandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 04/10/2010 11:33 AM | Life
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The image of the famous heroine Kartini might evoke nothing other than a graceful aristocrat Javanese lady wearing a kebaya - a traditional long-sleeved Javanese blouse - and a sanggul (elaborate chignon).

That is why today, every time we celebrate Kartini Day on April 21, we'll see parades of little girls in colorful kebaya, or other traditional attires - along with fashion shows and costume competitions. Little do we realize that the way we celebrate the spirit of Kartini has shifted away from the essence of her contribution to the women's emancipation movement in Indonesia during the 19th century.

This year, then, could be the time for us to begin reshaping our views and attitude towards Kartini Day. And the April Festival, which will run from April 13 to 27, 2009, in Jakarta, will give us the opportunity to explore the forgotten, inspiring thoughts of Kartini and celebrate women's diverse identities and creativity.

"Kartini has always been remembered merely as a *myth'," says director and choreographer Laksmi Notokusumo, the festival's committee member.

"Her progressive ideas are never brought up; her image has been nothing but that of a dull lady, who shared her husband with other women," she adds.

The festival's director Faiza Hidayati Mardzoeki says a number of feminists like herself are concerned that Kartini's inspiring ideas have been lost along the way, and all she is remembered for is her politeness and her dress sense.

"We also have other heroines like Dewi Sartika and Cut Nyak Dien, but their ideas have been forgotten," Faiza says. As a consequence, "We have no records of *herstory'. Even if we did, it would be twisted like Kartini's **herstory'*."

So, for the sake of women's "herstory", Faiza's non-governmental organization, the Institut Ungu, established the Festival April as a platform to raise the voice of women.

"This festival attempts to create a space for women to explore their creativity, support their thoughts and connect them to our society," says Faiza.

At the center of the festival is a theatrical performance titled Surat-surat Kartini (Kartini's Letters), which will open up our minds to the heroine's progressive thoughts on women's rights and social issues in her epoch.

"We're aiming to revive some of Kartini's ideas through this theatrical performance," says Laksmi, the show's director. "We'll explore the different sides of Kartini we've never known before - how wild she was, and how she mastered many skills. It will be a very interesting performance," she adds.

Should you be interested in catching this show, pencil it in your agenda on April 13, at 8 p.m. The show will take place at Goethe-Haus in Menteng, Central Jakarta, and you can pick up your free ticket on the spot.

The next day, Dutch scholar and activist Saskia Wierenga from the University of Amsterdam will give a mind-provoking cultural speech in the same venue at 7 p.m., sharing her research on how the New Order regime rejected feminism. Wieringa wrote Sejarah Penghancuran Gerakan Perempuan di Indonesia (the History of the Destruction of Indonesia's Women Movement), a work regarded as highly influential among Indonesian feminists.

Jurnal Perempuan's director Mariana Amiruddin will share the podium with Wieringa, and explain her views on the struggles faced by contemporary feminists like her.

"I will highlight how the women movement in Indonesia has been facing a setback during the SBY *President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono* government," Mariana says. "I call it *a movement that is going back to square one'."

While Mariana says she represents young feminists, other young figures will also have a voice during the festival. Indie musician Tika Jahja of Tika & the Dissidents, actress Atiqah Hasiholan and young historian Rhoma Dwi Arya Yuliantri, whose book was banned recently by the government, will also appear at Goethe-Haus on April 16, at 3:30 p.m.

Coming from different backgrounds, these young individuals will discuss what it's like to be a woman today and share their views on the arts.

Besides these three events, the Festival April will also hold exotic Tari Jaipong and Tari Topeng dance performances at Sanggar Baru, Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Central Jakarta, on April 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tari Topeng's maestro Wangi Indriya will treat us to a sample of the traditional dance, which is now under threat from the Pornography Law.

"Many traditional dancers have been jailed because of the law," Faiza laments. "Activists have become restless as a result. We know these women dance for a living, while preserving our traditional heritage."

Faiza also recommends the festival's three other events that will be taking place at Goethe-Haus - a photos exhibition titled "Mendamba Tubuh" (Longing for the Body) that will run from April 13 to 16; a theater performance from West Sumatra's Padang titled Tiga Perempuan (Three Women) and a monologue titled Makkunrai from South Sulawesi's Makassar - both on April 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Then from Goethe-Haus and Taman Ismail Marzuki, Faiza goes on, "we'll move on to the *industrial park* Kawasan Berikat Nusantara Cakung (in East Jakarta) where we will screen three movies with female laborers working in the area."

The movies - Pertaruhan (The Betting), Jamila dan Sang Presiden (Jamila and the President) and Perempuan Berkalung Sorban (Women in Keffiyeh) are expected to inspire female laborers to fight for their rights.

"The female workers there acknowledge they're underpaid and would be underprivileged if they took on contract-based work," says program coordinator Vivi Widyawati, "but they have no idea that they're entitled to basic rights in education and health at the workplace."

More information about the Festival April:

021-8304531 (Institut Ungu)

2010-04-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

BALI SONETA

Green, deep green
Chlorophyll blinds the eyes keen
Black earth, brown aches
Sticky mud between toes cakes.

Tears irrigate the picture
painted under the labouring harvest's stricture
Paddy, palms, coconuts, frangipanis
Creations of peasant hands canny

Rice sold and eaten
Suffices to keep deep want beaten
But for the future there are no savings
School, culture, dignity unsatisfied cravings.

Green beauty massages the soul
A rested spirit is the tourist's dole.
The holy dollar has bought the view
Aching fingers sculpt paradise for the few.

(by Niku, 8 April 2010)

FESTIVAL APRIL 2010

2010-03-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

Liberation and Creativity for Women

Festival April is a women’s event organized in conjunction with the anniversary of the birth of Kartini, Indonesia’s renowned feminist.

April, which coincides with the month when Kartini was born, has become the opportune momentum for women to celebrate their accomplishments, for self-evaluation and reflection, to identify concerns and struggles that lie ahead, and to impart messages of their own to the public including the younger generation.
We also hold a greater hope that as society grows to appreciate art and culture, so will their understanding on and respect for human rights, tolerance and pluralism.

Institut Ungu introduced the first April Festival in 2003 which proved to be a successful event with a turnout of some 5,000 visitors and received extensive news coverage. This tremendous reception from the public has inspired us to recreate the festival as a way of ensuring that the strength of mind and aspirations of Kartini and other Indonesian contemporary women thinkers continue to thrive amongst us.

THEATER: THEY CALL ME NYAI ONTOSOROH ON TOUR-May 2010

2010-03-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

PRODUCTION NOTES:

“They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh” is a short version of the play “Nyai Ontosoroh” adapted by Faiza Mardzoeki from the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The original "Nyai Ontosoroh" (a three hour long production) was performed in 2007 by nine different directors in nine different Indonesian cities. It attracted thousands and received wide publcity and critical acclaim in both national and provincial media.

The new, shorter version, "The Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh", has been commissioned by the Tropen Theatre of Amsterdam to be performed in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2010. It is being produced by Faiza Mardzoeki and directed by Wawan Sofwan. Using flash back techniques, it presents the suspense filled life journey of the concubine (nyai) called Ontorosoh.

The production will also use video art by Ariani Darmawan and Yudith, two experienced film and video artists. The music is being directed by Riki Setiawan and the stage has been designed by Deden Bulqini. Deden is also the accomplished stage designer. Costumes and make up are being coordinated by Irina Dayasih.
The cast comprises Sita Nursanti as Nyai Ontosoroh; Agni Melati as Annelies; Willem Bevers as Meneer Herman Mellema and Bagus Setiawan as Minke.

Schedule:

Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, 7 May 2010, 8 pm
Erasmus Huis-Jakarta, 11 May, 8 pm
Tropen Theater Amsterdam, 20-21 May 2010, 8 pm
Tong Tong Festival, The Hague, 22-23 May, 12 pm
Antwerp-Belgium, 26 May, 8 pm

2009-09-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

ON THE ROAD TO FESTVAL APRIL 2010

Raising Women's Voices
Festival April 2010
Celebrating The Anniversary of The Birth of Kartini, Indonesia's First Feminist

I am currently preparing a new project that is an April Festival 2010, a cultural feminist festival to celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Kartini, Indonesian’s first feminist.

The Festival April is a celebration of women’s creativity and their thoughts, for the public to appreciate, through the showcasing of cultural performance and exhibition, public discussion, film screening, and cultural oration.

April Festival is a women’s event organized in conjunction with the anniversary of the birth of Kartini, Indonesia’s renowned feminist.

April, which coincides with the month when Kartini was born, has become the opportune momentum for women to celebrate their accomplishments, for self-evaluation and reflection, to identify concerns and struggles that lie ahead, and to impart messages of their own to the public including the younger generation.
We also hold a greater hope that as society grows to appreciate art and culture, so will their understanding on and respect for human rights, tolerance and pluralism.

Institut Ungu introduced the first April Festival in 2003 which proved to be a successful event with a turnout of some 5,000 visitors and received extensive news coverage. This tremendous reception from the public has inspired us to recreate the festival as a way of ensuring that the strength of mind and aspirations of Kartini and other Indonesian contemporary women thinkers continue to thrive amongst us.

April 2010 shall be the month for the 2nd edition of the festival which will carry the theme Raising Women’s Voices with focus on Women’s Liberation, Diversity and the Role of the Younger Generation.

Don't Miss It. See you at the Festival April 2010.

Thought of the day-Raising Women's Voices

2009-08-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

Faiza Mardzoeki

Raising Women’s Voices
From Kartini to the Youth of today…

“The young woman contemplated and fought for a struggle no less arduous than the battle against the occupiers, which is the fight to unshackle women from the subjugation of their own people.”

Who is Kartini?

Women such as Tjut Nyak Dhien, Christina Martha Tiahahu and Nyi Ageng Serang are part of Indonesia’s spectrum of national heroes. Why then has Kartini become the symbol of the Indonesian women’s movement?

Tjut Nyak Dhien and Christina Martha Tiahahu were larger-than-life heroes who stood up against colonial powers to help gain freedom for the people. Kartini on the other hand, was a young woman who thought and fought for a more specific form of resistance intended to free women from the domination of their own people; a struggle as relentless as waging a war against the occupiers.

Kartini remonstrated against the absence of education for girls, lack of freedom of expression for women and a feudal system that imprisons aristocratic women within the walls of the royal palace. She decried on the treatment of women as nothing more than mere chattels for their fathers, brothers and husbands.

The fact that she herself breathed and lived in a social order that was most oppressive towards women – the Javanese feudal culture – meant that she had to bear a very heavy burden.

Kartini may not have defeated the culture that bound her. Her thoughts however, inspire women to have the courage to hold their head high and press forward in shaping a shared culture that serves justice for all.

Raising Women’s Voices

Women are citizens of the world and the state as well as members of society having equal rights as men. This is in keeping with the global recognition of CEDAW as an international instrument and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

In reality however, gender inequalities and discrimination against women prevail to this day.

Women’s Liberation, Diversity and the Role of the Younger Generation

Women today are in a more privileged position compared to their forerunners during Kartini’s lifetime. Women now have access to higher education, able to participate in politics, hold seats in parliament and have formal laws that protect them from violence particularly domestic violence.

Despite these advancements, there remains a host of other issues that need to be tackled and fought for. There are at least three main concerns that require urgent attention. First, is to free women from all forms of violence and poverty, and to enable them to participate in politics in its broadest sense. Second, the issue of diversity which has recently taken a setback due to the emergence of groups who tend to resort to violence in claiming the truth. Third, the need to ensure that the younger generation is involved in finding solutions to common concerns of the nation including those pertaining to the discrimination of women. The youth play a strategic role in ensuring the continuity of the women’s movement.

Women’s Liberation

Violence against women that occur in the public and private realms continues to see an upward trend. Women’s participation in politics is still fraught with hurdles or resistance in the public sphere where women are losing ground in the opportunity to engage in politics with a 30% quota for women through a majority vote mechanism imposed by the Constitutional Court. Under such circumstances, women who are still “new” to the political arena must battle against their more seasoned male counterparts. Another issue that continue to be of grave concern is the rampant trafficking of women and children. Violence inflicted on domestic workers, both in the country and outside has not seen any signs of abating. The most recent case involves a woman domestic migrant worker in Malaysia whose entire body was subjected to brutal abuse (see the Siti Hajar case, a migrant worker from Cianjur). More women are also forced to earn a living as sex workers as evident in the Dolly prostitution area in Surabaya which according to data from 2008 accommodates some 8,000 women.

Why are girls the victims of trafficking and thousands of women become sex workers at the Dolly red-light district? This is because women in general bear the brunt of the nation’s povertization, a state of destitution that at times incite acts of desperation and even courage such as the situation experienced by women migrant workers in foreign countries.

How can the voices of these women that rise and fall be duly heard to ensure that they are shielded and given the opportunity to be free from violence and suppression? How can these issues be continuously voiced to the public at large?

Diversity

Indonesia and its diversity, an undeniable certainty that has long been the pride of the nation is now imperiled by claims of truth touted by certain individuals or minority groups. We have not forgotten on how followers of Ahmadiyah were abused and hounded by a small band of people in the name of the “most truthful group”. In addition to instilling a sense of fear towards the Ahmadiyahs, this situation has also bred intense apprehension and trauma among women and children.

Laws that undermine national diversity and detrimental to women have also been enacted. These among others are the anti-“pornography” act and local regulations based on Islamic law which inhibit women’s freedom and threaten the preservation of the country’s folk art/traditions.

Another issue of equal importance concerns discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation as inflicted on lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. Society still refuses to openly accept the sexual preference of LGBT who continue to be marginalized.

How should women stand on this issue?

The Role of the Younger Generation

By revisiting the history of the nation’s journey, it is clearly apparent that the youth of the country, including young women, had played a crucial role in shaping the course of the people’s struggles. Prominent figures such as Kartini, Siti Soendari, Roehana Kudus and others were the early thinkers and formidable women heroes who have crossed the private threshold into the public domain.

A different strategy is needed today to maintain the role of the modern youth in contributing towards the women’s movement. These strategies may include inter-generational dialogues, their involvement in various campaign activities on issues related to gender, diversity and the role of the younger generation, as well as through contemporary popular mediums such as the arts (stage performance or digital) and public dialogues held in schools, campuses or public places.

Aruk Gugat-Teater Satu Lampung

2009-06-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Pertunjukan teater
Aruk Gugat-Teater Satu Lampung

Yang segar dan reflektif dari Lampung

Faiza Mardzoeki*

Pada tanggal 19-20 Juni, Teater Satu, Lampung kembali mementaskan karyanya di Teater Salihara. Grup ini sepertinya “langganan” mentas di komunitas seni yang dikelola Gunawan Muhamad Cs. Sebelum di Salihara, Teater Satu sudah bolak balik mementaskan karyanya di Teater Utan Kayu (TUK), antara lain Menunggu Godot karya Samuel Beckett, tahun 2002. Karya lain yang sempat pentas di Salihara adalah monolog berjudul “Perempuan di Titik Nol” dengan Hamidah Serpa sebagai aktor, disutradarai oleh Iswadi Pratama. Monolog ini merupakan adaptasi dari novel karya Nawal El Saadawi oleh Sitok Srengenge (2008). Monolog Perempuan di Titik Nol dipilih sebagai pertunjukan terbaik Indonesia Versi majalah Tempo tahun 2008.

Teater Satu merupakan grup teater yang cukup menonjol di Lampung dengan pengelolaan managemen professional dipimpin oleh pasangan suami istri Iswadi Pratama dan Imas Sobariah. Baik Imas maupun Iswadi, keduanya juga merupakan penulis drama, sutradara dan pemain. Karya Imas sendiri antara lain naskah Monolog berjudul Wanci, yang sedang dipersiapkan untuk mentas di Jerman tahun depan.

Kali ini, Teater Satu membawakan naskah hasil karya Iswadi Pratama berjudul Aruk Gugat. Iswadi juga bertindak selaku sutradara dan turut serta bermain di sini. Menurut Teater Satu, Aruk Gugat merupakan karya yang mengalami experimen panjang dimulai sejak tahun 1998. Sebelumnya, karya ini telah dipentaskan keliling lebih dari 50 kali pertunjukan. Aruk Gugat telah melewati pentas keliling di desa-desa Lampung, Jambi, Solo, Tegal, hingga Jakarta dan yang terakhir di teater Salihara, juga di Jakarta, pada bulan Juni ini.

Menurut Teater Satu, proses kreatif Aruk Gugat bermula dari pertanyaan: Munkinkah membuat sebuah pertunjukan yang bisa diterima dan dinikmati oleh semua lapisan dan kelas sosial masyarakat? Apakah mungkin dicapai suatu bentuk artistik dan estetik pertunjukan yang bisa diterima dan dimegerti secara umum? Apakah esensi dari sifat-sifat univesalitas di dalam karya seni pertunjukan itu? Mungkinkah membuat sebuah pertunjukan yang tidak terlalu sukar dilakukan namun memiliki kualitas artitistik dan estetik yang bisa diterimadan bisa dinikmati oleh semua penonton?

Dan, pementasan Aruk Gugat di Salihara malam itu menampilkan sebuah sajian teater yang segar, bernas sekaligus reflektif. Renungan dan pemikiran panjang dalam proses kreatif mereka selama hampir 10 tahun ini berhasil memberikan oase dan kebeningan sebuah pertunjukan teater di Jakarta.

Aruk Gugat, menampilkan kisah Aruk, yang dimainkan dengan sangat pas oleh Sugianto. Aruk adalah seorang laki-laki yang baik, sedikit pemalas dan bodoh, tapi jujur. Aruk diharapakan mampu mengangkat kembali martabat keluarga setelah kematian sang Ayah, dengan menitipkannya di rumah pamannya oleh Emaknya (Emak dimainkan oleh Ruth Marini).

Pertunjukan yang memakan waktu hampir dua jam ini terasa segar dengan akting yang merata bagus. Karakter-karakter yang dibawakan terasa pas! Alurnya sederhana namun tetap ada suspens yang membuat pertunjukan jadi lebih bernyawa. Terasa ada sedikit kekurangan, kalau itu bisa disebut kekurangan. Nampak ada beberapa bagian dari pemainnya yang tidak kuasa menahan kegeliannya sendiri, seperti Ayah Aruk, menghadapi kepolosan aruk dan satu adegan saat baca pantun. Namun, hal itu tidak terlalu menganggu jalanya permainan. Ruth Marini, sebagai Ibunya Aruk cukup bernas merespon “kegelian” sang Ayah. Selain itu pertunjukan Aruk Gugat memang sederhana dan terlihat sangat natural. Sehingga peluang untuk terlihat “jelek” pun sangat tipis. Aruk gugat kuat di alur cerita dan kemampuan para aktornya serta kemasan pertunjukan yang sederhana ala pertunjukan teater rakyat. Tidak ada set panggung yang njelimet atau rumit, atau dibuat supaya indah. Hanya ada beberapa bangku sebagai property panggung dan para aktor serta pemain musikya duduk berderet di belakang area panggung utama.

Sebagai karya yang sudah dipentaskan lebih dari 50 kali, tentunya para pemain dan seluruh tim pendukungnya sudah sangat mengenali apa yang dimaui Aruk Gugat itu.

Hanya di bagian akhir pertunjukan, terasa kurang pas atau nyambung dengan roh keseluruhan kemasan Aruk Gugat. Adegan akhir, pada perkembangan karakter Aruk, yang terus terpuruk, selalu gagal dan dicela oleh teman-teman dan lingkunganya, menyebabkan Aruk protes dan marah dengan membakar kantor kelurahan yang mengakibatkan Aruk diadili oleh desanya. Sutradara memutuskan dengan cara menampilkan adegan “pengadilan” yang suram dengan menampilkan saksi-saksi dari seluruh karakter yang melingkari kehidupan Aruk. Kesaksian dari orang-orang yang mengenal Aruk, menceritakan bagaimana Aruk sebenarnya. Padahal tanpa testimoni di pengadilan ini, sejak awal penonton sudah memasuki perjalanan siapa Aruk dengan plot yang sudah dilakonkan. Jadi, adegan akhir terasa kurang berguna apalagi dengan gaya suram. Kalau saja adegan akhir itu diisi oleh seorang pencerita saja yang menjelaskan bagaimana nasib Aruk, sama seperti ketika pertunjukan dimulai, Aruk Gugat akan lebih pas kalau mau dikatakan sebagai teater sederhana ala “sandiwara kampung”.

Aruk Gugat sebagai pertunjukan dengan nafas “sandiwara kampung” dengan logat kental lidah Lampung ini sejatinya membawakan naskah kisah sisi kelam manusia, namu dibawakan dengan gaya ringan. Tentang Aruk yang selalu gagal meski telah berusaha, selalu dicemooh oleh orang-orang yang merasa lebih pintar dan berpikir. Aruk telempar dalam lorong sepi dalam ketidak berdayaan melawan lingkungan sosialnya yang selalu menuntutnya menjadi pintar. Pertanyaan reflektif saya terhadap Aruk Gugat: Bagaimana kalau kita yang menjadi Aruk, seperti Aruk....?”

From A Play: The Metaphor of Love

2009-06-19T01:11:00.000-07:00

The metaphor of Love
Is there any love?

Faiza Mardzoeki

On 24 May, I watched a play, “The Metaphor of Love” a production of Teater Koma, written and directed by Nano Riantiarno.
With the tagline of “Is there any love?”, the play was produced to celebrating Ratna Riantiarno birthday. Ratna is Nano’s wife and a leading actor of Koma as well.
As couple of theatre workers, to celebrating the partner’s birthday with special production of theatre was indeed very nice moment.

What happened on the stage?

The set were modern minimalist. There were 2 sets of chairs, one, in the left was for conversation in the morning or during the day. On the right was set of chairs seem like in the lounge room? Then, a bed was on the centre of stage. All the materials were from zincs’ with metallic colour. It‘s a bit strange idea.

With duration 99 minutes, the stage opened by three dancers with choreographer by Ratna Uli also 5 women who look like to brings some properties on the stage, of traditional lamp (damar). The women with the lamp moving around brings some light, the dancer was moved around show some movements, while the back of stage some hand writings title which moved slowly. It was like poems: Dalam gerak yang sunyi, awan berarak, menyatu, menebal.... (In the stillness movement, the cloudy was moved, uniting, bolding...

There was an impression of poetic nuance and stillness vividly revealed on the stage. Then, slowly the actors, Ratna and Nano Riantiarno came up. One morning, they made conversation, “what day is this, what date” asked the husband (Nano). The wife (Ratna) answered “Today is Monday and the first month” Then the husband talk active especially about politic. Nano tried to convey the actual political issues with satiric style. About pilpres (presidential election), about corruption ect. The next morning, they came up again with same question from the husband what day and what date is this. Then, the reflection questions from the husband: Is there still any love. This question was the base of dramatic tension moment from the story. It’s like the hints what the next will be happened. But, the wife didn’t want to answer verbally. So, the story will flow nicely and mysteriously, I hope. So, I would wait till end and enjoyed the acting.

Ratna and Nano were acted very well. Relax and they looked much enjoyed on the stage. I was so enjoyed to watch them. The distraction was revealed when they talk too much about the actual political situation. What the relation between the questions to the wife, “is there any love?” with the conversation about the politic. The focus story becomes weak.

I hope the story would flowing to the deep question why the husband asked “Is there any love” and really needed the answer from the wife, while wife didn’t want to answer. In the beginning, they gave hints when, both husband and wife told the “past of envelope” which was content of their past.

But its pity, Nano, dragged the audiences to the political satiric situation. The stories went into the jargon conversation like about justice and satire about court? Nano spread out the pamphlets with the questions of “Is there any love”. Because of the pamphlets’, Nano accused as crime. In this scene Nano satire of all the rotten trial law as happened today in actual issues in Indonesia. But, in the end scenes when the time already gone, they become old, the answer the question was that there is still love, of course. Because I am still with you, I am still your wife; I am still accompanying you all the time.

The metaphor of love was very good pieces of acting from Ratna and Nano Riantiarno. But, it was weak in the plot of story. They didn’t show what the context of the bad political situation and the love relationship question. Why didn’t Nano just focus on the journey of their love, their long relationship? Some time we just need “a humble” story. Just about the journey of love.

(tebet, 26 May 09)

CERITA DARI DOLLY -TALES FROM DOLLY

2009-06-19T01:02:00.000-07:00

Cerita dari Dolly

Siapa Sesungguhnya yang PELACUR?

Faiza Mardzoeki

Perempuan-perempuan itu sudah tidak dimanusiakan lagi. Perempuan-perempuan itu sudah diubah esensinya sebagai manusia menjadi barang peliharaan, dikurung sebagai barang milik para germo dan dijual sebagai barang dagangan kepada para lelaki dan dianggap sampah oleh masyarakat. Bukankah demikian yang terjadi? Siapakah sesungguhnya yang pelacur? Merekalah para germo, calo, laki-laki pembeli tubuh perempuan dan agen-agen lain yang menindas, merampas kemerdekaanya dan memanfaatkan tubuh perempuan-perempuan itu.

Pada pertengahan bulan Februari 2009, saya mengunjungi Dolly, daerah pelacuran di Surabaya, Jawa timur. Dolly juga dikenal sebagai daerah pelacuran terbesar di Asia Tenggara. Kunjungan singkat selama 5 hari, adalah dalam rangka melakukan riset awal persiapan penulisan naskah drama tentang pelacuran Dolly.

Dolly tepatnya terletak di kawasan kelurahan Putat Jaya, kecamatan Sawahan, kota Surabaya. Surabaya sendiri dikenal sebagai kota terbesar ke dua di Indonesia dan dikenal sebagai kota industri dan pelabuhan.

Dolly sebenarnya merupakan bentangan jalan kurang lebih sepanjang 150 meter dengan lebar 5 meter dan beraspal bagus, hasil dari Proyek Perbaikan Kampung pada tahun 1977. Dolly dikenal sebagai daerah lampu merah “kelas menengah” . Tidak jauh dari Dolly (bersebelahan) ada jalan Jarak, yang dikenal sebagai lokasisasi pelacuran “kelas bawah-miskin”.

Jauh sebelum saya berkunjung ke Dolly-Jarak itu, saya sudah sering mendengar kabar berita seputar Dolly sebagai daerah pelacuran, bahkan menjadi “Ikon” kota Surabaya. Sedangkan Jarak, saya nyaris tidak terlalu mendegar beritanya. Dolly-lah nama yang lebih terkenal itu.

Kunjungan riset awal ini ditemani orang kawan, Vivi. Atas bantuan Vivi ini, saya dikenalkan dengan seseorang bernama S, seorang lelaki mantan mucikari. Namun, atas kesadarannya sendiri S berhenti sebagai mucikari dan berbalik menjadi pekerja sosial dengan mendirikan perpustakaan untuk anak-anak di lokalisasi kawasan Jarak. S juga mengadvokasi kasus-kasus kekerasan atau mengikuti penyuluhan kesehatan bagi penghuni Dolly-Jarak. S ini yang kemudian menjadi “pengawal” saya selama di kunjungan itu.
Tanpa pengawal atau teman dengan orang yang sudah dikenal di daerah lampu merah ini, jangan harap mendapatkan informasi atau bisa memasuki kawasan itu dengan ringan. Gali-gali (gabungan anak liar) bergentayangan mengamankan seputar Dolly-Jarak. Mereka ini yang akan mengawasi kalau-kalau ada orang asing yang mencurigakan.

Berebut menggali untung dari tubuh perempuan

Jarak
Pada hari pertama tiba di Surabaya, kami langsung menuju jalan Jarak (Putat Jaya), janjian bertemu dengan S. Kami bertemu dengan S di sebuah warung nasi kecil (warteg) terletak di pinggir jalan. Dalam perjalanan menuju tempat pertemuan itu, kami melewati gang dengan kanan-kiri tempat bordil-bordil miskin (dikenal dengan sebutan wisma) Suara musik dangdut menggema keras. Biasanya musik mulai berdentum dari pukul 10 pagi hingga jam 2 atau 3 dini hari. Saat itu hari baru menunjukan pukul 2 siang, suasana bordil belum terlalu hidup. Hanya irama dangdut menemani beberapa laki-laki yang lebih suka duduk di dalam, sementara para perempuan, lebih terlihat suka duduk-duduk di depan bordil, sambil berbincang dengan teman-temannya. Hampir setiap bordil nampak minimal 2-3 perempuan menggerombol di depan. Usia mereka nampak antara 20 an, 30 an dan 40 an. Sesekali terlihat anak-anak kecil dan pedangang yang lewat. Di antara bordil ini ada juga yang rumah biasa, rumah yang dihuni oleh rumah tangga. Deretan bordil itu nampak suram dan gelap. Gang yang membelah kanan kiri deretan bordil itu sempit, hanya muat untuk 3 orang berderet.

Sekitar jam 3.30 sore kami bertemu S, lelaki berusia sekitar 50 tahun. Sambil menyeruput kopi tubruk kami berbincang seputar Dolly-Jarak. S cerita, bahwa banyak pihak terkait dengan keberadaan lokalisasi pelacuran tersebut. Tidak jauh dari lokalisasi ada masjid, rumah yatim piatu, rumah penduduk, toko-toko, warung nasi, tempat cuci, tempat parkir dan segala kegiatan yang menandai sebuah kehidupan urban pinggiran. Si pemilik warung, perempuan berusia sekitar 30 an tahun juga ikut berbincang dengan kami. Menurut pemilik warung, ia tinggal di daerah Jarak sejak kecil. Selama bertahun-tahun ia bertemu dengan beragam orang dari latar daerah yang beda dan cerita hidup yang beda. Orang-orang yang lalu lalang ke warung atau melintas di depannya nampak normal-normal saja, seperti layaknya sebuah warung. Sempat terlintas dalam benak saya “masyarakat bisa hidup berdampingan dengan tentram, padahal di komplek pelacuran”. Di daerah tertentu, lokalisasi pelacuran “dijauhi” penduduk biasa. Tapi di Jarak dan Dolly, campur aduk. Artinya penghuni kawasan ini cukup mempunyai rasa solidaritas yang tinggi?

Hari ke dua, saya lebih dalam memasuki kawasan Jarak. Kami sempat berbincang di perpustakaan yang dikelola S. Perpustakaan itu menempati sebuah rumah, dengan seorang Ibu dan anak kecil. S menyewa satu ruangan untuk menempatkan buku-bukunya dan satu kamar lagi untuk kantor sekaligus sebagai kamar tidurnya. Dari ruangan itu S bekerja. Menurut S dahulu rumah tersebut sebenarnya juga disewakan sebagian untuk dijadikan bordil, menyatu dengan kehidupan “normal” pemiliknya.

S mengatakan, di daerah Jarak memang banyak sekali rumah-rumah penduduk yang disewakan untuk dijadikan rumah bordil. Di antara mereka yang tadinya hanya menyewakan lama-lama ada yang “naik pangkat” menjadi germo juga. Atau orang lain menyewa rumahnya untuk dijadikan rumah bordil. Karena marak rumah-rumah bisa disewakan, seorang germo biasa menyewa 2 -3 rumah untuk dijadikan bordil. Menurut catatan S, tercatat ada sekitar 56 rumah bordil dengan 2500 pekerja sex perempuan di Jarak saja. Belum termasuk yang di Dolly.

Dalam catatan hasil riset Tjahjo Purnomo dan Ashadi Siregar dalam bukunya “Dolly-membedah dunia pelacuran Surabaya dan kompleks pelacuran Dolly”, Grafity Pers, 1982 bahwa izin mendirikan bordil itu diperoleh dari kepolisian dengan menyebut izin mendirikan warung kopi yang dilayani perempuan-perempuan. Tidak mengherankan, bordil-bordil itu selalu ada.

Pada siang sampai sore, kehidupan terasa biasa. Banyak pedangan lewat, para perempuan berbincang di depan. Yang membedakan dengan kehidupan normal lain adalah dentuman irama dangdut, sesekali ada alunan pop yang sangat keras.

Saya sempat diwarkan untuk menyewa kamar di salah satu milik penghuni Jarak yang juga memiliki rumah bordil dan sekaligus menjadi germonya. Sekilas keluarga germo sangat biasa. Mereka ada suami istri. Di ruang tamu terlihat sebuah foto dipajang, berpakaian polisi. Rupanya itu foto anaknya yang berprofesi sebagai polisi. Kami naik ke lantai atas di mana ada kamar yang akan disewakan itu. Ruangan itu tidak terlalu luas, berukuran sekitar 3x3 meter dan ber AC. Kami berencana mau nginap di ruangan itu selama 3 malam, supaya bisa mendengarkan nafas kehidupan Jarak lebih dekat. Setelah harga deal, yaitu 300 ribu permalam, kami pergi, kembali menyusuri Jarak. Tapi, Esoknya kami batal menginap di rumah bordil itu, karena saya sempat terserang rasa pusing dan muntah-muntah. Masuk angin dan sedikit stress, marasa capai. Saya dan Vivi menginap di rumah seorang teman di daerah Bungur, kira-kira 45 menit menggunakan taxi ke arah Dolly.

Malam hari, kami menyempatkan diri nongkrong di rumah bordil pemilik kamar yang tadinya akan kami sewa itu. Seorang perempuan muda, bertubuh agak gemuk dari Madura menemani kami. Saya menaksir umurnya baru 20 an tahun. Menurut S, perempuan muda ini adalah primadona di bordil ini. Ia menemani kami minum bir. Ia terkesan pendiam dan sulit saya ajak bicara dan nampak pemalu. Seiring malam yang kian larut, bersama botol bir yang terus bertambah, akhirnya perempuan ini membuka juga percakapan. Ia cerita, pada saat minggu pertama bekerja di bordil itu, ia sempat muntah-muntah hampir 3 hari ketika latihan minum bir. Sang germo memaksa harus bisa minum bir dan memaksa para tamu untuk terus membeli botol-botol bir dengan cara terus menerus menuangkan bir ke gelas dari botol-botol bir itu sambil menemani ngobrol. Di luar harga bir, kami harus membayar ke perempuan yang menemani ngobrol dan menuangkan botol-botol bir ke dalam gelas kami seharga Rp 50.000. Harga bir di bordil ini bisa 5 x lipat harga normal.

Perempuan dari Madura bernama Sri (bukan mana sebenarnya) sempat cerita bahwa dirinya punya anak satu, ditinggal suaminya. Ia harus menghidupi keluarga dan anaknya di kampungnya. Di ruangan pengap itu tampak tamu-tamu lain, semua laki-laki menenggak bir berbotol-botol, sambil main gaple, main karaoke dengan musik yang begitu keras dan ditemani para perempuan. Biasanya akan berujung pada transaksi sex.
Kata S, rata-rata pengunjung bordil itu adalah supir taxi dan kaum miskin lainya. Semalam mereka bisa menghabiskan Rp 300.000 untuk sex dan minuman.

Keheranan yang cukup besar menghinggapi perasaanku. Bagaimana orang-orang miskin itu mampu membelanjakan uang sampai Rp 300.000 sekali berkunjung ke pelacuran??? Tidak heran, sering terdengar kisah kekerasan melanda rumah tangga jika sang suami lebih suka membelanjakan uangnya di rumah-rumah bordil. Para suami melupakan tugas dan tanggung jawabnya terhadap keluarga, akibatnya konflik terjadi dan bisa berukujung pada kekerasan.

Terlihat pula para pedagang bebas memasuki rumah-rumah bordil menawarkan makanan. Ada tukang sate atau tukang gorengan. Rupanya di rumah bordil tidak menyediakan makanan berat. Bordil hanya menyediakan minuman dan makanan kecil seperti kacang goreng.
Hal lain yang menarik perhatianku adalah plakat tulisan “Anggota ABRI di larang masuk” menempel di dinding-dinding bordil.

Namun, dari hasli penelitian Tjahjo Purnomo dan Ashadi Siregar dalam bukunya berjudul “Dolly”, tahun 1982, sebenarnya banyak sekali oknum-oknum militer yang bergentayangan dan menjadi backing para germo atau rumah bordil. Untuk itu para aknum militer ini mendapat imbalan dari para germo tersebut.

Bordil di Jarak tidak memajang perempuan-perempuan itu di dalam satu ruangan seperti aquarium. Perempuan-perempuan di Jarak nampak lebih “bebas”, bisa duduk dan berkaraoke menemani tamu-tamunya untuk kemudian dibooking ke kamar atau hanya sekedar menemani saja.

Dolly
Memasuki Dolly pada sore hari menjelang malam, gemerlap lampu warna warni mulai menyala sepanjang jalan. Terlihat banyak lelaki berbaju batik di depan bordil-bordil Dolly. Para lelaki itu adalah para “kenek”, yang mencari ribuan laki-laki yang lalu lalang berjalan di sepanjang Dolly ini. Para kenek berbatik itu mencari pembeli seperti kenek di terminal mencari penumpang. Untuk pekerjaan ini, para kenek ini mendapatkan Rp 7.000 apabila berhasil mendapatkan laki-laki masuk ke bordilnya.
Bordil-bordil dengan sebutan santun, wisma, ini berderet-deret tampak megah dan terbuka, memajang para perempuan yang siap bekerja melayani para “petualang sex” dan pemimpi keperkasaan. Hampir semua bordil mendesain ruangan nyaris sama. Salah satu Bordil memasang nama mentereng “Wisma Nusa Bangsa”.

Jumlah bordil di jalan Dolly ini sekitar 56 an. Rata-rata setiap bordil mempunyai perempuan yang siap dilacurkan sekitar 20 orang. Artinya Di Dolly saja ada sekitar 1000 perempuan yang dilacurkan. Mereka berasal dari berbagai pelosok desa di Jawa hingga luar Jawa. Jumlah ini belum termasuk yang berada di luar 2 lokasi (Jarak dan Dolly). Sebenarnya, tidak jauh dari Jarak dan Dolly, terdapat banyak terdapat gang dan jalan-jalan yang dipakai sebagai lokalisasi pelacuran dengan kamulfase salon, karaoke dan tempat pijat. Kulihat sekilas, jumlah perempuan yang berada di tempat-tempat ini, tidak jauh beda dengan kerumunan yang berada di Dolly.

Menurut S, data terakhir tahun 2008, jumlah perempuan yang dilacurkan di Dolly-Jarak dan sekitarnya hampir mencapai 8000 orang.

Dilengkapi dengan bar yang penuh minuman, sofa dengan warna menyolok membentuk huruf L atau U untuk penempatan para perempuan dan papan nama-nama minuman (bir) terpasang di setiap depan bordil. Plakat bertuliskan “Anggota ABRI dilarang masuk” menjadi “ornament” wajib di setiap bordil di Dolly ini.

Para perempuan diharuskan dandan penuh dengan berbedak tebal dan berlipstik menyala di bibirnya. Mengenakan pakaian terbuka sejenis tanktop, rok mini dan sepatu ber hak tinggi. Kebanyakan berambut panjang dan lurus. Mereka duduk dengan kaki-kaki disilangkan, setia berdiam diri, sambil sesekali memainkan HPnya (seperti ber SMS-an) menunggu “dibeli”.

Bersama teman dan petunjuk jalan yang mantan mucikari itu, kami masuk ke bordil yang paling terkenal dan paling mahal di Dolly, namanya wisma “B”. Menurut S dan orang di Dolly, wisma B ini milik seorang yang sudah berkali-kali naik haji. Dulunya, sebenarnya hanya seorang calo, menanjak jadi germo dan memiliki bordil megah dan memiliki perempuan-perempuan yang siap dilacurkan dengan harga paling mahal di kawasan Dolly. Kenapa bisa memasang harga paling mahal? Konon karena perempuan di bordil B ini cantik-cantik dan berkelas. Entahlah. Kulihat para perempuan itu berdandan seragam. Tanktop, rok mini, rambut lurus, make up tebal dan sepatu atau sandal berhak tinggi. Semua nampak cantik dan mata hatiku menangkap mata yang kuyu dan jiwa yang lelah. Kaki-kaki mereka duduk seragam, menyilang. Mereka duduk berderet di sofa di balik kaca dengan lampu terang sehingga memungkinkan mereka terlihat jelas dan gampang dipilah-pilah. Mereka setia penghadap para pengunjung yang duduk-duduk di depannnya. Saya menghitung jumlah perempuan yang dipajang itu ada 22 orang.
Kami duduk-duduk memesan beberapa botol bir, memperhatikan para pengunjung.

Di Bordil B ini 100% laki-laki kecuali saya dan temen saya, dan pedagang makanan, ibu tua yang berumur 50 tahun, menggendong makanannya menawarkan ke para perempuan yang gelisah dan capai menunggu dibeli. Para pengunjung laki-laki konsentrasi memperhatikan deretan perempuan dari keremangan kursi. Beberapa kulihat tangannya menunjuk kearah perempuan sambil berbisik kepada calo di sampingnya. Kelihatan sedang sibuk memilih mana yang bakal dibeli.

Para perempuan di Dolly ini “dibandrol” dengan tarif perjaman. Dari perbincangan kami dengan S, setiap kali tamu masuk ke kamar, mereka dicatat pada sebuah buku, dicatat jam masuk dan nama perempuan yang dipilih. Kelebihan waktu maximal hanya 10 menit. Di Dolly rata-rata perjamnya Rp 85.000, sedangkan untuk bordil termahal itu, tarifnya sampai Rp 300.000 perjam.

Melihat angka-angka rupiah dalam lingkaran kerja pelacuran ini sangat fantastis. Tidak heran apabila bisnis pelacuran kian merambah dan terus ada. Kemiskinan di satu sisi telah mendorong para perempuan terpaksa bersedia dilacurkan, di lain sisi menciptakan kekekayaan baru bagi si pengedali “kekuasaan pelacuran”. Dalam situasi ini, perempuan si subyek utama bisnis ini justru berada di titik nol. Dinistakan dan diperas sampai ke keringat keringnya.

Ini Tubuhku, Dolly!

Keberadaan pelacuran Dolly dan Jarak telah membuat denyut roda ekonomi berputar ke segala penjuru, mengalir ke desa-desa asal perempuan, pungutan untuk RT, RW, Lurah, kecamatan, sampai ke tukang parkir. Lahan kerja untuk tukang cuci, pedagang makanan kaki lima, tukang salon, tukang pedagang keliling kredit baju make up, dan cara ngeruk untung untuk para germo, penyewa bordil dan calo-calo.

Menurut Yuyung Abdi dalam bukunya “Sex for Sale, tahun 2007”, satu bordil permalamnya bisa mendapatkan omzet sebesar Rp 10.000.000 (sepuluh juta rupiah). Dengan rata-rata satu bordil memiliki 20 perempuan, dengan harga Rp 85.000. Para perempuan ini sedikitnya dalam semalam harus bekerja melayani 6 laki-laki. Pembagian hasil keringat perempuan ini adalah sbb: 40: 60. Masuk ke si perempuan Rp 35.000, Rp. 40.000 masuk ke germo dan Rp 10.000 untuk para pekerjanya, termasuk para kenek itu.
Jadi dalam semalam perempuan apabila melayani 6 laki-laki ia mendapatkan uang sebesar Rp 210.000 (Rp 35.000 x 6 orang), Germo mendapatkan Rp 4,8 juta (kalau dapat tamu 120 orang permalam x 20 perempuan) sedang yang masuk ke kas buruh bordilnya adalah sebesar Rp 1, 2 juta. Bandingkan berapa yang diterima oleh si perempuan-nya. Dari hasil jerihpayahnya sebesar Rp 210.000 permalam ia harus menyewa kamar kost, membeli makanan dan kebutuhan sehari-hari, baju sexy, make up dan harus nabung untuk keluarganya.

Para germo itu juga harus membayar iuran ke Muspika (Musyawarah Pimpinan Kecamatan). Sehari Muspika bisa menapatkan Rp 1,4 juta dari keberadaan rumah-rumah bordil. Jadi dalam setahun bisa meraup pendapatan Rp 504 juta!

Keuntungan, uang yang didapat berangkat dari satu hal: tubuh perempuan. Tubuh Perempuan inilah “alat produksi” utama industri pelacuran itu. Persoalannya Perempuan si “pemilik modal utama” itu, berada dalam posisi yang sangat lemah posisi tawarnya dan rentan dengan kekerasan. Perempuan yang dilacurkan ini tidak otonom atas tubuhnya. Dalam situasi ini, germo dan pembelilah (laki-laki) yang memiliki kekuasaan atas tubuh perempuan, sementara perempuan-perempuan ini juga harus menghadapi situasi rawan kekerasan demi memenuhi keinginan germo dan para pembeli (laki-laki)

Rantai kekerasan yang dialami oleh Perempuan yang dilacurkan...

Selama ini, masyarakat berkecenderungan menuding “perempuan pelacur” sebagai biang kerok kebobrokan masyarakat, bahkan dianggap sampahnya masyarakat. Tetapi masyarakat lupa mempertanyakan sampai ke dalam intinya, bagaimana perempuan itu bisa menjadi pelacur. Masyarakat melupakan ada agen-agen yang menyebabkan perempuan terseret ke arus pelacuran. Di dalamnya banyak pihak terkait, menyetujui dan membiarkan bahkan mengambil keuntungan dari para perempuan ini.

Sekarang ini, atas kesadaran sendiri, kaum sebagian perempuan yang bekerja sebagai pelacur penyebut diri sebagai “Pedila”, singkatan dari Perempuan yang dilacurkan. Istilah ini mengadung kesadaran bahwa ada agen-agen lain yang menyebabkan dirinya bekerja sebagai pelacur, bahkan dipaksa atau terpaksa menjadi pelacur.
Untuk itu, sayapun menggunakan sebutan perempuan yang dilacurkan, karena saya menyakini bahwa ada pihak lain, agen lain yang menyebabkan ada perempuan bekerja sebagai pelacur.

Saya percaya, bahwa perempuan sebagai manusia juga berhak dan ingin menjadi manusia. Bebas, merdeka dan bermartabat, setara dengan manusia lain, baik laki maupun perempuan.

Mengapa perempuan bersedia dilacurkan? Banyak riset mengatakan bahwa faktor kemiskinan menjadi pendorong utama para perempuan itu terseret dalam arus perdagangan sex. Faktor lain adalah budaya patriarki yang masih bersemayam dalam sistem masyarakat kita. Sehingga, dalam situasi kepepet itu, perempuan adalah “properti” yang paling mudah untuk dijinakan. Banyak kisah seorang Ayah menjual anak-anak gadisnya kepada para calo untuk dijual ke germo-germo di Dolly.

Menurut S, perempuan itu diambil oleh para calo ke desa-desa, dengan membayar kepada orang tuanya sekitar Rp 2.000.000 s/d 5.000.000 per orang kepada orang tuanya. Calonya sendiri akan mendapatkan Rp 1.000.000 s/d 2.000.000 per orang. Uang tersebut (uang untuk si orang tua dan si calo) berasal dari calon germo si perempuan. Ketika perempuan itu sudah sampai di lokalisasi pelacuran dan siap bekerja, jumlah uang untuk orang tua dan calo langsung dibebankan kepada si perempuan. Beban itu disebut: Hutang. Selain hutang untuk orang tua dan calo, perempuan itu juga akan dikenakan uang makan, uang penginapan dan kebutuhan lain, yang dipinjami terlebih dahulu oleh sang germo. Jadi, perempuan itu sudah menanggung hutang jutaan sebelum ia bekerja.
Pada detik ketika ia dipanggil oleh ayahnya untuk menemui calo, perempuan itu telah dirampas kebebasan dan harga dirinya. Ia harus menanggung beban kemiskinan dan kekuasaan ayah.

Di lokalisasi, tempat ia terpaksa harus menyerahkan tubuhnya, ia sudah menanggung hutang dan apapun keinginan germo dan pembeli. Situasi inilah yang menjerat perempuan yang dilacurkan itu sangat kesulitan terbebas dari pekerjaan “melacurkan diri” itu.
Di samping hutang yang ditanggung, ia harus menjalani “lompatan budaya” secara drastis. Misalkan, tiba-tiba ia harus akrab dengan minuman beralkohol (bir dll). Ingat cerita Sri yang sudah kutuliskan di atas, perempuan asal Madura itu harus muntah-muntah 3 hari karena dipaksa oleh germonya latihan minum bir. Selain harus minum yang bukan kebiasaanya, tiba-tiba ia harus berdandan tebal, berpakaian terbuka, mengikuti aturan “mana yang sexy” menurut si germo demi untuk bisa memuaskan pembeli, dan tentu harus melayani sex dengan laki-laki yang tidak dikenal. Ia harus membuang jauh emosi yang bersemayam dalam dirinya. Perempuan-perempun itu sudah tidak dimanusiakan lagi secara utuh.

Tidak ada pelindung bagi perempuan yang dilacurkan itu. Tidak dari masyarakat apalagi pelindung formal dari pemerintah. Yang ada preman-preman dan gali-gali yang bergetayangan mengamankan dan melindungi germo.

Kemana perempuan-perempuan itu mengadu apabila mengalami kekerasa sexual, mengalami pemerasan dari orang tua, germo, calo dll?

Perempuan-perempuan itu sudah tidak dimanusiakan lagi. Perempuan-perempuan itu sudah diubah esensinya sebagai manusia menjadi barang peliharaan, dikurung sebagai barang milik para germo dan dijual sebagai barang dagangan kepada para lelaki dan dianggap sampah oleh masyarakat. Bukankah demikian yang terjadi? Siapakah sesungguhnya yang pelacur? Merekalah para germo, calo, laki-laki pembeli tubuh perempuan dan agen-agen lain yang menindas, merampas kemerdekaanya dan memanfaatkan tubuh perempuan-perempuan itu.

Gender and Theater-Notes from Sumatra Women Stage

2009-05-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Gender and Theater
Notes from Sumatra Women Stage –Teater Satu Lampung

Faiza Mardzoeki*

Without any hesitation, I agreed, when the organizers from Teater Satu asked me to become a resource person and observer at the “Sumatra Women’s Stage”. The asked me to comment on gender aspects on the performance and about writing story for stage (play)

Why? I though the event would be very important and interesting. I also have thought that in the realm of theatre, there is a gender problem. For example, it is still so difficult to find women theater workers. The role for women in theater is not as a decision maker like as director, playwright or artistic director. The roles of women in theater are still in “domestic” area like manager of production.

I think the initiative of “women on the stage” in Sumatra is become very important to encourage women artist to lead in front role.

During following the process of the event, especially in the minutes of “presentations and discussion about playwriting and directing” there are some emphasis points I would love to share.

Women on stage” in Sumatra was not only to show theatre by and about women themselves, but also discussed all aspects about the performances from artistic aspects and the production issues. Then, this forum also becomes a space for sharing the struggle of women artists from the battle to find the ideas and then how to put them onto stage.

The Struggle of Women Artists

“Women on Stage” in Sumatra was very well prepared. They have the goal to empower women artists (especially women directors and playwrights). We can see from the program of workshop about gender by SN Nurlaila from the women’s NGO, Damar and the workshop about theatre it self covering issues like directing and writing with many experts such as Joko Kurnain, Yudi Ariani, Yusef Muldiyana and Athur and myself, Faiza.

The question is why they should name it as “Women on Stage” and why they should conduct a workshop about gender? I think, Teater Satu has been finding “gender injustice” problems in the theater realm.

So, from the workshop we hope that they will be revealing many women artists who have gender perspective and theater feminist productions.

What is a feminist artist and what is theater feminist?

In my own view, discourse about feminism in the theater is important to address issues such as how the theater productions in Indonesia also take sides of women issues rather than perpetuating the oppression against women and stereotyping women.

Forms oppression against women includes showing women as objects in both structures in the community and in the nearest relation (family). Women’s position is still subordinated by men in the society. This is not how it should be. The world already recognizes the equality of men and women's rights. In the world we have the CEDAW, the UN rules that set the rights of women. In the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia women are also citizens with equality with men.

Feminist artists must have consciousness about the women and social issues and use gender perspective as basic view to analyzing the women problem in the society (theater).

Well, how the production of theater also offers a new discourse: exposing stereotype and taking a stand on the rights of women.

Indeed, theater is about creating ideas, transforming ideas to the stage, the capability of imagination, communication to the audiences etc.. But, there is also another very important issue, e.g “creator perspective”.

There are two basic elements in the theater e.g director and playwright. These two elements have function as departure points on how the visual stage would happen with all the arguments and what the basic concept they have. This will give the character of the performances.

I believe that for example WS Rendra shall have different style or character with Imas Sobariah when they produce same Play, for example, Nyai Ontosoroh. Of course Rendra and Imas will have not only have different style, but indeed they have different perspective on how they will see of Nyai Ontosoroh as story as theme, as play!

Gender perspective in the theater would be useful as alternative approach to produce feminist theatre. Furthermore, it’s very important to recognize women artists and open an affirmative programme to encourage women to be more active in the theater.

Indeed there is no normative statement that the condition of culture in Indoensia is still discriminative against women. But, they have some indicators that the situation of culture especially of theater performance is till very low participation of women in front role of theater like director, playwright or artistic director. There are many factors why this could happen.

The participants of “Women on Stage” in Sumatra are from various background e.g house wives, students, teachers or professional artists. But as women, they are facing many problems as women. The have to struggle since in the house (domestic realm). Wani, the participant from Sumatra said that she had to show to the parents that she is “ a good woman”, even though she always goes out every night for rehearsal or meetings till late, even more because she is single!. Other participants said that they have to negotiate with their seniors many of whom are men. Women artist are must struggle on many levels.

The idea to encourage women directors and writers is a good example of efforts to endorse women artists to be more active and giving them more opportunities. All of the participants also can share each other not only about their artistic or esthetic work, but also as women they can talk about their problems and share how they have to struggle as women artists.

Feminism Spirit and Esthetic achievement

Women’s position in the art world is still as an object and marginalized“”. For example in sinetron (soap opera), film or literary texts, the creator is still very rare to use a women’s perspective. Although there are some women artists (writers) already using a women’s perspective as a basic departure point, for example Nia Dinata, Ayu Utami or Djenar Mahesa Ayu.

How about women in the theater? Contemporary theater is the most difficult one to record their traces. We often heard the story of theater maestros such as WS Rendra, Putu Wijaya, Arifin C Noor or Ratna Sarumpaet. But, they have not enough documentation of their works, so the younger generation can study or analyze it. It’s difficult to research for example how they put women character in their works.

So, the opportunity to see directly of “women on stage” in Sumatra was a very “luxurious” event.

The eight performances by women playwright and director were to point out women’s issues. A group from Payakumbuh, Teater Intro, with the title “Sama dengan Nol” (Same as Zero) by director Della and playwright Milla, was very vocal to point out about contemporary social conditions in Indonesia. They portrayed the high price basic needed issue, education, housewife, prostitutions. With satiric style, “Sama dengan Nol” tried to juxtapose private and domestic realm which have interconnections among them. Three women actors acted very well, dynamic and satiric.

Another group, Teater Sakatak from Padang Panjang, with the director Tya and the writer Fya, bring the story about three women, with different generation who are have a problem each other but have interconnection because of “one secret”. About who is the father of the kid? The issue of reproductive rights and the authority of women are very strong. This piece was very strong in the style of nuance. With minimalist set property (only 3 chairs) the emotion, stillness and secret was very strongly revealed on the stage.

Then, “Sehelai Emak” (A mother), directed by Florencia and written by Irma Sakti, a group from Palembang which tells the story about a low class family (pedicab driver). With the style of impressionist realist, Sehelai Emak portrays the poverty from point of view of the mother which said that low classes of women have to bear a double burden. The weaknesses of this performance were the way how to build the story (action development) was too weak and not focus…and the character was not clear.

Furthermore, the story from Medan by Teater Generasi, directed by Wani and written by Nita tried to point out the issue of common stereotyping of women that women who are single are not good, also oppressed by family and society that women have to married. Wani tried to convey the myth that the character of women who not married was because she works as kembang mayang maker (wedding flower). In Indonesia, especially in Java, myths said the flower wedding makers find it difficult to get a partner. But the development story and character did not develop well. The director looked confuse about what they wanted.

A very interesting theme, called “Dapur” (Kitchen) was by Teater Kuru Setra from Lampung. This group brings the story about kitchen as metaphor domestic realm of women. In the story of kitchen, it is not the role occupied by women, but loved by men who have a hobby of cooking.

From Jambi, the story of a women legend called “Prahara Cik Apung” by theater Orange, has tried to interpret the position of women in the legend in the region. But, they still engage in stereotyping of the women characters on the stage. For example Cik Apung, the leading role in this story just becomes crazy because of a broken heart and revenge.

The extra performance was from Teater Satu Lampung. It took the story written by Imas Sobariah and directed by her partner, Iswadi, called “Wanci”

As a very experienced group and prominent in the region, Teater Satu succeeded in mesmerizing the audiences with a very good woman actor, Ruth Marini. It took a monologue style of a black satire of poverty.

All the performances bring the women voices on the stage. The spirit of criticizing gender injustice and breaking the silence of discrimination against women through the stage was very interesting and important.

The potential of all the directors, playwrights and production teams were good. We can see that all the productions seem very well prepared.

In my reflection, the lessons learned from the event, from the performances were that besides there having to have skills as theater workers, it needed the knowledge about social issues, including about women problem. It needed research from many angles.

Gender perspective can become one of way to see deeply the problems in the society and an approach to produce a theater.

In conclusion, Sumatra Women Stage was the first step; it needs much support so the program can continue. Encouraging women directors and women writing in the theater is an important effort to make the theater world develop and flower.

* pic note: Teater Intro, Payakumbuh, by Teater Satu Lampung

We are against poligamy !

2009-05-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2003/07/29/we-are-against-polygamy.html

We are against polygamy!

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/30/2003 12:00 AM | Opinion

Faiza Mardzoeki, Member, Management Council Ungu Institute, Jakarta

July 25, 2003, marked a setback in the Indonesian women's movement. On that date an Indonesian businessman, Puspo Wardoyo, the owner of the restoran Wong Solo franchise, organized an awards ceremony for males who had married more than one wife.

More than 30 women's organizations as well as individuals from Jakarta protested this event. Among the organizations that formed the coalition ""Nurani Perempuan Indonesia (Indonesian Women's Conscience) were the APIK Legal Aid Center, Aisyiah, Kalyanamitra, Institut Ungu and the National Commission on Violence Against Women. This coalition rejects polygamy and also protested the awards ceremony. A similar demonstration also took place a year ago in Yogyakarta.

The women's movement has always rejected polygamy. National heroine Kartini was among the virulent opponents of it. There was also a strong movement later -- Pewari, in 1952, opposed to the decision by President Sukarno to take a second wife. After the fall of Soeharto, the women's movement always raised its opposition to polygamy when it organized events, to protest violence against women.

The women's movement outside Indonesia also opposes the practice of polygamy. This is shown by the recommendations passed on the issue of elimination of discrimination in February 1998 at the UN. At the 378th session of the assembly, a resolution was passed, stating, ""Indonesia, as the largest Islamic society, is urged to become a society free of polygamy"" and it added, ""polygamy remains a threat to all women as long as it remains unprohibited by law.""

Polygamy is a form of violence against women and children. The practice of marrying more than one woman is a product of unequal power relations between husband and wife. Male domination, in the form of power wielder in the household and controller of all family economics, has provided the basis for the development of a doctrine, misusing religion as a weapon to subdue wives and children.

Most polygamists refer to verses from the Koran, particularly the third verse from an-Nisa, which reads: (4.3) ""And if you fear that you cannot act equitably towards orphans, then marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; but if you fear that you will not do justice (between them), then (marry) only one or what your right hands possess; this is more proper, that you may not deviate from the right course.""

According to Musdah Mulia in his book The Islamic View on Polygamy these verses were not related to the issue of polygamy as such but rather to the issue of how to care for orphans and the unjust treatment they sometimes suffered. These verses contain a warning for all people to avoid all forms of injustice and arbitrary acts, especially within a marriage relationship.

Does the marriage law permit polygamy?

In Law No. 1/1974, Clause 2, it states a husband may have only one wife and a wife only one husband. That clauses institutes monogamy, not polygamy. However, Clause 3 negates this intent by giving a court the power to grant permission for a man to have more than one wife if it is ""desired by the concerned parties.""

The inconsistency between these two clauses also exposes the weakness of the position of the woman in a relationship. A man is given a way out to get around the prohibition on multiple wives by the second clause, which allows a court to give him permission to marry additional wives if he fulfills the conditions in article 5 of Law No. 1/1974.

It is true that if a husband marries a second wife without the permission of the first, the latter can seek an annulment of the marriage. This is set out in article 22 of the law. However, in such relationships, where economic dependence and religious pressure can also be factors, many first wives are reluctant or are not in a position to withhold permission.

In all these arrangements, the woman is placed in a lesser position than the man. This is indeed the nature of polygamy. Polygamy reinforces unequal relations between men and women in society.

Euro Tours Theater Project: They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh

2009-04-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

UPCOMING SHOWS! Europe Tour May 2010
A play: They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh

The Battle of a Netherlands Indies Nyai at the end of the 19 century

Playscript by Faiza Mardzoeki
Directed by Wawan Sofwan
Actors Verani M. van Driel, Willem Bevers, Puspita Hadiati, Wawan Hermawan
Artistic Director: Deden Bulqini,
Film and Video art Director: Ariani Darmawan,
Music Director: Patrick Shaw Iversen,
Make up and Costume: Irina Dayasih
Producer: Faiza Mardzoeki

In 2007 in Indonesia, the country’s major daily newspaper, Kompas, declared the play Nyai Ontosoroh (The Concubine Named Ontosoroh) as the theatrical production of the year. The play had been performed by several theatre groups in several cities throughout the year. A specially selected ensemble, under the direction of Wawan Sofwan, performed it to packed houses in Jakarta. A thousand people came each night, with standing room only, even the stairs had people sitting there.

The play is by Indonesian playwright activist Faiza Mardzoeki’s adaptation of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s record breaking Indonesian novel Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind). Faiza’s adaptation focuses on the story of the concubine named Ontsoroh, who was sold as a young girl, the named Sanikem (acted by Verani M. van Driel) to become the concubine of a Dutch businessman in Surabaya, the second biggest city in the then Netherlands Indies. The play follows the struggles and tribulations of Sanikem alias Ontosoroh as she fights to overcome her status as a nyai (concubine); to defend the family she has in concubinage, and to raise up the dignity and worth of all “natives” in the Indies.

This new version is called “They Call Me Nyai Ontosoroh”. It combines video art and film by Ariani Darmawan and new music by Norwegian composer Patrick Shaw Iversen. This adaptation is based on just four major roles. The play will be performed in Indonesian, with English Subtitles.

The play also introduces other key characters from Pramoedya’s great novel: Herman Mellema, (Willem Bevers) the Dutch colonial businessman; Annelies (Puspita Hadiati), the nyai’s Indo daughter; and Minke (Wawan Hermawan), a young Javanese, inspired by the real life character of Raden Mas Tirto Adhisoeryo, the first Indonesian to own and run a nationalist newspaper, have now entered the Indonesian readers’ psyche throughout the country.

This version is being produced to be performed at the Troppen Theatre Amsterdam and the Tong Tong Festival in Den Haag in May, 2010.

AN ANTHOLOGY DOCUMENTER FILM "AT STAKE"

2009-01-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

A slap to the face: the struggles of Indonesian women ( from an anthology doc film AT STAKE)

AN ANTHOLOGY DOCUMENTER FILM "AT STAKE"

A slap to the face: the struggles of Indonesian women

Faiza Mardzoeki

My eyeballs almost fall out from their sockets after two hours of choking on such deep feelings. My sentiments had been subjected to strong emotions of gundah, sadness and anger. Churned up. That was how I felt as a new film by five young Indonesian directors came to an end: the film was AT STAKE.

Yes, this is a film that churns up the emotions. Angry: angry that so many Indonesian women still have no access to real justice; angry that Indonesian women are still controlled in almost every arena, private and public. We see how still today so many religious leaders, Islamic thinkers and doctors still sit in judgment over women.

And the situation depicted in this film has only been underlined again when we know that almost all the parties in the parliament as well as President Yudhoyono have now passed into law the new so-called anti-pornography law, a law that contains provisions allowing the state and even "society" directly to control women's bodies, how they act and how they dress. According to Nursyahbani Katjasungka, member of parliament from the National Awakening Party (PKB), this law does not deliver the three aims it proclaims: to fight against violence against women and children embodied the exploitation of women's and children's bodies; to fight the domination that exploits women, children and minorities; and to fight the culture of subordination that makes women and children objects. (Kompas, 30 October, 2008) In fact these laws have been opposed by many groups in society precisely because the laws are an attempt to further control women; an attempt by the state to intervene in the affairs of women's bodies.

On the other hand, I was so moved and proud to witness the strength, resolve and positive attitude of those women who experience injustice and power imbalance. In the face of all the disinterest from those who should care, and despite all their limited resources and other limitations, these women continue the struggle to look after and bring up their children.

Anyone accessing the data already available and all the articles and books will be very familiar with the injustices and inequality faced by women. As somebody who has been active in the women's movement, I have seen it face to face on so many occasions. Even so, watching this film AT STAKE is like being slapped in the face and reminded that the struggle is still long and everybody needs to work harder. To feel sadness and pity is not enough a response. The protagonists in these films are not asking for pity. They themselves are remarkable people who are living their lives conscious of their responsibilities to themselves and to others. It should be others, namely, we who feel we understand the issues of women's control over their bodies and women's condition, who should be doing more. Political leaders, religious leaders, doctors, politicians, social movement activists must work harder, alongside these women, to struggle for equality and justice.

Yes, this is one of the strength's of this visual media. It gives depth and understanding to data that otherwise might seem dry.

AT STAKE

This film is an anthology of four stories. This is the best documentary film I have seen during the last ten years. It was screened before friends from the press and friends of Jurnal Perempuan. at the Megablitz Cinema on 10 December, 2008 on the occasion of the Human Rights Day. It had previously been screened as a gala premier at the Jakarta International Film Festival on December 8.

AT STAKE is a production of Kalyana Shira with Nia Dinata as producer. Nia Dinata is a woman cinema worker with a strong record of dealing with gender issues. This time she is working with Ani Ema Susanti, Iwan S., M. Ichsan, Lucky Kuswandi and Ucu Agustin. These five directors came forward partly as a result of their participation in the workshop Project Change 2008 organised by Kalyana Shira Foundation and The Body Shop Indonesia. The workshop not only focused on the technical aspects of film production but also on the issue of gender equality.

I describe this is as the best film of the last ten years (of those I have seen) because AT STAKE presents its picture of the situation of women with a story telling style that is informative and engaging. The camera angles work well and the visual depictions are vivid, life-like and realistic.

The first story is entitled "The striving for love". This portrays two women migrant workers in Hong Kong who suffer great unrest in their hearts as they prepare to return home to their villages in Indonesia.

Ruwati doesn't know quite what to do. Her fiancé in her village suspects that she is no longer a virgin. Ruwati must choose between retaining her virginity or her health. She suffers from a vaginal tumor. She must undergo an internal examination of her vagina and she is afraid that it may break her hymen. In Indonesian culture (among men), a woman is supposed to remain a virgin until her marriage when her virginity is sacrificed to her husband.

Ruwati chooses her health and goes to see the doctor and has an operation. The film depicts vividly how her fiancé holds her under suspicion when he finds out that she has undergone such an examination, Was this a real case of medical need or had she in fact lost her virginity already?

The other case was that of Rianti. She is unsure how she can explain to her family and community that she is in a romantic relationship with another woman migrant worker in Hong Kong. They are deeply in love but are worried that their families and communities will not accept this relationship. But they continue their relationship happily and with full of mutual love while working hard as maids and sending money to her family and the child she has in the village. This story is a portrait of how communities and families can still not accept a same-sex couple.

The second story is entitled "Nona Nyonya"or "Miss Mrs". It tells the story of the trails of women trying to obtain good reproductive health services, such as a pap smear. They face being stigmatized as "women of questionable character" because they have their vagina examined. The very first question they get from the doctor is: "Are you Miss or Mrs.?" Or "Are you married yet or not yet?" If they answer that they are single, then the next question will be: "so how come you are getting a pap-smear … it is only for married women? You have a pap smear it means you are no longer a virgin. Does your mother know? Etc etc "

These are questions of control that interfere into the private life of women and even stigmatize the woman as immoral just because she may have had sex before getting married. Using a hidden camera, one woman records a doctor lecturing her, citing God over and over again, when he found out that she had sexual relations before marriage – even calling his patient "evil".

The third story is called "For what?" and is about female circumcision. This film makes it very clear that women are circumcised (their clitoris cut) in order to prevent them from enjoying sex; out of fear that women have sexual desire. This is made clear in the statements of the men in the film, - Islamic teachers and scholars. According to the mask dancer, Rasinah, tradition in places like Indramayu defines women who have not been circumcised will be viewed as wanton and wild and will be object of constant unwanted observation by the community.

However, according the statements of doctors, there is no health need for circumcision. This, they say, is different for men, for whom circumcision has a health benefit. Women are circumscribed as a means of controlling their bodies; their sexual desires. So it seems that there are many Islamic priests and families who circumcise their daughters when they are still babies or still very small (between 5-8 years). Most suffer traumatic pain later.

The fourth presentation is called Ragat'e's Child (Money to Bring Up a Child). This work by Ucu Agustin breaks through all our efforts to restrain our anger and sadness. For the whole fifteen minutes we cannot but shed tears. Sadness, anger against injustice; respect and admiration for the protagonists in struggle surge inside us. The story portrays two young, impoverished women, Nur and Mira. They have been deserted by their husbands and left to bring up their children. Poverty pushed them to become sex-workers where they are forced to accept Rp10,000 ($ 1.00) as payment for having sex with each man. They can earn 20,000 to 50,000 rupiah per evening depending on how many men they service. They work in the evening in the Gunung Bolo Chinese Cemetery.

Apart from the threats to their health, they face entrapment by the "kiwir-gendakan", (temporary boyfriends, who act also as kinds of pimps, who live with them and are prone to exploit them and beat them). They also face raids from the police. They face imprisonment, which means they will not be able to look after their children. To earn money, Nur and Mira also work splitting stones. They work hard to try to make sure their children will have better lives than themselves. The work splitting stones exhausts them. They do not want to sell their bodies at all, let alone for 10,000 rupiah. But poverty means that they must struggle on with their work.

(And I watched this film in the Megablitz Cinema in the Grand Indonesia Mall, A contradictory situation, is it not?)

This is a picture of the poverty that beats down on the women of Indonesia. This is a portrait of the faces of the moral judges who think they should control women's bodies. These are the men who still demand virginity from women. Women are controlled and at the same time their situation is a symbol of the failure of government and of the religious leaders and the uncaring attitude of society. They are treated as nothing more than the private property of men.

There is nothing wrong in women being angry about this, in rising up and to actively struggle to win a better future.

Sisters, Its time to get angry and get more active!

Tebet, Jakarta, 15 Dec 2008)

Menampar muka: pertaruhan kaum perempuan Indonesia

2008-12-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

Film Dokumenter PERTARUHAN

Menampar muka: pertaruhan kaum perempuan Indonesia

Faiza Mardzoeki

Air mata jebol juga dari kedua bola mataku, setelah menahan sesak di dada sepanjang hampir 2 jam. Tidak banyak, tetapi cukup membawa hatiku kepada suasana gundah, sedih dan marah. Teraduk-aduk. Itulah detik akhir menyaksikan film dokumenter karya lima sutradara muda Indonesia berjudul PERTARUHAN.

Memang, menonton film ini saya menjadi sangat emosional. Marah, bahwa situasi perempuan Indonesia masih banyak banget yang belum memperoleh akses keadilan yang layak. Bawah Perempuan Indonesia masih dikontrol dari segala lini, dari ruang privat sampai ke ruang publik. Kita melihat bagaimana masih banyak para ulama, pemikir Islam, dokter jadi “hakim moral” kaum perempuan, bahkan.

Dan ternyata semakin diperkuat diskripsi film itu dengan kenyataan bahwa presiden SBY dan hampir semua partai di DPR sudah meloloskan UU anti Pornografi, yang jauh sebelumnya sudah banyak ditentang oleh masyarakat karena secara substansi justru tidak melindungi perempuan dan anak, tetapi justru banyak mengontrol tubuh perempuan (negara intervensi terhadap urusan tubuh perempuan). Menurut anggota DPR dari F-PKB, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, UU ini tidak memenuhi tiga tujuan yang diumumkan sebagai tujuan utamanya, yaitu memerangi kekerasan terhadap perempuan dan anak melalui eksploitasi tubuh perempuan dan anak, memerangi dominasi yang mengeksploitasi perempuan, anak, dan kelompok minoritas, serta memerangi budaya penundukan yang menjadikan perempuan dan anak sebagai obyek (kompas 30 Oktober 2008)

Di sisi lain, saya begitu terharu dan bangga, bahwa perempuan-perempuan yang mengalami korban ketidakadilan dan ketimpangan kekuasaan laki perempuan itu begitu kuat, tabah dan positif menatap masa depan. Dengan segala keterbatasannya dan ketidak perdulian dari mereka yang seharusnya bertanggung jawab, para perempuan itu berjuang merawat dan membesarkan anak-anaknya.

Secara data dan bacaan, apalagi saya yang juga telah bergumul dengan gerakan perempuan, gambaran ketidakadilan perempuan dan ketimpangan relasi sudah banyak beredar dan nampak di depan mata kita. Tetapi dengan menonton film PERATURUHAN ini, saya merasa ditampar muka, bahwa perjuangan perempuan masih panjang dan butuh kerja keras lebih. Apabila kita menyaksikan kemiskinan, ketidakadilan, kita tidak bisa sekedar menaruh belas kasihan. Para tokoh yang ada dalam film dokumenter tersebut tidak meminta belas kasihan dari kita. Sungguh, mereka orang-orang yang hebat menjalani hidup dengan kesadaran tanggung jawab atas hidup dirinya dan orang lain. Yang seharusnya malu, adalah kita, kalian yang merasa tahu atas tubuh dan kondisi perempuan; yang merasa lebih mengerti atas situasi perempuan miskin. Para pemimpin, ulama, dokter, pembuat kebijakan, anggota DPR, politisi, aktivis gerakan sosial yang seharusnya lebih bekerja keras lagi dan benar-benar memperjuangkan kesetaraan dan keadilan. Ya,inilah salah satu kekuatan visual. Memperkuat pengertian data-data yang kadang kering. Its time to get angry….and get more active…!

Pertaruhan

Pertaruhan (AT STAKE) adalah antologi dokumenter yang menceritakan empat kisah bertema politik dan wacana tubuh perempuan di Indonesia. Inilah film dokumenter Indonesia terbaik yang pernah kulihat selama dekade reformasi (jatuhnya rezim Soaeharto). Film ini diputar di Megablitz , Jakarta pada tanggal 10 Desember 2008, bertepatan dengan hari HAM sedunia khusus untuk pers dan sahabat Jurnal Perempuan. Sebelumnya film ini telah diputar di gala premier Jakarta International Film Festival ke 10 pada tanggal 8 Desember yang baru lewat.

PERTARUHAN adalah film produksi Kalyana Shira, diproduseri oleh Nia Dinata, sineas perempuan yang setia dengan tema-tema relasi gender. Kali ini Nia bekerja sama dengan di 5 sutradara muda Indonesia, yaitu Ani Ema Susanti, Iwan S. & M. Ichsan, Lucky Kuswandi dan Ucu Agustin. Kelima sutradara muda ini merupakan hasil dari keikutsertaan mereka di program workshop Project Change!2008, yang dilaksanakan oleh Kalyana Shira Foundation dan The Body Shop Indonesia. Workshop ini tidak hanya berkutat pada aspek tehnis pembuatan. film dokumenter, namun juga fokus pada issue kesetaraan gender.

Film ini saya sebut terbaik (dari yang pernah saya tonton) karena pada PERTARUHAN dengan sangat baik memberi informasi seputar posisi perempuan Indonesia, melalui soal “tubuh dan politik” dengan gaya tutur yang tidak membosankan dan informatif. Dari sisi pilihan angle kamera, gambar-gambar yang ditampilkanpun sangat hidup dan realis.

Kisah pertama berjudul “Mengusahakan Cinta” mengangkat potret dua perempuan buruh migran di Hongkong yang menjadi rusuh hatinya ketika hendak pulang ke kampung halamannya. Ruwati bingung karena calon suaminya di kampung curiga dirinya tidak perawan. Ruwati harus memilih antara keperawanan sebelum menikah atau kesehatan pada dirinya. Ia mempunyai sakit miom dan harus menjalani pemeriksaan internal pada vaginanya dan ia kuatir pemeriksaan itu dapat mengakibatkan kerusakan pada selaput daranya. Dalam kultur sebagaian besar orang Indonesia (laki-laki) perempuan harus masih perawan sampai menikah dan keperawananya hanya dipersembahkan kepada lelaki yang kelak mempersuntingnya. Ruwati memilih untuk sehat dan pergi ke dokter dan menjalani operasi. Namun, Terlihat dengan jelas, bagaimana si calon suami Ruwati yang curiga mengetahui bahwa calon istrnya melalukan peperiksaan pada vaginanya. Apakah betul ia berobat atau karena tidak perawan? Kisah lain, Perempuan bernama Rianti yang kebingungan menjelaskan kepada keluarga dan masyarakat tentang dirinya yang mempunyai hubungan cinta dengan sesama perempuan buruh Migran di Hongkong. Mereka begitu saling cinta, akan tetapi kuatir keluarga dan masyarakat tidak menerimanya. Namun Rianti dan pasanganya menjalaninya dengan santai dan penuh kasih sayang sembari bekerja keras di sebagai maid sambil terus membantu keluarganya dan menghidupi anaknya yang ia tinggalkan di desa. Kisah ini memotret bagaimana masyarakat, keluarga masih belum menerima pasangan sejenis.

Pada film ke dua, berjudul “Nona Nyonya”mengangkat kisa-kisah perempuan-perempuan muda untuk mendapatkan pelayanan kesehatan reproduksinya, antara lain dengan papsmear. Mereka menghadapi stigma dan cap perempuan tidak baik-baik karena memerikasa vaginanya. Pertanyaan pertama para dokter ketika mendaftar untuk papsmear adalah “ kamu Nona atau Nyonya? ”. “ Sudah Menikah apa belum?” Pertanyaan selanjutnya, apabila mereka menjawab dirinya masih Nona, terus bertanya, kok memeriksa papsmear, ini kan hanya untuk orang menikah. Kalau sudah papsmear berarti kau sudah tidak perawan dong, ibu kamu tahu nggak dll. Pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang sangat mengontrol, ikut campur urusan privat perempuan dan bahkan memberi stigma perempuan tidak baik karena sudah having sex pra nikah. Dengan camera tersembunyi, salah satu perempuan muda merekam seorang dokter laki-laki yang memberi ceramah dan menyebut nama Tuhan berkali-kali karena mengetahui pasiennya masih nona dan sudah berhubungan sex dan menyebut si pasien dengan “Evil”.

Kisah ke tiga, berjudul “Untuk Apa?” tentang praktek sunat perempuan. Dari dokumenter ini, ketahuan deh, bahwa perempuan disunat (dipotong clitorisnya) karena kuatir perempuan bisa menikmati sexnya dengan baik, ketakutan perempuan mempunyai gairah. Ini terungkap jelas oleh pada lelaki yang notabene para kyai dan ilmuwan Islam. Dalam pandangan tradisi, seperti yang terjadi di Indramayu, melalui wawancara penari topeng Rasinah, bahwa perempuan yang tidak disunat akan dianggap perempuan jalang dan liar dan diolok oleh masyarakat. Padahal dari sisi kesehatan, seperti yang diungkapkan oleh dokter-dokter, tidak diperlukan sama sekali perempuan untuk sunat. Beda dengan lelaki, penis perlu disunat untuk alasan kesehatan. Nah, perempuan disuruh sunat untuk ngontrol tubuhnya (nafsu sex-nya). Dan ternyata di Indonesia masih banyak para kyai dan keluarga yang menyunatkan anak perempuannya ketika masih bayi atau saat masih kecil. Sebagian perempuan yang pernah disunat juga trauma karena kesakitan.

Film ke empat berjudul Ragat’e Anak, besutan Ucu Agustin ini yang bisa membobol pertahanan kemarahan dan kesedihan saya. Lebih dari 15 menit airmata merembes, kisah ini membuatku sangat emosional. Sedih, marah tentang ketidak adilan, sekaligus salut dan hormat kepada tokoh-tokoh perempuan di sini. Berjudul Ragat’e Anak (Biaya untuk Anak), megangkat kisah 2 perempuan miskin. Mereka janda ditinggal suami, mempunyai anak. Kemiskinan membuat ke dua perempuan itu, Nur dan Mira terpaksa menjadi pekerja sex dan dengan rela dihargai Rp 10.000. sekali main dengan para lelaki. Mereka bekerja, mencari lelaki miskin dan butuh sex di kompleks pekuburan Cina Gunung Bolo (Tulung Agung) di malam hari. Dalam semalam biasanya mereka memperoleh pendapatan berkisar Rp 20.000 s/d 50. 000. Artinya harus melayani 2 sampai 5 lelaki. Selain terancam kesehatannya, mereka terjerat oleh para kiwir-gendakan (pacar sementara, hampir mirip germo, yang menjadi teman hidupnya selama bekerja di lokalisasi dan sering memeras dan memukul) dan juga terancam oleh para polisi yang merazia. Apabila tertangkap mereka bisa masuk penjara dan tidak bisa membiayai keluarga dan anak-anaknya. Untuk menambah pemasukan uang, Nur dan Mia itu bekerja sebagai buruh pemecah batu.

Nur dan Mia tetap semangat bekerja dan berharap anak-anaknya tidak menjadi seperti dirinya. Ia sudah lelah menjadi pemecah batu, tidak mau menjual tubuhnya (apalagi dengan harga Rp 10.000). Tetapi kemiskinan membuat mereka harus tetap semangat bekerja.

Itulah protret kemiskinan yang mendera perempuan Indonesia. Inilah wajah para hakim moral yang sok tahu tentang tubuh perempuan. Begitulah para lelaki masih menuntut keperawanan perempuan. Perempuan dikontrol, dibiarkan sekaligus sebagai tumbal ketidakberesean pemerintah, pemuka agama, dan ketidak perdulian masyarakat.

Tidak salah kalau perempuan marah, lalu bangkit menolak dan segera aktiv memperjuangkan kea rah lebih baik. Sisters, Its time to get angry and get more active!

Untuk informasi lebih lanjut dan ingin nonton filmnya klik saja:

http://www.kalyanashirafound.org/pertaruhan/index.html

(

am back home now after 4 months away

2008-11-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

Hi....
I have now got home in Jakarta after 4 months away!
Am happy, but still have jet lag!
So I'll write again, later...Hopefully soon!

22 Nov, 08. 1. 05 am-Faiza

Anak Semua Bangsa, Negeri Semua Orang

2008-09-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

Thoughts of the day:(setelah peristiwa visa untuk memasuki Amerika)
Anak Semua Bangsa, Negeri Semua Orang

Faiza Mardzoeki

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

(John Lennon)

Sudah hampir seminggu ini, tiba-tiba aku merindukan lagu IMAGINE-Lennon.
Peristiwa humiliated, US embassy menolak memberi visa kepadaku berdasarkan “profiling” membuatku sedih dan marah. Surat protes dariku dan beberapa professor dari universitas di Amerika (yang mengundang Max, suamiku) ke Duta Besar Amerika di Singapore memang ditanggapi dan dijawab bukan hanya oleh pihak konsuler, tetapi juga oleh pejabat lain di kedutaan. Namun jawaban yang aku terima justru ternyata semakin mempertegas bagaimana watak Pemerintahan Amerika. Bahwa menurut hukum Amerika setiap orang yang melamar visa ke Amerika wajib dicurigai dan dianggap sebagai calon immigran yang tidak akan kembali dari Amerika.

Meskipun begitu, dengan menggunakan bahasa diplomatik, kedutaan Amerika di Singapore itu menawarkan untuk melamar lagi dan akan melihat semua documenku. Penjelasan ini kudapat dari jawaban surat protesku dari Duta Besar Amerika di Singapore. Lalu, segera kukabarkan kepada mereka yang turut serta melayangkan surat protes, mereka rata-rata menganalisa bahwa tampaknya kedutaan Amerika akan mempertimbangkan protes-protes yang ada dan tentu saja dengan cara diplomatik mereka menawarkan “solusi”, dengan melamar lagi.

Kukabarkan kepada temanku di Jakarta, bahwa surat protesku direspon dan ditawarkan untuk wawancara lagi. Dengan “baik dan lugu” temanku di bertanya “ Kedutaan Amerika di Singapore minta maaf nggak ke kamu? Mereka kan sudah sangat diskriminastif dan menjengkelkan?”. Duh, permintaan maaf dari pihak kedutaan tak kubayangkan. Sesuatu yang jauh dari pikiranku bahwa untuk “penguasa birokrasi” sebuah negeri yang merasa paling adidaya di dunia minta maaf kepada pelamar visa dari negeri Indonesia? Kalau ini terjadi, wuah, satu catatan penting bagi “pencerahan peradaban dunia”.

Hatiku sempat menjadi beku soal Amerika. Kehilangan “mood” untuk menginjak tanah amerika. Kenapa? Perasaaku mengatakan kenapa aku mesti ke negeri dengan pemerintahan yang begitu arogan dan diskriminatif terhadap sesama warga bangsa? Tapi di sisi lain, ada perasaan menghargai dan menghormati terhadap mereka, warga baik Amerika, yang sudah membelaku dan meloby supaya aku bisa menghirup perjalanan ke Amerika ini. Aku masih percaya, banyak warga dunia ini yang baik. There are so many good people around the world. Tetapi aku juga tahu bahwa ada sedikit sekali pemerintahan di dunia yang baik dan cinta rakyatnya. Cinta yang sebenar-benarnya.

Demi menghargai upaya teman-teman yang melakukan protes solidarits, demi membuktikan apakah kedutaan Amerika akan merubah pandangan setelah aku memprotes perlakuan yang buruk dan demi angan-angan pergi sebuah negeri paling dominan di dunia. So, aku melakukan wawancara lagi di bagian imigrasi/konsuler Kedutaan Amerika di Singapore. Aku harus bayar lagi sebesar $143, 80 dan sidik jari lagi! Jadi aku sudah membayar $ 287,60 untuk jajni wawancara saja. Dan, mereka mengambil sidik jariku sebanyak 2 kali. Sepuluh jariku, semua disidiknya. Wow!

Lalu wawancara datang. Nomorku dipanggil untuk memasuki counter NO. 1. Rupanya ini counter yang berbeda dengan saat aku wawancara pertama. Di sana ada dua kursi. Masih ada kaca pembatas. Namun ini lebih baik, setidaknya aku bisa duduk berhadapan (dengan dibatasin kaca) dan melalukan wawancara lebih benar. Dan seperti yang aku duga: Tidak ada kata maaf. Tetapi ereka menjelaskan kenapa saat wawancara mereka menollak memberi visa padaku. Alasan utamanya adalah “saya dianggap meragukan akan kembali ke Siangpore. Dan, dilihat sangat berpotensi tetap tinggal di Amerika (alias jadi pekerja migrant gelap!)

Well, pada wawancara ke dua ini, mereka mau membaca semua documen yang aku punya. Surat kawin, visa permanent residen Australia, green visa Singapore, surat-surat sponsor dari berbagai perguruan tinggi di US dan dari bos-nya suamiku, Prof. Farid Alatas dan nanya-nanya pekerjaanku dan apa yang akan kulakukan dilakukan selama di Amerika.

Setelah 30 menit wawancara (lebih berupa intergrasi) akhirnya si petugas itu bilang bahwa aku dapat visa multiple entry! Dan akan diambil 5 hari kemudian.

Mmmm, betul juga kata teman-teman di Amerika. Setelah mendapatkan lebih dari 10 surat protest dari para pengundang Max yang hampir semua professor universitas terkemukan, aktivis human rights dan temanku dari Indonesia, Kedutaan Amerika merubah keputusan, dan tentu saja dengan cara “sangat diplomatik”!

Protes kadang bekerja dengan baik. Protes bisa merubah keputusan. Kalau toh protes itu tidak merubah keputusan, protes adalah wujud dari pembelaan dan dignity!

Memang keinginanku mengunjungi kota-kota Amerika dan negeri lain, terutama New York belum sirna. “ada yang memanggil-manggil di sana”. Aku ingin meraup pengalaman dari kota terbesar di dunia, dengan segala keindahan dan gejolaknya. Dengan segala unsur budaya dan gairahnya. Dan, tentu saja untuk kembali. Kehidupanku adalah di negeri tropisku: Indonesia. Tetapi aku ingin memperluas horizonku. Mengepakan sayap tinggi meraup kegairahan hidup berbagi negeri, khususnya di mana ide-ide pencerahan, kemajuan dan pengalaman kemundurannya berjalan.

Tahukah kalian keinginan aku ke New York sederhana: selain jalan-jalan dan menemani sahabat hidupku, Max, yang akan memberikan kuliah di berbagai uiversitas, aku ingin melihat pertunjukan drama Broadway. Aku ingin melihat langsung dan belajar. Karena aku sedang mimpi dan akan mempersiapkan drama musical yang akan kutulis dan kuproduksi. Dan aku ingin merasai desah nafas alunan Jazz yang konon lahir dari kegelisahan nurani kemanusiaan . Musik yang menghentak dari jiwa-jiwa yang ingin bebas. Aku ingin bertemu dengan sesama pencinta teater, sesama orang yang bergairah tentang keadilan, tentang pembebasan perempuan dan bertemu sesaat dengan cinta yang menggelora di sana. That’s all.

Akan tetapi, untuk seseorang yang berasal dari negeri dunia ke- tiga, negeri di mana telah di jajah ratusan tahun, sebuah nengeri dengan “cap miskin” adalah tidak mudah. Bangsaku adalah negeri yang masuk dalam katagori “untuk selalu ducurigai” setiap warganya yang akan pergi ke negeri-negeri yang menguasai dunia (apalagi kalau bukan imperialisme?)

Pemikiran ini sangat gampang untuk dilihat. Apabila anda adalah dari negeri-negeri (bekas) penjajah atau dianggap maju secara ekonomi, tidak membutuhkan visa untuk memasuki negeri-negeri lain. Orang Australia, Amerika, Eropa, dengan mudah keluar masuk negeri-negeri lain, bukan? Warga bangsa-bangsa ini tidak perlu mengisi form untuk memperjelas stautus mereka, tidak perlu mengatri berjam-berjam untuk di wawancarai dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan penuh kecurigaan dan kesombongan. Warga bangsa ini mempunyai privilege untuk menghirup udara dunia!

Dua contoh protret kontradiksi yang sangat sederhana. “Miskin-Kaya”. “Hitam-Putih”, yang berimplikasi pada perlu tidaknya “Kartu jimat/visa” untuk memasuki negeri lain.

Dengan gamblang contoh kongkret sederhana ini semakin mempertajam watak dunia sekarang. Mengapa jutaan warga bangsa dari negeri-negeri neoimperialisme semakin berbodong-bondong ke kota-kota dunia yang mendominasi hajat hidup warga dunia? Amerika, Inggris, Perancis, Australia…. Hal ini disebabkan oleh ketimpangan system hidup dunia yang tidak adil. “Di negeri Utara, denyut raksasa ekonomi menggelora. Di negeri Selatan, warga bangsa masih hidup dengan upah 1-2 dollar perhari!!!”.

Dalam pandanganku semua warga bangsa berhak mencari kehidupan di manapun ia mau. Impian Lennon pada tahun 1960 an, tentang dunia yang “sama rata sama rasa” rasanya memang muncul dari kegelisahan yang di rasakan jutaan orang di dunia.

Dalam kenyataannya dunia yang yang kita huni memang berbalik dari impian Lennon itu. Dunia yang kita huni sekarang adalah dunia yang penuh kekerasan, kecurigaan, kemiskinan, kitiadka adilan, kelaparan.

Namun demikian, aku masih selalu diliputi kegaraiahan bahwa dunia di lain sisi banyak harapan kebaikan dan keindahan. Musik abadi tentang keadilan masih selalu terdengar di setiap sudut negeri. Gairah warna solidaritas sesama warga bangsa masih terlukis di setiap kanvas jalanan. Denyut nafas cinta masih menggelora di setiap detak jantung anak-anak negeri. Inilah mimpi anak semua bangsa dan harapan negeri semua orang.

Pada akhirnya akupun ingin mengutip kalimat indah dari Kant, filsuf abad 18 yang sudah mampu menjahit pemikiran brilian “Sapere Aude! [dare to know] "Have courage to use your own understanding!"--that is true of enlightenment!

Akupun mempunyai keberanian dengan pengertianku sendiri, bahwa tindakan diskriminasi adalah tolol. Menghumiliated sesama manusia adalah sama saja kita melemparkan diri ke lorong kegelapan manusia. Sekali lagi: “ Sapere Audeu!”. Have courage to use your own understanding! Dare we to say “ Its time to sharing all the world?”

Singapore, 27 August 2008.

Faiza protest to US Embassy in Singapore: Visa issue

2008-09-04T02:09:00.000-07:00

On 18 August, I applied for a visa to visit the United States aat the American Embassy in Singapore. I was planning to go to America accompanying my husband who was to give some talks and lectures at about 9 American universities. I was also intending to meet and network with women human rights activists as well as theatre people. However, very rudely and with showing discrimination and prejudice, they rejected my visa, clearly based on "profiling". This was unacceptable behavior. Discrimination and prejudice are two things which should not be tolerated.

There has been a lot of analysis of what I have experienced. Some have said that perhaps the reason they have done this is my Arabic name. Others have said that it because I come from a country that America feels they must keep an eye upon: Indonesia.

Because I am from a poor country, so they think that I am a potential illegal worker in the United States. (Oh, my dear American government, I love my country and I love my people with all my spirit. It is better I work in my own country, however small my contribution. I am seeking only to gain some experiences of America, its beauty and its ugliness too …)

I know the discrimination is not against me personally – they did not even make any attempt to check who I was or what my purpose in visiting America was. I was discriminated against as an example of other people like me. They insult millions of us.

Whatever the reason rejecting issuing a visa based on prejudice and suspicion is very hurtful. They refused even to look at any on my documentation. Do not I have the right to travel and that I had clear and official letters explaining the purpose of my travel.

So I have sent off a letter of protest. So has my husband, Max. he has cancelled his visit to the United States. He too cannot accept this discrimination against his wife. So we sent letters of protest to the American Ambassador in Singapore. And have informed the universities in the United States.

Apart from myself and Max, professors from the universities that invited Max have also protested and raised their objections.

Who knows whether these letters will be elicit a response or just be ignored. But for us the important thing is to reject this kind of treatment. It is a matter of principle. Whether the protests succeed or not is a secondary issue at this moment. We know that the American government often refuses to listen to voices of protest. Look at the experience of the recent protests against the war in Iraq. In this case, we make it clear that the error is not with us.

It is a matter of principle to reject this kind of prejudice and to refuse to accommodate to this kind of arrogance.

Below are our letters. Happy reading:

I. FAIZA'S LETTER PROTESTSingapore,

20 August 2008

To:

Her Excellency
Patricia L. Herbold
Ambassador for the United States of America,
Republic of Singapore

FAX: (65) 6476-9340

RE: Protest regarding treatment not in accord with website information and of a tendency towards discrimination

Dear Ambassador,

I would like to introduce myself: Siti Faizah Hidayati (pen name as Faiza Mardzoeki). I was an applicant for a non immigrant visa at the United States Embassy in Singapore on 18 August, with BARCODE Number G1KZ4WLAMA. I am an Indonesian citizen with Australian Permanent Residence and a spouse visa for residency in Singapore. I am living with my husband, Maxwell Ronald Lane, who is working here in Singapore as a Visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore.

I was applying for a visa so as to be able to accompany my husband to the United States. He was to present some lectures and papers at several US universities as well as do some research in US libraries. While accompanying my husband, I was intending to be a tourist while also networking with people of similar interests, namely women’s rights and theatre. All costs related to the trip were being borne by my husband, which I stated clearly in my application form.

However, I greatly resent and was disappointed by the way I was treated by you, namely refusing a visa to me clearly based on “profiling”. And in doing this you clearly violated your own policies as set on your website that you looked at cases on an individual basis, stating “No one person’s situation is exactly like anyone else’s” and while indicating that no specific set of documents could be indicated, the website made various recommendations about documentations, a clear indication that an applicant should have some..

However, in the “interview” of no more than three (3) minutes, the officer refused to examine any of the documents that I had brought with me, which included a statement from my husband, his passport, his pay slips, our credit card statement, and supporting letters from his employer and inviting organizations and universities in the United States.
I stated on my application form that my trip was being financially supported by my husband, which I reaffirmed in the interview. On your website you state: “Spouses and Minors may submit the documents of their spouse or parent; however, they should provide proof of the relationship by including a marriage or birth certificate.” However, your officer refused to even look at any of these documents.

After three minutes, with no reference to any of the supporting documents I had prepared, the officer was somehow able to determine that I had not proven that I have “ the ties that will compel her to return to Singapore after her travel to the United States.” You make this determination having claimed that “No one person’s situation is exactly like anyone else’s” and then refuse to look at the documentation you urge people to bring. He refused to look at any documentation.

This was an act of extreme impoliteness, full of prejudice and violating the ethics that you have proclaimed. And I protest this treatment for which I also paid $180.40. I feel humiliated at this prejudice filled treatment that I have experienced.

Further, in making a determination that I had no ties that would bring me back to Singapore, you utterly negate and humiliate my relationship with my husband who now lives in Singapore. How was your officer able to determine that I no longer wanted to live with my husband? Meanwhile why it is those same criteria is not applied to my husband? He can leave Singapore and enter the United States at will, without any suspicion that he will not return to Singapore, but I cannot.

With this letter I suggest that you review your regulations and policies. Cooperation based on mutual respect, without prejudice and the application of equality between men and women (husbands and wives) and brotherhood/sisterhood between peoples/nations are values of civilization that your country so often proclaims as its values.

Thank you for your attention

Yours faithfully,
Siti Faizah Hidayati (Faiza Mardzoeki)
senjajingga@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/faizamardzoeki.
Mobile: 90863950

CC to:

Consular Section
US Embassy Singapore
Tel: +65-64769100
Fax: +65-64769232
http://singapore.usembassy.gov

II. MAX'S LETTER PROTEST

Singapore,
18 August, 2008

Her Excellency
Patricia L. Herbold
Ambassador for the United States of America,
Republic of Singapore

FAX: (65) 6476-9340

Visit to universities in the United States – CANCELLATION and PROTEST

Dear Ambassador,

This October I am scheduled to visit the United States and speak at several universities on Indonesian society, politics and literature. I am scheduled to speak at:

Fordham Jesuit University, New York
City University of New York
Northwestern University, Chicago
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Michigan, Ann Abor
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Riverside
University of Washington, Seattle
University of North California

I have almost 40 years of academic, writing and translation experience in Indonesian studies, including as translator of many of the novels of Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

I am now writing to all those universities to inform them that I have to cancel these lectures and all consultations and dialogues with colleagues in the United States because of the inability of the United States government to treat a husband and wife equally.

Today on August 18, my wife, Siti Faizah Hidayati (pen-name Faiza Mardzoeki) applied for a non-immigrant visa to the U.S. so as to be able to accompany me to the US (Appointment number G1KZ4WLAMA). She herself planned to see the sights as well as try to meet people in the US active in her field – women's rights and the theatre. She is a well known playwright and theatre producer in Indonesia. She is an Indonesian citizen, with permanent resident status in Australia and a spouse residency visa here in Singapore.

Her visa was rejected without the interviewing officer bothering even to examine the documents she had brought with her. The only explanation was that she "did not qualify" for a visa because she had not been resident in Singapore for a long enough period. She has moved here to Singapore with me when I recently took up a position as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore.

So I can visit the United States, despite also only having been resident in Singapore for two months, while my wife has been refused entry.

I can only presume that this is an act of discrimination based on the fact that my wife is from a country with low per capita income statistics.

Given that the United States government is unable to treat myself and my wife equally, I am writing to all the universities where I am scheduled to speak and other institutions where I was scheduled to meet people to inform them of this discrimination and humiliation and to cancel all appointments.

Yours faithfully,

Max Lane
Visiting Fellow,
Department of Malay Studies,
National University of Singapore,
Tel: 65164199
Mobile: 98111808
Email: mlsmrl@nus.edu.sg

Scientific knowledge brought into being ever more wonders

2008-08-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

[Scientific knowledge brought into being ever more wonders. The legends of my ancestors were shamed into silence. No longer did one have to meditate for years to be able to speak with someone across the sea. Some Germans had stretched a sea-cable from England to India! And wires of this sort were proliferating from here to there all across the face of the earth. Now the whole world could observe the actions of a single person. And one could watch the activity of the whole world.]

"Ilmu pengetahuan semakin banyak melahirkan keajaiban. Dongengan leluhur sampai malu tersipu. Tak perlu lagi orang bertapa bertahun untuk dapat bicara dengan seseorang di seberang lautan. Orang Jerman telah memasang kawat laut dari Inggris sampai India! Dan kawat semacam itu membiak berjuluran ke seluruh permukaan bumi. Seluruh dunia kini dapat mengawasi tingkah-laku seseorang. Dan orang dapat mengawasi tingkah-laku seluruh dunia" (PAT, Bumi Manusia, p.316).

Am not in the funk anymore...Here I go!

2008-07-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Saat-saat ini aku mengalami hal terburuk moment dalam hal kreativitas dan ide. Hal utama yang kurasakan adalah : jenuh yang berakibat pada rasa malas dan akhirnya banyak buang waktu dengan melakukan in itu yang kurang berguna. Duh!

Setelah selesai project “women seize the night” monologues, yang muncul di pikiran dan hatiku adalah buat new play: Tentang lokalisasi pekerja sex di Surabaya, Dolly! Mimpiku, cerita Dolly itu dibuat drama musical. Gagasan ini muncul saat melihat acting Ria Irawan, di monolog Women Seize the night. Aku kurang puas pada permainan Ria. Beberapa catatanku: cerita kurang mendukung gaya acting Ria sekaligus Ria kebanyakan improvisasi yang sangat distortif dari konsep cerita awal. Dalam hati saat itu, mmm perlu dibuatkan naskah yang pas nih untuk Ria. Yang cepat melintas lantas ide lokalisasi Dolly itu. Aku harus nulis play Dolly ini. Tapi membayangkan ide drama musical Dolly ini meski sangat antusias, agak lemas mengingat biayanya pasti mahal ( ini susahnya, kalau kerjaan produser juga kulakukan, mau tak mau mengkalkulasi budget! Meski baru ide di kepala, aku sudah bisa membayangkan berapa budget yang akan dibutuhkan apabila drama musical Dolly Surabaya ini dikerjakan!). Untuk menuliskan cerita Dolly ini dengan baik, tentu saja butuh riset dll. Tapi ini belum kukerjakan juga, baru sedikit saja riset lewat media cetak dan online. Hal ini sedikit banyak menganggu pikiran.

Project lain yang ada dalam pikiran adalah rencana Nyai Ontosoroh tour ke Eropa untuk tahun 2009-2010!. Wuah, aku menjanjikan akan mengerjakan pula. Naskah dan cari dana! Mmmmm……belum kumulai juga karena masih menunggu catatan konsep dari sutradaranya, si Wawan ini. Tapi Wawan, beberapa kali kirim SMS ke aku, masih sangat antusias mengerjakan project ini. Tapi dia masih terserap ke pementasan si Bandung dan Jakarta (teater Sandekala)

Hal lain yang tak kalah penting dan saat ini paling banyak menyita pikiranku adalah Restrukturisasi Institut Ungu dan Festival April. Mengumpulkan dan mengajak dikusi, meeting dengan pihak-pihak yang sedianya mesti turut memikirkan Institut Ungu, mengajak orang-orang baru yang punya kapasitas dan kemauan adalah hal yang bikin aku sedikit frustasi saat ini.

Soal Festival April, ini hal yang paling konkrit dan mudah dikerjakan sebenarnya. Pada tahapan sekarang aku masih menyusun proposal kegiatan dan mulai mengajak meeting dengan berbagai pihak dan memikirkan mencari dananya. Tapi kurasa lambat banget….

Belum lagi ada proposal-proposal ajakan kerja sama yang sedikit banyak menguras pikiran adalah drama tradisional ketoprak dari teman-teman di Jogja dan yayasan Komunikatif.

Terus, gagasan membangun women theatre groups, kelompok membaca perempuan, soal perserikatan Solidaritas Perempuan.

Semua mimpi, kegelisahan dan cita-cita yang ingin dikerjakan setelah kuurai memang jadi terasa sekali menumpuk, kurang terorganisir secara rapi. Setelah kupikir-pikir, barangkali kebanyakan gagasan dan banyak mau ini itu yang menjadi faktor penyebab kebingungan dan kemalasan dan menjadi jenuh. Bingung memulai dari mana. Tidak bisa bilang NO.

Maka, aku akan coba kurenungkan project mana yang menjadi priorotas.

4 Hal yang akan menjadi focus utama project dalam 2-3 tahun mendatang adalah:

1. Institut Ungu
2. Festival April
3. Nyai Ontosoroh Monologue Europe tour!
4. Dolly

New Play dan project lain akan kukerjakan apabila ke empat project yang menjadi prioritas ini sudah menemukan bentuk dan dikerjakan.

So, here I go! Semoga hari ini aku memulai dengan SEMANGAT BARU. Am Not in the funk anymore! Go, Faiza!

A Liber Amicorum 80 th Joesoef Isak

2008-07-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

w/Joesoef Isak, 13 July 2008 at Teater Kecil Jak Art Centre. "Teruskan Revolusi" Begitu beliau nuliskan di buku persembahannya untukku. wuah...!

15 July 2008 Joesoef Isak, genap berusia 80 TH.
Untuk menghormati perjuangan, pengabdian dan kerja-kerja Bung Joesoef Isak, teman-temannya mengadakan sebuah acara "A Liber Amicorum 80 Th Joesoef Isak" ...Nah, saya juga turut berpartisipasi di acara tersebut! Kebagian kerja publikasi. Hampir 350 orang datang dari berbagai kalangan. Ada acara musik, diskusi dan persembahan buku...juga makan malam dan percakapan yang menyenangkan. Happy B'day Om Joesoef!80 TAHUN tetap semangat bekerja dan berkarya!

w/Niku, Max!

On Joesoef Isak

by Max Lane

On April 20 this year in a gala ceremony in New York the American PEN Center
honoured Indonesian publisher, Joesoef Isak, with the 2004 Jeri Laber Freedom to
Publish Award. The award was given to Joesoef Isak in recognition of his long record of courageous publishing during the last two decades of the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia. Joesoef Isak has been not just a courageous publisher, but a publisher at the forefront of a cultural guerrilla war to win back for Indonesians their own history, stolen from them during the 32 years of dictatorship.

Joesoef Isak was one of three men who founded a publishing company in 1980 called Hasta Mitra. All three had been political prisoners for at least ten years under the Suharto dictatorship and all three had been prominent intellectuals, publishers and journalists before they were arrested. I got to know all three when I translated Pramadyoe’s Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind). Later I also translated Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations), Jejak Langkah (Footsteps) and Rumah Kaca (Glass House).

The establishment of Hasta Mitra, meaning “hand of friendship”, and the publication of Pramoedya’s novels was an act of bravery and defiance that is perhaps hard for people to grasp today. Joesoef, Pramoedya and the third man, Hasyim Rachman, had all been detained without warrant or process, in 1965. Joesoef was released and detained several times between then and 1967 when he was arrested and detained at Salemba prison until 1977. They were three of hundreds of thousands detained during the period between October, 1965 and October, 1966. One of the Army’s generals, Suharto, had seized the political initiative in the wake of a mutiny by pro-communist and pro-Soekarno military officers and was waging a terroristic purge of the Indonesian Left, targetting primarily the PKI. The PKI and its mass organizations, as well as the left wing of the PNI, had grown dramatically in influence during the previous decade, and Suharto decided the terror had to be total. More than 500,000 and perhaps up to 2 million people were slaughtered, depending on which report one believes. Joesoef, Pramoedya and Hasyim were among the approximately fifteen thousand “survivors” who were kept in prison for between ten and fourteen.

By 1979 the fifteen thousand were out of prison but there had been no let up in the propaganda against the PKI or in the restrictions that former political prisoners all faced. The Suharto regime controlled the press and the schools and through both these institutions, the PKI and its sympathisers were demonised. The regime’s propaganda associated the Left with, among many other similar alleged deeds, the mutilation of some assassinated generals genitals by women from the communist women’s organisation – allegations which were contradicted by the Army’s own autopsy report..

They were the devils of Indonesian history and the official line was that the hundreds of thousands of Leftists that had died during 1965 and 1966 were killed at the hands of an enraged population who had come to hate these devils. Of course, nothing was further from the truth. The mass killings had been carried out by the Army often in cooperation with youth groups, often attached to one of the anti-cpmmunsit political parties.

In 1980 after ten or more years in prison, kept away from the new society created by Soeharto’s dictatorship, Joesoef, Pramoedya and Hasyim found themselves pariahs, vilified as hated by the people and evil. As with all political prisoners they had I.D. cards marked with the letters E.T., standing for “ex political prisoner”. They were banned from many areas of work, including writing and publishing.

The establishment of Hasta Mitra and the publication of Pramoedya’s first novel, Bumi Manusia, in 1981 was not just the first but also the only act of open defiance of the regime and the atmosphere it had created by former political prisoners. Joesoef, Pramoedya and Hasyim were true vanguard fighters and they remained the vanguard in this fight from among the former political prisoners until Suharto was ousted in 1998.

Pramoedya was the writer whose workers made up the major component of Hasta Mitra’s publishing programme in the 1980s and during most of the 1990s, although Hasta Mitra published other works as well. That was his role. Hasyim, who had been the publisher of an important daily paper from before 1965, the Bintang Timur, was the effective business manager of Hasta Mitra. A handsome, flamboyant man, Hasyim had been an entrepreneurial adventurer for the revolution since his youth. He often reminisced about how during the struggle against he Dutch he had been despatched by the new republican government to India to learn to fly fighter planes, to be among the first of the country’s pilots. But he was waylaid by republican supporters in Singapore and asked to help smuggle arms from Singapore to the republican guerrillas in Sumatra fighting the Dutch. Hasyim died in July, 1999 when Pramoedya and Yoesoef were on a tour in the United States.

Joesoef was editor of Pramoedya’s manuscripts and also the manager of Hasta Mitra’s political response to the regime’s actions against their publishing efforts. Before being arrested Joesoef’s career had been that of a journalist. He had been educated in the Dutch school system before independence and did not even speak Indonesian. It was only in 1942 after the Japanese invaded the Netherlands Indies, that he had no choice but to enter a junior highs school that used Indonesian as the teaching language. He was still not really familiar with the language when he watched Soekarno speak at a huge mass rally in 1943, while the Japanese were still occupiers, and had been deeply frustrated at not understanding how it was that Sukarno was so able to move so deeply tens of thousands of ordinary Indonesians. He is now one of the masters of the Indonesian language.

As a journalist he began writing reviews of classical European music specialising in commentaries the romantics, from Bach to Beethoven. He mixed with the Dutch educated crowd, especially those associated with the intellectual based, pro-Western Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI). He was well read in Western literature, urbane and articulate. He rose in journalistic ranks and soon became editor of one of Jakarta’s major daily newspapers, Merdeka, published by a well-known prominent journalist couple, B.M. Diah and his wife, Herawati. B.M. Diah was a nationalist but not left wing. In the 1960s, Joesoef was becoming alienated from the PSI crowd, seeing them as also alienated from the reality of the mass of Indonesians eking out a living in the newly sprawling but impoverished cities
and the rural villages. This alienation had been revealed when the PSI, which had its leaders occupy positions such as Prime Minister, scored less than 5% of the vote in the free elections of 1955.

In 1959 he was quickly elected by his journalist colleagues from both left and right, almost unanimously, to the Presidency of the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Journalists Association. As the country’s economic and political development stalled in the late 1950s, Joesoef became a more active supporter of Soekarno’s policies of trying to build a self-reliant Indonesia, taking the best from the West but prioritising the needs of its own cultural and economic development. In 1962 Soekarno was later to reject the programmes offered by the World Bank and told the U.S. to “go to hell” with its aid. Joesoef says that this statement did not represent a move to align with the socialist bloc. It was not just a political statement but more a cultural declaration. Soekarno, Joesoef says, wanted to the Indonesian people not to become a nation of beggars always pleading for help from the “free world”. Diah eventually sacked Joesoef as editor. Soon afterwards he was elected as secretary-general of the Asia Africa Journalists Association (AAJA), travelling to most parts of the non-aligned world during the heyday of the non-aligned movement. Joesoef thinks that it was his membership of the AAJA that saved him from immediate arrest in October, 1965 when thousands of others of supporters of Sukarno were being killed or arrested. He was detained several times during 1965 and 1967 in some unmarked Army safe-house but was always released after a short time. He avoided torture during this period. Usually there were so many prisoners that if you were released quickly, the interrogators would not get around to you before you left. He once told me how the prisoners helped each other deal with the experience of torture. The key thing, he said, was for people to realise that no matter how bad the pain became, the chances are that you would not die from the torture in these safe houses. Nobody wanted to have to yield to the pain of being whipped with spiked edge of a dried eel, or of cigarette butts or worse horrors and give the names of other comrades and friends. Medicines and bandages were the most needed materiel to help prisoners returning from an interrogation session.

Joesoef avoided torture during his ten years in prison after he was finally more permanently detained in 1968. He was kept in Salemba prison in Jakarta for the whole ten years. He was not sent off to Buru prison island, probably because he was not considered a member of the communist party. I have spoken also to his friends who were imprison with him as well as heard his own stories of life in Salemba and I am sure the reason he escaped torture was because of his intelligent keluwesan. Luwes means both flexibility and charm and requires an acute judge of character to employ it properly. He is still like that today and there is hardly a foreign journalist or academic visiting Jakarta has not only been charmed but informed in meetings with him at his house.

At one time during his imprisonment in Salemba, his charm earned him a weekly conversation session with one of the more intellectually pretentious guards. After their conversation, the officer would leave the room leaving some newspapers on the desk, which Joesoef would avidly read. Reading matter was banned in the prison. Joesoef would then have the task of retelling the information among prisoners. Later, with the aid of his wife and prisoners sent outside prison to throw out rubbish, magazines, such as Time, would be smuggled into the prison and into his cell. He read them through then might. Prisoners were made to sleep night after night with the lights always on, so the guards could see nobody was escaping! So that problem of light for reading was solved – although the prisoners’ families had to supply the light bulbs. In the morning, his cellmates turned the magazines into papier-mâché destroying the evidence. He would write out in tiny script a summary of what he read on cigarette paper which would then be circulated from cell to cell. Even in prison, he was editor and journalist reporting the momentous events outside that would have been otherwise unknown to the prisoners:
China’s turn to the U.S.; the American defeat in Vietnam; the anti-war movement around the world; women’s liberation; and the consolidation of the Suharto dictatorship, as well as the defeated student protest movements that shook Indonesia in 1974 and 1978.

Joesoef was released in 1977, two years before Pramoedya and Hasyim returned to
Jakarta from Buru Island, along with its other 12,000 prisoners. They met in 1980 when Hasyim brought Pramoedya to meet Joesoef at his home. Joesoef and Hasyim had known each other from the days of the Indonesian Journalist Association. Pramoedya had edited the cultural pages in Hasyim’s newspaper, the Eastern Star. Hasyim told Joesoef how he and Pramoedya had decided on Buru to set up Hasta Mitra and that they had been able to smuggle out manuscripts that Pramoedya had written while he was on Buru. They asked him to join the enterprise.

This Earth of Mankind was published in 1981. It is difficult to convey the impact its appearance had. I cannot think of any other case in any country of how a historical novel, set decades before the time of its publication, could have such an impact. Everything about the publication: who had published it, what they were publishing and how it was received by most readers crystallised down to a kind of pure defiance and rejection of everything that Suharto and the New Order represented.

This Earth of Mankind was set at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century on Java in the Netherlands Indies. One on level it told the story of a teenage Javanese boy, from an elite aristocratic background, and how his romance with a young Eurasian girl was violated by racist colonial laws. On another level, it explained how one of the very first Indonesians, a completely new type of person coming into existence at this time, was created out of the contradiction between Western ideas of humanity and equality and colonial racism and repression. There was no obvious satire of the Suharto regime or hidden comment on contemporary Indonesia. It was the beginning of a straight, but brilliant and evocative, explanation of why a generation of young people turned away from the cultures of their past and the social class from which they came and began a search for something altogether new. It was a beginning of an explanation and three more volumes were published over the next six years.

This story of the creation of the new Indonesian personality received immediate critical praise. Review after review lauded the book, hailing the return of Pramoedya to the published world. For Joesoef and Hasyim, a whirlwind was let loose. Hasta Mitra’s office was based in Joesoef’s home, a modest two bedroom home in central Jakarta. The living rooms disappeared to be swallowed up by Hasta Mitra’s secretariat. Twenty other former political prisoners, many desperate for an income, worked as staff in the lounge-room office. There were cartons of books everywhere. And more former political prisoners came in and out asking for books that they could sell door-to-door.

Out the back of the house, as is the case with many such modest middle class homes in Jakarta, were two rooms usually used as quarters for domestic servants. Those rooms were used as the warehouse. Next to those two rooms was another room, a room that has become a kind of symbol of Joesoef for all those who have known him and where I too have had so many lessons on Indonesian history and politics. It was a disused bathroom; narrow, and dark, with just one small window high up a wall at one end of the space. It was in this room that Indonesia’s first ever typesetting machine was set up. Hasyim and Joesoef wanted to do the typesetting themselves and were insistent that they have the most modern equipment.

Today, in 2004, the old typesetting machine has gone. Now there are two old Apple Mac’s and one PC. The room is the same narrow space, but now with a tiled instead of concrete floor, a stronger light bulb and an air conditioner. In that tiny room, about 2.5 meters by 5 meters, Joesoef and one aide, Subowo, have typed out, laid out, edited and sub-edited more than 25 of the works of Pramoedya Ananta Toer for Hasta Mitra and scores of other books ordered by other publishers. This included many volumes of Dutch scholarly works that were translated into Indonesian. Joesoef, now 76, still works out of the same office today, and still publishes books every year. There are no pensions for former political prisoners and the repeated banning of Hasta Mitra’s books always meant that there was never any real profit for Hasta Mitra either.

In 1981 Joesoef had not only to face the task of getting the manuscripts edited and ready for the printer. The little ex-bathroom became the secretariat also for answering Suharto’s political attacks. The dictatorship had to wait for the first wave of praise and support to die down. Not only had literary critics, intellectuals and students all heaped praise on the book, but even Suharto’s own Vice-President, Adam Malik, invited Joesoef, Hasyim and Pramoedya to visit him in the Vice-President’s palace. Photos of the meeting appeared on the front pages of all the newspapers the next day quoting Malik as urging every school child to read the book. Malik had a different history than Suharto. Malik, as a youth, had struggled against the Dutch from high school days. Suharto, in his youth, had volunteered to join the Royal Dutch Netherlands Army, which was used mainly as an instrument to repress fellow Indonesians. Suharto was a late convert to the struggle against the Dutch joining the republic army in 1945. For Malik, This Earth of Mankind was a reminder to the youth of where their country had come from.

Suharto had to wait a week or so but then the propaganda began. The campaign continued for several months and at each twist and turn Joesoef took the main responsibility for replying on Hasta Mitra’s behalf. Both Hasyim and
Joesoef were summonsed by the Attorney General’s department.

Joesoef bore the brunt of the interrogations having to report to the Attorney general every day, from early morning till knock-off time, for a month. An attorney interrogated him for hours on end about the contents of the books and about Pramoedya. “What has Pramoedya written?” he was asked, exasperating Joesoef with the level of ignorance that the New Order created. Pramoedya was one of the country’s most well-known writers during the 40s, 50s and 60s. After explaining, Joesoef also suggested the attorney check in an encyclopaedia: “What is an encyclopaedia?” Suharto’s legal man replied, “Can you spell it for me, please”. (Later though, at the end of the interrogations when he told Joesoef that the book would be banned, he slipped a piece of paper under the table saying he would like a copy – a free copy of course – because his wife wanted to read it.)

Joesoef escaped torture in prison, but he has often told me and the many young people who come to see him, that seeing the impact on Indonesia of the ignorance spread by the New order was worse than torture for him. “The stupidity and ignorance I faced in interrogation was often more painful that being hit, I think,” he says. Suharto and his generals have not only left an economic crisis and endemic corruption, but worse is the intellectual crisis they have created. In Joesoef’s eyes, Suharto and his generals spent thirty years programming conformity on a mass scale, a kind of process of de-education. Every layer of society, he emphasises to the young people who visit him, is now afflicted with a pathology characterised by being captured by what the Dutch call “denkfout,” where error begins with the very way of thinking. This applies to those with little formal schooling as well as the intellectuals and politicians. This is why, he says, Indonesia is just treading water when we are supposed to be bringing about change.

When asked what exactly is this error of thought, the essence of this de-education and spreading of imbecility, Joesoef points to the inability to distinguish between what have been the pure inventions of some people’s minds during the last decades and reality. “It is this invented reality that is used by the politicians and intelligentsia for their calculations on how to bring change. This kind of stupidity, he repeats, is the twin brother of violence.

In October, 1980 about two months after This Earth of Mankind was published, a formal ban was issued. Joesoef tells of how he first heard about the ban from an announcement on radio and TV. There was no order sent to the publishers. So Hasta Mitra just kept on publishing. They ignored phone calls from the Attorney-general’s department telling them to withdraw the book. Phone calls have no legal authority, said Joesoef. Finally on October 23, a banning order did arrive stating that the book was being banned for conveying Marxist-Leninist teachings. These specific teachings were not identified, it had been explained, as Pramoedya’s great writing skills meant the Marxist ideas had been successfully disguised.

This Earth of Mankind had been reprinted five times during the four months since it was released. A sixth printing was not possible. But Hasta Mitra did not end its struggle then. Over the next five years, after Hasyim would scrape up some capital somewhere, they would publish another volume, which would be banned soon after. And then another, and then another. By the late 80s, the publishing programme was forced to slow down. The repeated banning was financially exhausting the company. During the late 80s and early 90s, Hasta Mitra published more books, including selections of short stories from the early 20th century, edited by Pramoedya. They too were banned.

During this period too, Joesoef became, as far as I have ever heard, the only political prisoner from his generation to be re-detained after release. His son Verdi Yusuf, named after the Italian opera composer, a student at the University of Indonesia, invited Pramoedya to speak on campus. When the university authorities, who had banned This Earth of Mankind even before the government’s official ban, heard about this, they immediately expelled Joesoef’s son together with three other students. But Joesoef was also detained for four months while he was investigated for being the “puppet-master” behind the event. After
release, he got back to the business of publishing Pramoedya again.

So an award like the PEN Jeri Laber Award has been a long time coming. But it is not at all too late. Hasta Mitra, still working out of the bathroom, remains one of Indonesia’s most important publishers. Now with the dictator gone, Joesoef is trying to win back some of Indonesia’s history for the new generation of readers, while Pramoedya’s books are now published by a family company. The falsification of Indonesian history by Suharto’s New Order is now a major issue in the country. During the 32 years of Suharto’s rule, the rewriting of Indonesia’s history was handed over to the Armed Forces History Center, who even determined primary school and high school curricula. The official version of the history of the archipelago since prehistoric times was under the editorship of a brigadier general. Other versions were banned.

Hasta Mitra has been a groundbreaker in this area over the last few years. Joesoef
published the best ever selection of American, Australian, Dutch and Indonesian essays on Sukarno on the century anniversary of his birth in 2001. There have been other biographies of other forgotten historical figures. He organised the mammoth translation of 800 pages of US state department and CIA papers concerning the US reaction to the events of 1965, a revelation for many young Indonesians. Hasta Mitra has also just published the first comprehensive record of the events of 1965 written by an Indonesian, Hidden History.

Joesoef Isak has been a friend now for 24 years. I cannot write about him except as a friend, and also as a pupil. There is nothing better than a talk with him over sate at a street stall or with a glass of red wine in appropriate venue or jammed in at the back of his house in the Hasta Mitra office. His story, which still needs telling in the full, is part of a much bigger untold story, the story of the other Indonesia, the one Suharto literally buried, and which people like Joesoef Isak and the younger generation for whom Hasta Mitra has become an icon of ressitance to authoritianism, are now trying to recover.

**

Max Lane is a translator and writer based in Australia and Indonesia. He is the translator of Buru Quartet novels, This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps and Glass House, published by Penguin Books. He has also translated the plays and poems of W.S. Rendra. He has written many articles on Indonesia and Southeast Asia for publications in Australia and Indonesia.

QUO VADIS INDONESIAN'S WOMEN MOVEMENT

2008-07-02T04:32:00.000-07:00

Public Discussion: “Quo Vadis Indonesia’s Women’s Movement?”

Ten days before the performance in Jakarta, on February 29, in the Galera Cipta III room at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, Institut Ungu and Yayasan Pitaloka organized a public forum with the theme “Quo Vadis Indonesia’s Women’s Movement?”. This discussion helped start the 2008 events discussing IWD and the reflections upon the state of the women’s movement ten years into the Reformasi period.

IWD marks an important development in the struggle by women for progress in their situation. On March 8, 100 years ago in New York, thousands of women factory workers came out onto the streets to demand decent wages, shorter working hours and the right to vote. Two years later in 1910 at a meeting if the International Socialist Gathering in Copenhagen, March 8 was declared International Women’s Day. What about in Indonesia?

Tati Krisnawaty, one of the speakers at this forum, explained that Indonesian Minister for Women’s Affairs explicitly refused to commemorate this day because of its connection with the international socialist movement. Tati went on to add that building a women’s movement in Indonesia during the 1990s meant awakening a political awareness about the position of women and then starting a systematic resistance, all the time under the shadow of state violence and facing apathy from the comfortable sections of society.

Another speaker, Mariana Amirudin, director of the Women’s’ Journal Foundation, spoke about women and culture. She said that women were in confrontation with culture, because of the repressive nature of the culture that existed. She stated that this culture stood in confrontation with the ideas of the global women’s movement: ideas of equality, solidarity and justuice between men and women.
The forum was chaired by Tommy F. Awuy and was attended by more than 100 people.

Great Audiences of Women Seize The Night in Aceh

2008-07-02T04:17:00.000-07:00

Behind The Stage of Women Seize The Night

2008-07-02T03:52:00.000-07:00

by Faiza Mardzoeki

A MONOLOGUE THEATRE PERFORMANCE
“PEREMPUAN MENUNTUT MALAM”
(WOMEN SEIZE THE NIGHT)

JAKARTA--BANDA ACEH--BANDUNG
On the occasion of International Women’s Day March 2008

Concept

Violence against women continues. Violence is always close to all women, of all classes, from the poor, middle class to the upper class. Violence against women occurs in all times and places: in private space, domestic locations, public places, and workplaces. It is embodied in laws hiding behind traditional cultural norms and the idea of destiny, making this violence seem normal, something that women should accept.

Many do not yet grasp that this thinking in society can be removed, can be resisted. It is indeed a big challenge to convince people that these prejudices and stereotypes against women can be changed, and that women have the right to live their lives free of violence.

So there must be the media and the maximum space to speak out that such discrimination can be ended. One medium can be artistic activity, including theatre.
Theatre is an alternative creative media for the innovative and unique articulation of women’s rights. Performance arts can reach a wide audience, including indeed the mainstream world, the general public. Those from the general public who come to enjoy performances can in turn become voices for the ideas of women’s equality and progress.

Apart from the audience, these theatrical activities also draw in the participating artists and the media. These two sectors of society have the potential to bring significant influence on society.

Performing The Theatrical Monologues
“Women Seize the Night”

The Manuscript

“Women Seize the Night”, comprised 4 manuscripts – with three being performed at each performance. Three were written by Faiza Mardzoeki and Rieke Diah Pitaloka. These were: “A Plate of Fried Rice”, “Under a street light”, and “A busy morning”. “The dance of the Empu” was written by Tati Krisnawaty.

These performances entitled “Women Seize the Night” was inspired by the “Reclaim The night” movement organized by activists in Rome in 1976. Around 10,000 women and children turned out on the streets to demand and end to sexual violence against women and children. This was a movement of “Breaking the silence of Men Sexual’s Violence”. This movement has now spread to many other countries.
In patriarchal societies, violence against women finds form in almost every corner of life. These plays have emerged from rejection of this.

The writing process involved various activities, and not just sitting with a laptop at a desk. There was a process of interaction with friends and colleagues, with ideas and suggestions, responses to what was in the media, communicating via SMS and telephone. This proceeded from November until the present moment.

During rehearsals also, the scripts were not static words on paper but underwent changes here and there, with more suggestions, from the actors but also from other members of the crew.

“Women Seize the Night” wants to communicate the message that all women have the right to be free of fear; to be free from all forms of violence and have the right to full participation in the public arena.

Synopsis

“A busy morning”, tells the story of Ani, (Rieke Diah Pitaloka), a politician, and also a wife and mother. The media is always biased in their treatment of her: and so to society and her fellow members of parliament. “Is everything alright at home? You seem so busy doing other things …….?”

“A plate of fried rice”, relates the experiences of Ranti (Ninik L Karim), a housewife who discovers that her daughter is suffering the same fate she once suffered. She is being physically abused by her husband. The dialogue between mother and daughter ranges over love and her husband, and is the beginning of a new consciousness for them …

“Under The Street Light”, tells of Khadijah (Ria Irawan), a commercial sex worker arrested several times while on the street. One day, during a raid, one of her customers joins the gang which raids the area where she works. She muses savagely on the hypocrisy of the patriarchal society she lives in.

In “The dance of the Empu”, Cahya, (Maryam Supraba), opens up telling her experiences of the difficulties she went through, with the bureaucracy as well as socially, because she married outside the administrative system. How does Cahya deal with these difficulties?

Rehearsals

Rehearsal venue changed three times as needs changed and also taking into account distance. During the first two months rehearsals were carried out at Yayasan Pitaloka. Then they moved to the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Universitas Indonesia, Depok. Finally, when preparing for the performances in Bandung and Banda Aceh, rehearsals were held in the Sasana Seni Budaya Krida, in Cempaka Putih, Jakarta. The three months of rehearsals involved discussions of the scripts (essential features and what artistic goals were to be achieved), breathing techniques, body movement, voice exercises and blocking.

Performance Notes

JAKARTA
The performances took place in the Graha Bhakti Budaya building, Taman Ismail Marzuki, 8-9 March 2008, 20.00-22.00 hrs.
The Jakarta Arts Centre provided the venue in return for 60% of ticket sales. The project’s income from ticket sales as taxes had still to be deducted from revenues, as well as taking into account the provision of free tickets to some sectors.
Ticket sales were very satisfactory. 600 tickets were sold on the first day, in addition to special invitation tickets we provided to people. We also provided 200 tickets to sectors that would not be able to afford to buy tickets. In order to do this, we worked with two community organizations, National Freedom Women and Indonesian Women’s Coalition.

The mixed audience comprises high school and university, artists, performers, professionals, housewives and activists.
We noted that the audiences stayed for the whole performance (except on the first day when three people left early.) On both nights, 90% of theatre capacity of 900 was filled. We estimate that 75% of the audiences were women. Ticket prices ranged between Rp 25.000, Rp 50.000, and Rp 75.000 to Rp 100.000.
Generally, the production process in Jakarta proceeded will and the performances were well received by the audience and in the media.

BANDA ACEH
The performance took place on 24 March 2008 in the Taman Budaya Nangroe Aceh Darussalam building. Institut Ungu and Yayasan Pitaloka worked with a local partner, Komunitas Tikar Pandan. Tikar Pandan is a cultural programmes organization active in Aceh.

The process for Banda Aceh was different than for Jakarta and Bandung. There were some suggestions that the play. “Under the street lamp”, built around a sex worker, would be too “liberal” and might create a problem in Aceh, where Islamic law is in effect. After discussion with those in Aceh, it was decided that this segment would be replaced with a play dealing with the issue of concubinage through use of traditional religious practices (kawin siri). The manuscript “The dance of the Empu”, by Tati Krisnawaty, was written for this. This was considered an important issue for women with the rise of the phenomenon in Aceh.

There was also an issue with obtaining permission to perform. In Aceh, it was necessary to obtain permits from three institutions: (1). The Ulama Assembly of Banda Aceh, (2). the provincial police, (3). the head of the Taman Budaya Banda Aceh as well as a letter of recommendation from the Banda Aceh city government.
These permits were obtained. The Ulama Assembly of Banda Aceh had one condition, namely, that men and women should sit separated on different sides of the hall. As the audience entered they mixed and men and women sat together. However, on official instruction, people were asked to segregate about ten minutes into the evening. This occurred without incident.

Another issue was whether or not a silhouette scene of a woman bathing in “A busy morning”, where the impression was given that she was naked, could be performed. (The actress actually wears tight fitting clothes.) There was some concern that this scene may be banned, due to the provisions of Islamic law, which was also mentioned in the Ulama Permit. In response to this and local sensitivities, a compromise was decided upon where the scene would be shortened and where the performer would be fully addressed. A joke was inserted with the dialogue: “this is the first time in my whole life I have bathed with clothes on”. There was great laughter in response, although some of the audience was startled by the scene.

Another issue was the condition of the venue. The Taman Budaya building in Banda Aceh had been renovated after the Tsunami. Facilities were minimal. There was no make up room, no chairs, no air conditioning. With an audience of almost 1,000 people, all sitting on the floor, people were also suffering from the heat. Equipment such as sound system, lighting, and so forth was brought in from Jakarta or hired. We also rented a generator in case there was a black out, as did occur during rehearsals the evening before performance night. This was the first theatre performance in the building since the tsunami.

All in all, things went very well in Aceh with an audience of 1,000 in a theatre with a capacity of 600. People crowded in standing at the backdoor in the upstairs balcony.
There was a very positive and happy response from the audience. This was also evident in the extensive media reportage as well as direct feed back from the audience. The audience comprised students, activists and the general public. Participants in a seminar on women’s, participation on politics organized by UNIFEM-Aceh also attended.

BANDUNG
Performances in Bandung were on 28-29 March, 2008 in the Taman Budaya Jawa Barat building. The Bandung performances also went well. About 1,300 people attended over two nights in a theatre with a 700 seat capacity. We also worked with the Faculty of Indonesian Literature ad Language at the Indonesian Education University (UPI) to promote the performance among its students. About 300 UPI students attended. Also about 70 students from the State Institute for Home Government (IPDN), an institution infamous for its cases of violent bullying, also attended. Apart from the general public, lecturers and artists were prominent in numbers among the audience.

Ticket prices were 15.000 for students and an Rp 20.000 general ticket price. Ticket sakes money was donated to MAINTEATER, the local theatre group that managed the preparations for the visiting production.

A press conference was attended by about 20 media, local and national. On Mach 20, the script authors and actors were invited to a discussion with students at UPI. There was a lively discussion focusing on themes, acting, and the issue of the position of women. There were questions about what is feminism and how does it apply in Indonesia.

Media coverage

Print media
The media has covered the whole process, starting from rehearsals, through to the public forums and then the performances themselves. There were scores of interviews with the actors and producers. The media pursued issues relating both to the actors role in the process, the basic concept of the project and the position of women and on International Women’s Day itself. Media coverage also used our press releases as well as questions at press conferences. Among the materials collected by our documentation team is reportage from: the dailies Kompas, The Jakarta Post, Koran Sindo, Media Indonesia, Sinar Harapan, Sura Karya, Republika, Koran Tempo, Tempo magazine, Gatra magazine, Dewi Magazine, and other dailies Pikiran Rakyat (Bandung) and Serambi (Aceh). We are sure there are other reports we have not seen.

Electronic Media
Several television channels, including Metro TV for their show Show Biz News on location filmed at our locations at TIM, interviewing all the actors, director and producers. The programme covered the theme of the plays, interviewed the organizers on their views on these issues, and also on technical issues of the performance. Their programme went for 30 minutes and was broadcast on TV twice. 23 March at 3 pm and on 24 March, at1 am. TVRI interviewed in the studio Faiza Mardzoeki and Rieke Diah Pitaloka on the live talk show “Tanya Hughes” around the theme International Women’s Day. Other good coverage was broadcast on Go Spot RCTI, Was Was SCTV, Kiss Indosiar and Good Morning Trans TV.

In Banda Aceh on 23 March at 10.30pm, local Aceh TV interviewed Faiza Mardzoeki and Fozan Santa from Tikar Pandan for a “live talk show” with the theme “What’s happening with women” for one hour, and which received a good response from viewers

Media reviews
Kompas daily newspaper and Tempo and Gatra weekly magazines published major reviews of the performance. They commented upon aspects such as the script, acting, directing as well as the debate over “campaigning versus art”. Most critics are still seeking, we noted, to impose a gap or distance between art and campaigning. At the same time, there were those critics who were conscious of the appropriateness of using art to take up campaign issues, such as those relating to women’s liberation issues. (see clippings in attachments).

Blogger Responses
Our research has shown also that many members of the audience maintain blogs and used these blogs to comment on the performance: both criticism and praise. Overall, we noted, there was considerable enthusiasm for theatre that takes up the problems faced by women. They also posted photos that they were able to take at the performance.

Public Discussion: “Quo Vadis Indonesia’s Women’s Movement?”

Ten days before the performance in Jakarta, on February 29, in the Galera Cipta III room at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, Institut Ungu and Yayasan Pitaloka organized a public forum with the theme “Quo Vadis Indonesia’s Women’s Movement?”. This discussion helped start the 2008 events discussing IWD and the reflections upon the state of the women’s movement ten years into the Reformasi period.

IWD marks an important development in the struggle by women for progress in their situation. On March 8, 100 years ago in New York, thousands of women factory workers came out onto the streets to demand decent wages, shorter working hours and the right to vote. Two years later in 1910 at a meeting if the International Socialist Gathering in Copenhagen, March 8 was declared International Women’s Day. What about in Indonesia?

Tati Krisnawaty, one of the speakers at this forum, explained that Indonesian Minister for Women’s Affairs explicitly refused to commemorate this day because of its connection with the international socialist movement. Tati went on to add that building a women’s movement in Indonesia during the 1990s meant awakening a political awareness about the position of women and then starting a systematic resistance, all the time under the shadow of state violence and facing apathy from the comfortable sections of society.
Another speaker, Mariana Amirudin, director of the Women’s’ Journal Foundation, spoke about women and culture. She said that women were in confrontation with culture, because of the repressive nature of the culture that existed. She stated that this culture stood in confrontation with the ideas of the global women’s movement: ideas of equality, solidarity and justuice between men and women.
The forum was chaired by Tommy F. Awuy and was attended by more than 100 people.

Poster and Photograph Exhibition

A Poster and Photograph Exhibition depicting aspects of the Indonesian Women’s Movement was organized in the foyer of the Graha Bhakti Budaya building at TIM over March 8-9 March 2008, ending after the final performance. The 2,000 or so people attending the performances were the main targets of the exhibition.
Themes and issues depicted in the exhibition included those relating to HIV-AIDS, women’s political rights, migrant workers, violence against women, trafficking in women and children, women in Islam, education for women, the protests against the Pornography and Porno Action Bill, sexual harassment, domestic violence, the Jugun Ianfu Women’s Tribunal in Japan, and exhibits relating the performance of the play “Nyai Ontosoroh”. The materials were loaned by various organizations.

Eleven organizations based in Jakarta were invited to exhibit their posters or photographs, including: Komnas Perempuan, Kalyanamitra, JAJI (Jaringan Advokasi Jugun Ianfu), Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia, Solidaritas Perempuan, LBH APIK, Jurnal Perempuan, Kapal Perempuan, Migrant Care, Serikat Buruh, Migrant Indonesia and Institut Ungu.

Apart form those attending the evening performances, many others; including parents visiting TIM with their children, visiting TIM during the day were able to enjoy this exhibition.

RESULTS
A review of the project’s process – from initial concept, writing the script, building collaboration, production, and then the main events (performance, public forums and poster exhibition) allows us to conclude that the “Women Seize the Night” project succeeded as an artistic project bearing the voice of women. Indicators of this success include:

 The media responded to the issues raised in the performances. Almost all media not only covered the artistic side of the performance, but also the substantive issues that we raised. The media coverage strengthened the consciousness that women’s voices should be heard and that there needed to be more artistic endeavors carrying such voices.

 There was extensive comment and response from audience members. Of considerable interest were the extensive blog commentaries. These commentaries exhibited an impressive seriousness in their appreciation and criticism of the production. As with the media coverage, both artistic and issue content were discussed. Their writing was freer and more forceful than the media writing.

 The audience numbers exceeded target. About 1,500 people attended in Jakarta, 1000 in Aceh and 1,300 in Bandung, making a total of around 3,800 people.

 The performance was able to be taken outside Jakarta, to two significant cities, Bandung and Banda Aceh. This is always important in the Indonesian context. Contemporary theatre is still rare in Banda Aceh, let alone that bearing a feminist message. Bandung has a thriving artistic environment but still little feminist presence. It was a major step forward to be able to take “Women Seize the Night” to these two cities.

 We succeeded in raising 80% of our target. Support came from donor institutions, overseas embassies, private companies, art institutions, NGOs and individuals.

“Learn while working, work while learning” was a part of this collective effort. The combining of the efforts of people with different backgrounds (activists, artists and professionals) meant that this project was also a location of learning, both in relation to feminist issues as well as theatre. It was also a learning process as regards open and professional theatre project management.

Evaluation and Reflection

There are also issues for reflection that arise from this experience.
There are still some rigid barriers between artists and activists. Artists feel that their creativity is being constrained when there is in depth discussion of the substantive issues of the performance are to be discussed. Generally they are suspicious that the artistic aspect will be hijacked as an instrument of a campaign by (women) activists. This is reflected in some of the questions asked by artist and also journalists in the course of the project.

On the other hand, activists are sometimes inflexible in relating to the style of working of artists, whose background experience is very different. There is also a gap sometimes in relating to artists who have a high profile in their industry and who have a work pattern very different than that of activists.

So while there was significant success in achieving collaboration between activists and the different kinds of artist involved, there were also examples of tensions, arguments and other tough knots to cut through in order to achieve a mutual understanding and to connect up goals relating to the substantive issues and ideas and what was desired to be achieved artistically.

There was also a challenge in overcoming a prejudice that “activist art” would never be able to live up to “aesthetic standards”.
Another concern that we continue to have is the short period of performances, which limits the numbers of people who are able to watch. This is a result of insufficient funds to finance a longer season, including ensuring incomes for all concerned: producers, actors, and other support crew. This is much to be regretted as there is a clear sign that there is a demand from a broader audience. There also remain insufficient facilities, such as rehearsal venues, provided by the government – as well as very minimal financial support

These difficult situations add to the problems faced in the creative process and inevitable impact on the creative process (please do not argue that difficulties just make the artist more creative):

But the spirit to face these challenged never wavered. The strong and enthusiastic public and media support also helps to provide the energy and momentum for more such activities. It is our hope that there will be more and more such artistic efforts that side with women in their struggle. So that we will end the sense of feeling inferior.
Art (theatre) can be a friend to all those speaking out for women and their rights.

Recommendations

Based on all the above considerations, we have some recommendations into the future aimed at supporting future “women’s theatre” and stimulating creative ideas to help in the progress and liberation of women. These recommendations are:
To spread feminist ideas among workers in the arts and other stake holders through feminist education, both relating to theory and practice.

Seek space for the public (audience members), such as publishing space in the media, to present their reviews and criticism, including feminist criticism. This could be facilitated by such initiatives as a review or theatre criticism competition at the time of a performance.

Increase the level of artistic activity raising awareness of the problems of women in more towns and also villages, so discussion of these issues spreads more widely.

Curhat-Toleransi Masjid

2008-06-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

Faiza

Sepagi ini tidurku yang lelap tiba-tiba terbangunkan oleh suara somber Masjid. Wowwww! Suara orang ngaji, yang bahasanya selalu tak kumengerti. Coba kalian bayangkan suara orang pada jam 4 pagian……ngantuk, serak, nggelieng gak karuan….disemprotkan ke mike super keras! Duh, dan ini sudah berlangsung hampir setahun!. Yah, rumahku hanya berjarak 2 rumah dari masjid.

Apalagi belakangan ini aku banyak di rumah. Kerja di rumah. Ngantor di rumah. Rapat di rumah. Nulis di rumah. Pokoknya rumah menjadi pusat kegiatan sementara ini. Jadi, praktis 24 jam aku berada di rumah. Kecuali kalau ada pertemuan, rapat-rapat dengan kolega kerja.

Yang buat aku sedih, dan terganggu, tapi belum tahun harus bagaimana bersikap. Karena ini menyangkut hal sensitive. Sebenarnya sih konsepnya sederhana, yaitu bagaimana SALING MENGHORMATI. TOLERANSI. SOLIDER.Tapi nyatanya, kadang susah banget melaksanakannya.

Ceritanya begini (aku yakin banyak cerita serupa):
Aku tinggal cukup dekat masjid, tempat ibadah umat Islam. Aku sendiri muslim dari lahir. Maksudku, orangtuaku “mengislamkan’ aku sejak lahir. Anyway, bukan ini masalahku. Masalahku adalah aku mulai terganggu dengan suara dari Masjid. Bayangkan, Islam khan sholatnya lima kali sehari. Pagi banget, siang, sore, senja, malam. Nah, setiap sebelum sholat selalu ada pengajian dulu atau Adzan, lalu sholat. Nah, semua proses itu selalu memakai mike. Jadi bayangkan, berapa jam aku harus terpaksa mendengar (keras sekali) suara-suara doa dan pengajian dari Masjid.

Waktu kecil sampai remaja, hidupku juga dipenuhi ngaji dan ngaji (belajar membaca Alquran, menghapal doa2 dll) Hanya sayang sekali, system ngajiku tidak membuatku mengerti terjemahannya dalam bahasa Indonesianya. JADI, ya membaca saja, menghafal saja atau mendengarkan saja. Nah, yang kuhadapi hari hari sekarang ini aku harus “dipaksa” mendengarkan (lagi) suara doa-ngaji dengan mike yang super keras, berjam-berjam, tanpa kuminta, karena suara itu datang dari Masjid dengan spiker itu, yang juga sama sekali tidak kumengerti artinya. Tetapi, emosiku pun tak tersentuh dari nada atau keindahan lagunya. Karena, memang maaf aku harus bilang, suara-suara itu kacau banget, suaranya kayak orag ngantuk atau teriak keras.

Sering tidurku terbangun dan menjadi gagap kaget. Siang-siang hari saat aku sedang asik dengan musikku yang lembut sambil asik bekerja dengan laptopku, tiba-tiba dikejutkan suara-suara doa itu. Dan, terus berulang minimal 5 x sehari dan….setiap hari. Bayangkan deh…! Apalagi ketika Sholatpun mereka menggunakan Spiker. Jadi doa-doa Sholatpun menggema ke segenap penjuru jalan di mana aku tinggal.

Yang aku heran, kenapa pada saat sholatpun mereka menggunakan Spiker juga. Dalam penglamanku, hanya Azan dan doa (puji-pujian) saja yang menggunakan spiker. Pada saat Sholat, sudah tidak menggunakan Spiker lagi.

Tentu, aku tidak akan melarang orang berdoa, apalagi marah dengan keyakinan orang lain, Sikapku, aku menghargai semua keyakinan, agama yang dianut oleh semua orang.
Hanya, aku merasa terganggu dengan suara ngaji-doa yang super keras dari Masjid itu dan berualang, ber jam.

Kalau saja suara-suara itu terdengar syahdu, lembut dan lembut.
Kalau saja doa-doa yang dipanjatkan itu untuk Gusti Alloh yang Maha Mendengar….
Bukankah kita berdoa adalah saat kita komunikasi dengan YANG MAHA MENDENGAR? Jadi, kita tidak perlu berteriak?

Lalu, bagaimana dengan suara-suara dari Masjid itu? Adakah yang mengerti masalah ini….? Mengapa hal itu sampai terjadi? Harus bagaimana aku? Lapor pak RT, mendatangi Pak Kyai, ngajak dialog ? atau…apa dong?

Tebet, pukul 4.30 am. 19 Feb 08.
saat tiba-tiba terbangun dari lelap tidur , kaget oleh suara dari Masjid

Inong Aceh Theatre-Tsunami Tsunami

2008-06-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Inong Aceh Theatre

Tsunami and Tsunami

Faiza Mardzoeki, Jakarta

The women stood in a circle, all wearing their white cloaks for prayers. They were chanting prayers that they would be able to live their lives showing strength and resolve and also that their voices would be listened to.

Strength and resolve are two words that have become the special possession of the Acehnese people. This is the message delivered by the Inong Aceh Theatre troupe in their recent performance Tsunami and Tsunami. The story which these women tell is that the life experience of the Inong-Inong is one full of threat, loss and fear.

They first turn the clock back to when military violence and the gun ruled under the pavilion of Mecca, as Aceh is known. Then women lost their husbands, children and relatives. The suffering never stopped, but was only to be followed by that massive natural calamity that was to befall the land of Cut Nyak Dien. The great wave arrived. They fled, as fast and far as they could, from the great black height of water that chased them. They fled to a mountain, or rather a hill called Krueng Raya. This was their refuge then for days afterwards. Hunger and illness, as well as trauma, savaged these refugees. The scene when the tsunami hit is one of darkness and the sound of mountainous ocean waters. The atmosphere was tense. The audience startled to attention. Silence, then there was the sound of a woman sitting beside me in the audience, wearing a white head shawl, sobbing.

One by one the actors told their story of how they escaped those waters – as high as a coconut tree – that chased them. One was saved by grabbing onto a floating mattress that passed her bye. Another was caught in a tree. Yet another lost husband and children.

These were some of things one saw during the two hour performance at the Utan Kayu Theatre on 16 and 17 June. All of the performers were Acehnese women who had directly experience the tsunami and who had been living in the barracks in the village of Lamnga, Mesjid Raya in Aceh Besar. Tusnami and Tsunami was directed by Lena Simanjuntak and used a community facilitator, Ferry HS.

The performance goes on to deal with the situation since the tsunami. The women tell of the lack of progress and the problems with and lack of accountability of the Body for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Aceh and Nias (BRR). They are critical too of all the goings-on of the NGOs, both local and international. These NGOs offer many different kinds of programs but often have a bureaucratic approach oblivious to the emergency situation people face. They demand that the communities come up with project proposals, for example, in the midst of their losses. The play also investigated the poor conditions in the camps as well as the construction of housing that was not suitable to the environment or not even worthy of human habitation.

The brochure explaining the performance quotes one of the women performers, Halimah: “When the tsunami struck I was thrown into the river but was saved because I was able to climb aboard a floating mattress. I will never be able to forget what happened. There are so many NGOs from so many countries working in Aceh now. They all say that they have “participatory programs”, but it is not true. Many of their programs just sow confusion amongst us so that we ourselves don’t know anymore what we need. We want to explain this all to you through these performances.”

Perhaps what Halimas is saying is the truth, Halimas and her friends have come to Jakarta with their theatre bringing a real spirit of Acehnese solidarity. They feel free to speak out, to criticize, to confront the government and the NGOS with their posters, and indeed to confront reality itself. Perhaps they would not be able to do this in the refugee camps. Perhaps. But this time, these women, victims first of military violence and then of the tsunami, now speak out confidently, reconstructing their experiences through this new media of the theatre.

Lena Simanjuntak, the director who does not liked to be called a director, explained that the process used was participatory. The women told their stories and then it was ordered into a scene. Every story performed on the stage is the story of an experience they themselves have been through. The performance is intended to educate and to strengthen the community. Through a collective activity they uncover and pull apart their shared pain, and their shared lack of understanding. Together they strive to understand the community’s suffering. They hope that this collective effort will produce a real optimism and solidarity for future struggles in their capacity as human beings.

Producing Tsunami and Tsunami was not without its problems. One issue was that it was very unusual for women to perform in theatre in Aceh. It is considered an improper thing for a woman to do. But this patriarchal viewpoint was overcome. They were able to convince people that the theatre was useful and played a positive role. Indeed, the theatre could also have a “healing” role as one of the performers, Yusniar explained. “It is a strange experience joining this theatre. Before I found it very difficult to talk about my problems, especially personal problems. Now I can do this, at the very least on the performance. I have won a better understanding too of the difficulties that other families and parents have experienced in my village. It is exhausting for the village sometimes servicing them all when they come: the NGOs, the BRR and the journalists. Through this play we can explain so much, so that they don’t need to ask again when thinking about future aid.”

The Inong Aceh Theatre group, with its performance of Tsunami and Tsunami, hopes that it can leave behind its pain, hopes that people will listen and hear their voice. The Inong Aceh Theatre will also perform in the compound arena of the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission of Violence against women on 23 June. (23 June 06)

2 Poems-Seandainya Tuhan Ada dan Sajak Kepada Nabi Muhamad

2008-05-23T01:02:00.000-07:00

Seandainya Tuhan ada

Faiza Mardzoeki

Seandainya Tuhan ada,
Engkau akan mematikan pengeras suara membelah langit
Datang dari tempat-tempat yang mereka sucikan
Menjulurkan otot-otot leher hingga mengeras
Memanggilmu, meneriakkan Allohuakbar
Seolah Engkau tuli….

Seandainya Tuhan ada,
Engkau akan membanting pengeras suara yang datang dari rumah suci…
Dan menjambak mereka yang tak pernah mengerti apa arti Engkau Maha Mendengar….

Setiap hari,
lima kali, mereka selalu meragukan Engkau yang Maha mendengar
Corong dari rumah suci itu telah memakiMu…

Seandainya Tuhan ada….

(Tebet, selalu mendengar suara super keras dari rumah suci , Masjid, azan, mengaji, ceramah. suaranya super keras., 14 Mei 2008)

Sajak kepada Nabi Muhamad
: untuk penganut Ahmadiyah

Faiza Mardzoeki

Seandainya Nabi Muhamad mendengar dari kuburnya,
Atas nammu mereka berteriak: haram darahmu!
Seandainya Nabi Muhamad melihat dari surga,
Atas namamu mereka menyayat: sesat jalanmu!
Seandainya Nabi Muhamad merasakan dari langit ke tujuh,
Atas namamu mereka meradang: bakar rumah suci itu….!

Ya, Nabi,
Bangkitlah kau dari kuburmu..
Karena umatmu telah mengingkari ajaranmu sendiri…
Atas namamu….

Bukankah engkau menjadi suri tauladan mereka, umatmu…?
Ya, Nabi bukankah engkau manusia utama, penuh kasih sayang panutan umat Islam…?
Tapi, atas atas namanu, mereka membeci dan mencaci dan merusak…..
Ya, Nabi, bukankah engkau yang penuh welas asih dan rendah hati…
Tapi, atas namamu, dengan sombong, mereka berkata: Akulah yang benar…enyah kau saja dari bumi dan rumah-rumah suci itu.

Sendainya Nabi Muhammad mendengar,
Semoga angin bumi menghantarkan sajakku ini, kepadamu…

(Tebet, 14 Mei 2008. Untuk ahmadiyah, setelah mereka yang merasa benar sendiri, menghakimimu, membakar rumah sucimu dan meralangmu beribadah. Ahmadiyah mengakui bahwa Nabi Muhamad bukan nabi terakhir)

WOMEN, PLAY AND PAMPHLETS

2008-05-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

Women, Play and Pamphlets

Faiza Mardzoeki

My experiences, both in the world of the movements and in the arts, shows me that the two elements of struggle and art can serve to strengthen each other, to keep each other company. Art can be the companion to the struggle for justice, prosperity, gender equality and so. In Indonesia, I can see three trends developing in the world of art and struggle.

Art at the base

Artists who thrive at the base, in communities, represent one trend. Included among these are the victims and the actors within the communities concerned. This artistic trend develops organically as part of the movement itself. Examples of this are the Worker Theatre groups, the Sex-Worker Theatre groups, street children theatre and so on. These groups present directly their real life stories and experience. The technique and methods flow from group discussion. Their materials are a direct response to the most pressing issues. The director has the role “only’ of ordering the plot and the some of the artistic elements. One such “director”, Lena Simanjuntak, from the Independent Women’s Theatre describes herself as a facilitator and not a director. She says that the whole conception of the plays they perform come from all the actor participants. This method appears to be used by more and more groups, such as the women refugees from Aceh.

The group of the Independent Women’s Union in Medan, North Sumatra, comprises women plantation workers. In 2002 they performed a play called “Voices” in Jakarta. The play presented their story as plantation workers experiencing torture at the hands of foremen, experiencing unjust regulations and so on. The actors provide the stories in a process of mutual exploration of their experiences. The role of the director is to help re-order their stories and fit them into an appealing plot.

When I watched their performance and talked with them, I was full of admiration. Their acting was realistic, relaxed and struck exactly the right chord with the audience. When someone in the audience spoke up: “Your acting is very impressive and convincing, what was the process of rehearsal?” They answered very honestly, but sharply too: “I was not acting, this is what I experience every day . . . “ That is their attitude to their art. This honesty does not ignore the artistic requirements of the stage however. The audience is still able to enjoy the performance as well as absorb a great amount of information, far beyond what is normally available on a day-to-day basis.

Surabaya, one of the biggest and busiest of Indonesia’s cities, has many social problems. One of these is prostitution. “Dolly” is one of the oldest areas of prostitution in the country, which is still operating today. One of the educational groups, Hotline Surabaya, which campaigns against HIV/AIDS has gone beyond providing basic education about safe sex and the use of condoms. More recently they have been experimenting with “empowerment through theatre”. They bring their real life stories on to the stage. I saw on eof these performances last year during the national dialogue on trafficking in women in Jakarta. Through very honest and fluent story telling, they surprised the audience with the information they presented with excellent stagecraft. Their theatrical presentation created empathy among the participants in the national dialogue that would not have been possible if they had just relied on straight presentation of data or the presentation of papers – which can sometimes alienate.

It was among workers, especially factory workers, that theatre groups were most common, in addition to street children theatre, such as that of the Akar Theatre group and the Ciliwung Theatre group, among others. There is also a Jogjakarta theatre group comprising domestic servants who have now organised themselves.

This first group usually performs in the affected community or is invited as part of the agenda of struggle.

Apart from theatre another kind of art activity that we found in this category is INSTALLATION, POETRY READING and MUSIC Groups of this kind will also come to the site of action and befriend or accompany the particular struggle by the members of the community and activists.
Art always has a role; it can befriend the struggle; it can also be its hope.
Sometimes these performances are not just a performance but also a kind of catharsis of escape from the burden of some intense sufferings. But from both the director and the participants, there is a consciousness that they want to achieve more than juts an experience of catharsis, to let go of their suffering; they want to be effective in raising consciousness and furthering their campaigns.

Art also played the role of befriending the struggle during the 1996-1998 period when the people, including women, rose up in the struggle to oust the dictator Suharto. Poetry and song was suddenly created in the midst of the bullets. Street theatre as an attraction of social protest also became an accompaniment to the Indonesian peoples struggle at that time.

Committed professional art

A second category are the professional artists, who usually have some professional training, have professional management and try to seek a wide audience and sometimes have a specific market. They usually perform on venues such as the Jakarta Arts Building, and other large venues that can attract big audiences. But they also raise issues pregnant with social justice themes, launch sharp criticism and protest. Some examples of this in Indonesia are the groups of Rendra and Ratna Sarumpaet, as well as Theatre Koma, the Bejana Theatre group, the Tanah Air Theatre group and others.

Since 1970 Rendra has directed a popular theatre group, which is considered to be one of the foundations of Indonesian modern theatre. Rendra, either when reading his poetry or when his group is performing theatre, can attract thousands of people. Many of his works tell of injustice and attack the government for corruption. Rendra’s most praised and criticised political theatre was THE STRUGGLE OF THE NAGA TRIBE, first performed in 1976, which has been translated into English in Australia. It was banned by the government of President Suharto. Rendra’s poems were also used in the film, YANG MUDA YANG BERCINTA, which was also banned by Suharto. Rendra himself was imprisoned for almost 1 year in 1978.

Ratna Sarumpaet, with her Satu Merah Panggung group, has produced many works considered dissident, political and critical. She too was often censored by the Suharto regime. One of her works that suffered such measures was MARSINAH, a play based on the real story of the struggles of a woman worker, who was murdered after being kidnapped and raped by the military. She has also produced ALIA, based on the situation in Aceh.

Ratna herself claims that her works are purely examples of the empathy of an artist. She is not doing politics, she says. For Ratna Sarumpaet, artists must always have empathy so that they will be always moved to communicate the truth about what is happening. She claims that her works are not political but Suharto always considered them dangerous.

The Koma Theatre is often mentioned as the most popular theatre in Indonesia, and often attracts thousands of people to its performances. It appears to appeal to urban professionals, and middle class workers. Performances can run for two weeks, a long time for Indonesian theatre. The play COCKROCH OPERA (OPERA KECOA), about urban poverty, and the story of a sex worker, was also banned under Suharto.

The theatre of Rendra, Ratna, and Koma Theatre have all been quite popular, attracting large audiences. Their plays are intense with social message and criticism. Yet, their performances are those of professional performers and artists.

Art as a “way of life”

A third category is those “marginal artists” who holds up are as a “way of life. Their idealism for art is very high. They usually are small groups, yet unable to attract a ‘market’. They survive in the small cultural enclaves, in artistic communities. The usually perform also for just small circles. One example is PAS theatre at the Jakarta Arts Centre. They also often take up social issues.

“Women at Point Zero” - Perempuan di Titik Nol

The production of “Women at Point Zero” in 2002 was a different experience. I proposed the idea that the well-known novel of the Egyptian feminist, Nawal El Saadawi, be produced as theatre in 2001. There were a number of different reactions. While I had spent some time with theatre groups in the early 1990s, I was proposing this ideas an activist in the organisation WOMEN’S SOLIDARITY. So some reacted: Faiza, you are an activist, what are you doing talking about producing a play. Perhaps you really want to make some kind of street demonstration – is that it?

Another reaction was to remind me that the book was about female sexuality and was not really good material for entertainment. “A seminar would be better,” they said. One week before the performance, one well known feminist figure who was a person who followed the arts reminded me: “Faiza, this is art, you know, not just a pamphlet.”

Of course, these kinds of comments did not lessen our commitment to produce the play. We reread the novel, organised discussions with both feminist activists as well as writers, with people in the theatre arts. We bought up all the copies of the book to make sure that everyone involved read the book; we organised the rehearsals and other activities.

About 5,000 people came to see the play over three nights. There were even demonstrations by hundreds of people protesting that they could not get seats and demanding extra performances. The performances achieved record audiences for Indonesia since Rendra’s plays on the 1970s. It attracted a great deal of public attention and was discussed in all the media. TEMPO magazine, the major weekly socio-political magazine in Indonesia, conducted an exclusive interview with Nawal El Saadawi in Egypt to coincide with the performance. Nawal herself wrote a letter of support to us in Indonesia.

What was the real “appeal” or “Strength” of the production of WOMEN AT POINT ZERO. The novel is a story of the politics of sexuality, about women in Egypt. In her Novel, Nawal confronts the reader with the cased of a woman who fulfils three roles at once: as a domestic servant to her husband, as an (unpaid) prostitute and as a honored? wife. The novel takes us deep into the issues of women’s sexuality as well as analyses the social order that turns women into second-class persons. Women’s sexuality in Indonesia is still a taboo subject; repressed, just as in Egypt. Nawal’s novel is based on a true story.

For two weeks before and two weeks after the performance there was intense discussion of “women’s sexuality” and “women and art” in both the media and on the email lists. Of course, this burst of discussion is not enough. Issues surrounding female sexuality remain and there is still much debate about women and art. The discussion has not stopped. It is clear then that art can indeed have a role in raising issues of social justice and other such issues in society. OF COURSE IT MUST.

I think that anybody who decides to use art, whether theatre, film or text and literature, as a medium for consciousness raising, they will be aware that they face the issue that they are using ART. But what ART means can depend on the background of the person creating the work and what their purpose is. There will be those that say that art is for art’s sake . . .

When in the middle of producing of WOMEN AT POINT ZERO, the thing in my head was that this novel was very important, very important in influencing my thinking about women, for the progress of women. The question was how to get its ideas to the widest possible public. That is where the idea of a performance came from. And the performance must have a “selling point”. What kind of selling point? There was of course the story itself (with its messages, reflections, ideas), as well as its artistic beauty. But I also decided to collaborate with some high-profile women actresses, theatre artists and activists. So we wanted to make it a performance with a message as well as with artistic appeal. This was “art that would not just be a pamphlet … we hoped …

In this approach, I was trying to combine elements from the three categories that I mentioned earlier. There were activists from the women’s rights movement, professional artistic people such as the director, the lead actresses (two well known TV and movie actresses), professional musicians as well as actors from the “marginal” art groups involved in street theatre and “idealist” artists in the various artistic communities.

Before we began rehearsals, we organised a “women’s retreat” for more intense discussions of issues relate to “women’s sexuality”, especially involving the activists and some actors. This was followed by more discussions of the novel with women’s organizations, writers and other artists. This program, alongside intensive rehearsals, continued over four months.

Our publicity strategy was multi-pronged. We lobbied the electronic and print media to get them to discuss the performance. So we had discussion on TV and radio, articles, interviews with the actors and cultural figures during the one-month before the performance and for one week afterwards. “Women at Point Zero” became a household word and was the top story in the women’s and cultural columns. Using theatre to get a message out meant using the publicity and discussion generated by the theatre and not just the performance on stage itself.

It was a very educational experience for the activists also. Activists usually dwelt in the world of street protest and meetings and seminars and working with victims and lobbying government officials. They had to learn a new discipline required by the world of the stage.

Funding was also a big issue for this big project involving around 100 people. Everybody accepted very low honorariums so that most costs were for production. We raised the money from donor organizations, some friendly businesses and through contra deals with publishers. We performed the play in one of the main theatres in Jakarta.

The experience of “Women at Point Zero” showed that political and social activism and art could work very well together. They support and befriend each other.

Artistic groups keep appearing accompanying the struggles for justice and resistance against oppression wherever it develops. In society there is also constant evaluation of this art. There are always comments like that from my friend: “this is art, you know … not a pamphlet.”
For me, art is a pamphlet, which is beauty… pamphlet of ideas, pamphlets which take sides … Art accompanies us in our efforts to reach a goal.

This article was presented at a forum “Activating Human Rights: Using theatre arts to promote social justice”, Perth Juli 2004

old articles: about John Howard and Indonesian Migrant Wokers

2008-05-09T00:02:00.001-07:00

Howard dan Ancaman Demokrasi

Faiza Mardzoeki

Australia saat ini dipimpin oleh Perdana Menteri yang telah menang dalam pemilihan sebanyak empat kali. Dialah John Howard, seorang politisi yang sudah aktiv sejak muda di Partai Liberal, sebuah partai berhaluan kanan dan konservatif. John Howard satu-satunya politisi yang menang empat kali berturut-turut dalam pemilu sepanjang sejarah Australia. Bahkan saat ini John Howard menguasai suara mayoritas di parlemen, baik di Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat maupun di Senate. Dengan posisi mayoritas ini, nyaris kebijakan-kebijakan Howard yang diluncurkan selalu tercapai. Seperti ketika satu juta rakyat seluruh Australia turun ke jalan-jalan menolak pemerintah mendukung Amerika dalam melakukan invasi ke Irak, pada kenyataanya pemerintahan Howard justru menjadi salah satu “teman setia Amerika” dan yang rajin mengirim pasukannya ke Iraq.

Pada saat ini Howard kembali meluncurkan kebijakan yang tidak populer di mata masyarakat dan mendapat penolakan hingga memaksa sebagian rakyat Australia turun ke jalan lagi. Kebijakan baru ini terungkap dalam Anti Terrorism Bill (2005) dan IR Laws (Industrial Relation Law). Kedua kebijakan ini dianggap oleh sebagian masyarakat Australia sedang mengancam sendi kehidupan masyarakat sipil di Australia.

Howard’s Anti Terrorism Bill (2005)
Rancangan UU anti Teroris ini sedang diusulkan di Parlemen untuk di syahkan. Pasal-pasal yang dianggap bisa membahayakan kehidupan sipil antara lain bahwa melalui UU ini bisa menangkap orang yang “dicurigai” berkhianat kepada negara dan bisa dipakai untuk “mengamankan” siapaun dia yang mengajak atau mengeluarkan kata-kata atau pendapat yang menentang pemerintahan. Hal ini dipakai sebagai legitimasi pemerintah untuk menghindari serangan teroris. Belum lama ini, sebelum Rancangan UU ini disyahkan, polisi dan badan intelejen Australia telah melakukan upaya pengamanan dan penangkapan kepada sejumlah orang yang “dicurigai” sedang merencanakan tindakan terror. Aksi ini ditujukan ke pada sejumlah keluarga muslim di suburb Australia, di Melborune dan Sydney. Kemudian, sekitar tiga bulan yang lalu, seorang aktivis perdamaian dari Amerika, Scott Parkins, ditangkap di sebuah café di Melbourne dan ditahan selama empat hari kemudian dideportasi tanpa melalui proses tuduhan. Pada waktu itu Parkins akan berbiacara di sebuah seminar gerakan perdamaian di Amerika dan bagaimana perang di Iraq telah memberi untung bagi perusahaan-perusahaan besar Amerika.

Sampai sekarang Rancangan UU ini masih ditolak oleh masyarakat Australia, antara lain dari pimpinan gereja-geraja, para pengacara dan kelompok sipil lain. Setidaknya sudah ada dua kali demonstrasi menolak Rancangan UU ini.

Howard’s Industrial Laws (the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005)

IR laws ini sedang diusulkan ke parlemen dan dikampanyekan secara besar-besaran oleh Howard melalui media-media besar Australia seperti Sydney Morning Herald. Pemerintahan Howard sudah membelanjakan puluhan juta dollar rakyat untuk berbagai iklan menkampanyekan kebijakannya. Apabila IR Laws ini sudah disyahkan menjadi produk UU, maka hampir seluruh hak-hak kaum buruh akan mengalami perubahan mundur dan semakin mempersulit posisi kalangan pekerja. Work Choices Bill 2005 diyakini oleh kalangan pekerja adalah sebuah hukum baru yang akan semakin mempersulit posisi tawar buruh dengan para pengusaha. Misalnya, dalam hukum baru itu disebutkan bahwa tidak ada lagi system negosiasi buruh yang diwakili serikatnya menghadapi para pengusaha. Program works choice ini mengusulkan agar diberlakukan system “individual negotiation”, yaitu calon pekerja yang bermasalah akan melakukan perundingan secara individu menghadapi pengusaha. Para pengusaha bisa memecat pekerja dengan tanpa memberi alasan. Selain itu hak tunjangan-tunjangan pekerja tidak akan diberikan berdasarkan perlindungan UU. Hak kunjungan serikat buruh ke tempat pekerja semakin dipersulit. Sejak diusulkan Work Choices Bill 2005 ini setidaknya ada sudah dua kali demonstrasi besar sejak bulan Juni lalu. Tanggal 15 November kemarin adalah demonstrasi terbesar sepanjang tahun 2005. ACTU (Australia Council Trade Union) mengakui sedikitnya 500 ribu orang turun ke jalan di seluruh Australia. Bahkan puluhan truk-truk memblokade jalan-jalan, terutama di sepanjang suburb Homebush, ketika melakukan protesnya.

Oposisi pura-pura?
Kelompok Oposisi di parlemen, yaitu Partai Buruh yang diketuai Kim Beazley, seorang mantan akademisi ahli pertahanan dan pernah jadi menteri pertahanan Australia mengantongi 45 persen suara di Parlemen. Dengan posisi ini, sangatlah sulit bagi Beazley untuk mengcounter kebijakan-kebijakan Howard. Kecuali kalau ada gerakan sipil yang luas. Namun, gerakan sipil atau ekstra parlementer sudah tidak diminati lagi oleh Partai Buruh. Saat ini Beazley rupanya lebih suka menunggu “ambil waktu’ pemilu mendatang untuk bisa memenangi pertarungan dengan Partai Liberal. Sangatlah sulit melihat Beazley sebagai opoisi Howard. Bagaikan Pepsi dan Coca-cola kalau kita mau mebandingkan. Dalam banyak hal Liberal dan Partai Buruh nyaris sama.

Sebagai oposisi, Partai Buruh setuju dengan Perang Iraq, dan terhadap Anti Terorism Bill 2005, pun tetap mengamini. Meskipun terlibat dalam demonstrasi menolak Howard’s IR Laws, Partai Buruh dibawah Beazley ini tidak secara tegas menolak Howard’s IR Law. Dalam demonstrasi kemarin, Beazley mengatakan di depan ribuan orang saat demonstrasi di Brisbane, seperti yang dilansir Sudney Morning Herald bahwa “ This is about the Americanisation of our industrial relation system”- Ini adalah Amerikanisasi system hubungan industri kita- . Si Beazly ini terlalu “pura-pura” menyampaikan sentimen anti Amerikanya. Hal ini sangat dibutuhkan guna meraih simpati masyarakat untuk mengalahkan Partai Liberal yang sudah menang empat kali berturut-turut. Partai Buruh memang berjanji apabila menang, pemilu mendatang, akan “merevisi” beberapa pasal Howard’s IR Laws. Tetapi Partai Buruh tidak mau menyatakan akan menolak kebijakan-kebijakan pokok seperti memperluas system negosiasi individual. Memang dalan sejarah pemerintahaan Australia adalah Partai Buruh itu sendiri yang memulai memperkenalkan system negosiasi individual ini.

Howard dengan kalemnya berkata bahwa meskipun ribuan buruh turun ke jalan, mereka akan tetap seperti biasa, ke pantai dan tetap ada pesta barbequ. Artinya tidak akan ada gejolak dan IR Law akan tetap mulus. Tetapi dengan turunnya ke jalan 500 ribu kaum buruh, dengan adanya penolakan dari seluruh pimpinan gereja dan banyak organisasi masyrakat, sudah mulai juga ada tanda-tanda popularitas John Howard mulai menurun. Dalam semua polling-polling Partau Buruh sudah mulai mengungguli Partai Liberalnya Howard, meskipun Howard tetap mengungguli Beazley secara pribadi. Akankah Partai Liberal dan Howard terus menurun dalam popularitas? Mungkin kartu mainnya Howard tinggal satu: apakah dia akan berhasil mentakut-nakuti rakyat Australia tentang adanya ancama riil dari pihak terroris?

Dengan demikian langkah-langkah Howard akan menemui jalan toll bebas hambatan. Tapi berakibat pada ancaman kehidupan demokrasi.

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Examine the causes of Indonesian women working abroad and the weaknesses in the regulations protecting women migrant domestic workers

Faiza Mardzoeki

Since the middle of 1970s, the number of women in Indonesia recruited to work overseas has risen greatly. According to Komnas Perempuan (Indonesian National Commission on Violence against Women) the number of migrant workers in 2002 was 1,355,694. These workers are spread across the globe, concentrated particularly in Asia and the Middle East. The main reason pushing women in Indonesia to become migrant workers outside is poverty. However, poverty is only one factor. Other factors include: the increasing demand from the destination countries; Indonesian workers are relatively lower paid; cultural factors (the chance to go for the hajj pilgrimage); emergence of more recruitment agencies which actively promote and entice with the promise of big salaries; and, government policies which favor the business of exporting migrant workers. Meanwhile, there is still very limited protection of their rights. There are only in the ministry level decrees and these are more expressing the interests of migrant workers agencies rather than migrant workers. As a result, Indonesian migrant workers are in a very vulnerable position and need more protection. This essay explores the factors pushing women in Indonesia become migrant domestic workers and the weaknesses in the regulation protecting women.

The role of poverty as a factor in the growth of the number of Indonesian women migrant workers can be seen from the history of both internal and external migration in Indonesia, (especially during the new order period and up until now) which is will discussed bellow. The migration history is divided into three periods. The first was the colonial period. Cheap and massive labour was recruited to plantations outside of Java such as in Sumatra. The second period was the postcolonial era when Indonesia got independence from the Dutch in 1945. Later in this second period, (that is from 1956 to 1960) Indonesia, under president Sukarno focused on internal migration, called transmigration. The major program was to reduce the population from Java, which has the biggest population in Indonesia and move it to outside Java, such as Sumatra, Papua and Kalimantan.

The third period is the New Order period, beginning in 1965. Since the beginning of 1970s, the priority of president Soeharto’s policies was growth oriented development strategy with industrialization, which coincided with the oil boom (Komnas Perempuan&Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia, 2003, p.8). Meanwhile, to attract foreign investments, Soeharto’s government had created a program to promote cheap labour (Komnas Perempua & Solidaritas Perempuan CARAM Indonesia, 2002, p. 3-5). As a result, the agricultural sector was “abandoned” by the people and they moved to the industrial realm. The women who worked in the agricultural sector also lost their work and were grabbed by factories for cheap labour. However, in 1982, the oil price fell and affected the Indonesian economic situation. One of the dramatic effects of the economic devastation was massive unemployment (Dick, et al, p. 210).

In addition, the economic crisis, which hit Asia in mid 1997, also included Indonesia. The data from the National Socio-Economic Survey, held in February 1988 showed that employment in manufacturing had fallen by 13% and the number of poor people increased significantly. Also the inflation in mid 1998 hurt the poor because food prices rose more rapidly (Dick, et al, p. 239). Consequently, there are many people go abroad for work (including the massive number of women who work as maids). Currently more than 70% of Indonesian external migrant workers are women (Komnas Perempuan & Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia, 2003, p.7)

These women are spread across in many countries, particularly in Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan) and also the Middle East.
This 70% figure indicates that there is feminization of poverty with the result that many poor women are forced to go abroad to seek jobs (Komnas Perempuan and Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia, 2003, p. 31). These women are from 18 to 45 years old and they have to solve the problem of family’s poverty. Normally they come from very remote areas, such as from villages in outer provinces. Nowadays many migrant workers also come from urban areas as a result of the decreasing number of industries in Indonesia (Krisnawaty & Mardzoeki, 1999, p.7)

Many studies have shown that these women are very poor and lack a higher education. The average education is junior high school, even sometimes elementary school only. Their husband, children or parents burden these women with the responsibilities for the survival oh their families. Furthermore, there are plenty of opportunities for women especially in “the domestic sphere” or to work as maids - jobs that “only” women can do. Women are considered for these jobs because of so-called “comparative advantage” – they are paid cheaper wages than men; there is stereotyping that women have “nimble fingers” and also industry believes that women are only “the supplementary earners” (Wichterisch, 2000, p. 2).

Beside the main factor mentioned above, there is also other factor promoting this process. There are cultural factor that can push international migration processes. For example since 1980 until now, Saudi Arabia remains the largest destination country for migrant domestic workers for the reason that they hope they will get the chance to go for hajj pilgrimage (Komnas Perempuan and Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia, 2003, p.9).

Then, the increasing activities business by labor agencies. The agents are very aggressive promoting “ the big salaries” to the villages. Many brokers come to the villages to promote work abroad. The brokers do aggressively recruit abundant people especially women (Komnas Perempuan & Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indoensia 2003, p. 17).

People, who are tempted to go abroad, eventually must pay to the brokers’ 1.000.000 rupiah average. In spite of having no money, the brokers offer loans to them. In this process, they become trapped into debt by accumulating interest due to be paid later after they receive their salaries. After the dealings between brokers and the candidate migrant workers (including with the families), the brokers send them to the labour agencies for document’s administration process and training in particular work, especially house chores. Normally they have to wait three months or more. Furthermore, the agencies make an agreement with the destination agencies in order to look for their employer. Afterwards, the agency sends them to the destination agency when they find the employer (Komnas Perempuan and Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia, 2003, p.25)

It is clear that the major actors playing an important role in the industry of overseas migrant workers are agencies and businessmen (Tirtosudarmo, 2005, p.19)

Another major factor pushing women in Indonesia go abroad to seek job is the government policy after the 1997 economic crisis, which consciously encourages labour export. There are three Ministerial level decrees of legal instrument on migrant worker’s exist at the level of Ministerial decrees. First, Indonesian Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration’s Decrees on the management and protection of migrant workers, namely: Labour Ministerial Decree, No: 104A/Men/2002 on the Placement of Migrant Workers overseas. Second, The Labour Ministerial Decree No 157 year 2003 on Insurance. The last is the Directive of the Director General of Development and Placement of Overseas Migrant Workers No: KEP-321A/D P2TKLN/2002 on Technical Instruction for The Protection of Overseas Migrant Workers. There are many critics who say these regulations are more expressing the interests of recruitment agencies and business rather than protect women migrant workers. This is can be seen in two important clauses: Clause 10, which is appoints recruitment agencies as the representatives of migrant workers in insurance agreement and clause 11, which revises the tripartite to mediation between migrant workers and agencies forum. For mediation, the working unit in charge with placement of overseas migrant workers is appointed as mediator. However, there are no sanctions for recruitment agencies, which are not present in the mediation process (Komnas Perempuan and Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia, 2002, p.15-16)

However, in Indonesia, legal protection toward migrant workers is very weak and it does not address migrant workers rights. As result Indonesian migrant workers, especially women are in a very vulnerable position and need more protection. Evidence that there is vulnerable can be shown by some cases of violations, for example the testimonies from two women victims (who worked overseas as a maids).

First, is the testimony from Nirmala: “She (Employer, ed) then threw boiling water on me. One day she got upset while I was ironing. She said the clothes had not been properly ironed and slapped me. She took the iron from my hand and pressed it against my breast” (Nirmala Bonet in an interview with the BBC, Kuala Lumpur, 21 May 2004, www.thejakartapost.com). The employer was abusing Nirmala because the employer was not satisfied with Nirmala’s work. Migrant workers do not have bargaining position when they have a conflict with an employer.

Another anecdote, quoted from a letter from Sopiah, a migrant worker from West Java to an Indonesian agent who had dispatched her from Indonesia. She later died, falling from a third floor window in Beirut, Lebanon: “ We hear the cry of our people as they are beaten, the scream of the Indonesian people as they are tortured to their very heart and soul like animals, as if they were a thousand needles piercing our breast. You know, that today 4 November 1999, Teteh (A old sister, ed) Odah was tortured. I saw with my eyes the blood stream from the cuts on her lips, and saw too her swollen and black and blue cheeks” (Mardzoeki and Krisnawaty, 1999, p. 22). In this case, Sophia was a hostage and was tortured by agent when waiting for her employer.

Nirmala and Sophia were physically and psychologically abused and do not have work agreement directly with employers because agreements only occur among agencies.

The argument that women migrant workers are very vulnerable also can be shown from the numbers of physical and psychologically violation during work period. Kompas, the National daily newspaper in Indonesia reported that there were 2, 239, 565 cases involving Indonesian migrant workers that are 80% are maids who put their cases in many non-government organizations in Indonesia (Kopbbumi and Solidaritas Perempuan) during 2002. This included 33 deaths, 107 beatings and rapes, and 1 person under threat of capital punishment (Kompas, June 2, 2003). Two years later, Koppbumi and Solidaritas Perempua, non-government organizations, which are concerned to advovate migrant workers issues, reported that there are 118 women in gaols in Saudi Arabia acused of prostitution. 48% of these women have been accused of adultery. (Koppbumi, 2004)

In addition, there are also violations of labour rights such as working longer than 8 hours a day, heavy work burden, violation of contracts and no work safety. In Singapore, 50 women migrant workers fell from high-rise building between January 1999 and September 2001 and 38 % of these were accidents caused by unsafe working conditions (Komnas Perempuan&Solidaritas Perempuan, 2002, p. 27).

Furthermore, these women had been the target of violation when they return home, for instance injured caused of employer’s abuses and traumatic problem. The Central Police Hospital, which has been assigned as the referral hospital for sick and injured returnees coming through the main international airport in Jakarta, has documented a total 560 patients who are migrant worker returnees for the years 200 to 2002. All of them are women, and 80 % are treated because of some violent act, physical as well as psychological (Koppbumi, 2004)

Moreover, Irene Fernandes a director of Tenaganita, a women’s organisastion in Malasyia said that the large number from total of over 230.000 domestic workers is a reflection of not only abuse, but a structured, institutionalized system of employment that is exploitative (Tenaganita, May 2004).

The systematic abuse of Indonesian women migrant workers is a product of many factors that are mentioned above. They all represent of violations basic of human rights. The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women of 1993, article 3 says: “(a) The right to life; (b) The right to equality; (c) The right to liberty and security of person; (d) The right to equal protection under the law; (e) The right to be free from all forms of discriminations; (f) The right to highest standard attainable of physical and mental health; (g) The rights to just and favorable conditions of work; and (h) The right not to be subjected to torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

For these reasons, there are urgently needed recommendations or solutions to solve or effectively respond to the violation of women migrant worker’s rights. One recommendation is bilateral and multilateral agreements between Indonesia and the destination countries. International laws are urgently needed to address the rights and dignity of all human being, women, men and children without any discrimination. This could happen if there was political will, both, in the destination and sending countries. Agreement is needed include the ratification of all states involved to the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of migrant workers. It is also crucial that domestic service (maid) should be recognized as formal work. Domestic workers should have the equal legal protections as other workers. Finally, it is necessary to have laws of protection of Indonesian migrant worker’s rights.

To conclude, Indonesian women are forced to become migrant workers by many factors. The state systematically endorses which is can be seen in practice that the regulations are tend to favour agencies. The result, is there is an increasing number of women who go overseas to seek jobs with high risk and vulnerable to violations. In addition, the cultural factors solidly encourage people to go overseas especially to Saudi Arabia because of religion reasons. Because of this, there is urgently need the migrant worker’s law to protect their rights.

Glossary:
Komnas Perempuan - Komisi Nasional Perempuan (Indonesian National Commission on Violence against Women).
Solidaritas Perempuan Caram Indonesia (Indonesian Women’s Solidarity for Human Rights, National Indonesian Women Organization)
Koppbumi- Konsorsium Pembela Buruh Migran Indonesia (A Consortium of Indonesian Non Government Organizations to defend migrant workers Rights)
Tenaganita – Women Organization in Malaysia
UN Convention- United Nations Convention
CEDAW- The Convention on Eliminations of Discrimination Against Women

Bibliography:
CEDAW- The Convention on Eliminations of Discrimination against Women htpp://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw.htm.

Dick, H, Houben, V J.H, Linblad, J.T, & Wie, Thee Kian, The Emergence of a National Economy, An Economic History of Indonesia, 1800-2000, ASAA SouthEast Asia Publication Press in associate with KITLV Press, Leiden, 2002.

Indonesian country report to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrant, Kuala Lumpur 2002, Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers: Systematic abuse at home and abroad, published by Komnas Perempuan (Indonesian National Commission on Violence against Women) & Solidaritas Perempuan, CARAM Indonesia, 2002.

Kompas (Indonesian daily newspaper), June 2, 2003

Kopbbumi 2004, Annual Report of Violation of migrant workers

(Nirmala Bonet in an interview with the BBC, Kuala Lumpur, 21 May 2004) www.thejakartapost.com

Mardzoeki, F & Krisnawaty, T, Saat kau berpangku tangan maka korban berjatuha,the Collection letters from Sopiah, published by Solidaritas Perempuan, Jakarta, 1999

Tirtosudarmo, R 2005, Cross-border migration in Indonesia: Inward looking policy, emerging non-state actor and The Nunukan tragedy, unpublished paper

A press statement, released by Tenaganita (Malaysian Women Organization), May 2004

Witchterich, C 2000, The Globalize women, Zed Books, London, New York

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CONDITIONS AND POSITION OF INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS

This paper was presented at Amnesty International Confrence,
Fremantle, Perth 2004
CONDITIONS AND POSITION OF INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS

by: Faiza Mardzoeki[1]

“ we hear the cry of our people as they are beaten, the screams of the Indonesian people as they are tortured to their very heart and soul like animals, as if they were a thousand needles piercing our breast. You know that today is Wednesday 4 November, 1999, Teteh Odah was tortured. And I saw with my own eyes the blood stream from the cuts on her lips, and saw too her swollen and black and blue cheeks . . . Yeyet helped drag her from the chair to the floor … Sir, we are not animals, we do not wish to be treated like animals. (a quote from a letter by Sopiah, a migrant worker from Karawang in West Java to the Indonesian agent who had despatched her from Indonesia. She later died, falling from a third floor window in Beirrut, Lebanon, trying to escape from being imprisoned by an agent in Lebanon.)

“ .. that day, 7 November 1999, at about 6 am, Tan Sri (my boss) decided to stay at home and not leave for work. At the same time, his wife had to take her child to Singapore on some business. “Please, Child, get me a drink,” said Tan Sri. As his maid, of course I attended to his request. Soon after, I took a glass of water to his bedroom. Suddenly Tan Sri grabbed my arm and pulled me on to the bed. Like a starving lion, without saying as much as a by-your-leave, he tore off my clothes. he pinned me down so I could not move … “ (a quote from the testimony of Srini, a migrant worker from Wonosobo, Central Java, who was raped by her employer in Malaysia. The Consortium for the Defence of Indonesian Migrant Workers acted as advocate in this case in 2002.)

““ She then threw boiling water on me. One day she got upset while I was Ironing. She said the clothes had not been properly ironed and slapped me. She took the iron of my hand and pressed it against my breast” (Nirmala Bonet in an interview with the BBC, Kuala Lumpur, 21 May, 2004. Nirmala Bonet, 19, from Timor, Indonesia was tortured over months by her employer in Malaysia. She then succeeded in escaping. The case is now being handled by the Indonesian embassy as well as Indonesian and Malaysian non-government organisations.

These stories are not fiction but real examples of violence experienced by Indonesian women migrants working overseas. These are just three of the hundreds, in fact thousands, of such cases.

Poor women from the villages are part of the growing number of impoverished people in Indonesia. The lack of employment in the villages of Indonesia and the need for countries with more developed economies for unskilled labour has resulted in millions of poor Indonesian women gambling with their fate, particularly in Asia. I say “gambling” because they leave with minimal information and formal protections. These women are called TKW (Tenaga kerja Wanita – Female Labour) in Indonesia.

These women who seek work outside Indonesia usually work as maids. Others are forces to become sex workers, or work as plantation or factory labourers, or work in cleaning services. They find work in the categories of employment at the bottom of the heap, often called the 3 Ds work – Dirty, Difficult and Dangerous.

The process

The process of a working migrating to work overseas is more complex than that experienced in internal migration (urbanisation). It is not just a question of a kind of “natural” individual drive to seek to fulfil basic needs. It is also connected to various structural factors such as the impoverishment of different parts of the world, the weakness of international institutions, and forms of slavery in the international labour market, whether open and crude or disguised.

Governments play an important role in this system. The Indonesian government’s role is revealed through the policies it implements. The New Order government’s policy was first manifested in the Ministry of Labour regulation No 4/1970 on the mobilisation of labour for overseas. The government viewed this issue as having two aspects: one related providing opportunities for facilitating the trade in manpower services and the other related to guaranteeing the opportunity for people to find work, which is a responsibility of government. The manpower business side of things assumed the big portion of government attention as is proven by the continuos stream of new regulations regarding this aspect. This was not balanced by a similar attention paid to the aspect of protecting the rights of the women workers, especially as regards giving them adequate protection while overseas.

This neglect shows up in two areas. First, it can be seen in the results, the actual experiences of the women. Second, it shows in the absence of regulations protecting the workers. Domestic service as maids) is not recognised as work in the ‘formal sector’ and given legal protection. Indeed there are still no laws protecting migrant workers overseas in general. Indonesia has also not ratified the 1990 United Nations convention on the protection of migrant workers.

Indonesia did sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Malayisa on migrant workers in May, 2004 but it did not contain any provisions relating to domestic workers, i.e. maids. This is despite the fact that there are 160,000 Indonesian women working as maids in Malaysia, 23% of all Indonesian migrant workers listed as working in Malaysia as of June, 2002..

The trade in women workers

Since the 1980s there have been many reports in the media and by human rights groups and non-government organisations, including by KOPBUMI, Migrant Care, Solidaritas Perempuan and Tenaganita in Malaysia. They all report appalling conditions. Thousands, even millions, of these women have left for overseas with no health or work safety condition guarantees and not even with a guarantee of a job.

There is certainly plenty of evidence of how profitable it is for the agents operating in Indonesia. I have often travelled among the villages from where many of these women come, in West and East Java. At the very bottom of the ladder, the parents of prospective migrant workers or their parents have told me that they must pat at least Rp 500,000 per head. The agents operating at he village level will take the candidate workers to the local town, where they must another Rp50,000 changes hands. The agents in the town will then take the women to the agents who arrange the departure for overseas to whom they just pay between Rp 200,000 and 1 million rupiah. It is this final agent that will make the connection with another agent overseas.

The whole system operates very systematically and tidily.

This system delivers women to the female labour market in Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong, the Middle East, Taiwan, Korea and the United States. There are about 4 million Indonesian overseas workers. 70% are women and 70% of these women work as maids.

Violence towards women migrant workers

Violence towards women migrant workers continues to grow. According to Wahyu Susilo from KOPBUMI, there were 2,239,565 cases involving Indonesian migrant workers[2]. This included 33 deaths, 107 beatings and rape and one person under threat of capital punishment, i.e. execution[3]. Just 3 years later, there were 99 maids who died from falling from high up in Singapore apartment buildings, There are 118 women in gaols in Saudi Arabia accused of prostitution according to KOPBUMI and Solidaritas Perempuan. 48% of these have been accused of adultery.

The Malaysian research and advocacy group, Tenaganita reported 50,000 cases of maids running away from their employers during 2003. According to Tenaganita: “This large number from a total of over 230,000 domestic workers is a reflection of not only abuse but a structured, institutionalised system of employment that is exploitative.”[4] In April 2004 we were startled by the report that there were 7 cases of maids in Singapore, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia under threat of execution after being charged with various things: mainly, killing their male employers. The research carried out by migrant worker groups all show that these workers were in very precarious situations, experiencing great violence, and were trying to defend themselves. Given the many reports of beatings, rape and attempted rape by employers, claims by maids that they were defending themselves must receive significant credence.

According to the Indonesian National Commission on Violence Towards Women there at least 20,000 women return to Indonesia every year suffering from some form of violence: physical, psychological or sexual. Typical cases include:

Ø In 2001, Imas, originally from Cianjur, was sent home from Saudia Arabia pregnant. She gave birth on the flight home, in the aircraft toilet. In a state of extreme stress and confusion, especially as nobody in her family knew of her pregnancy, she wrapped the baby in tissues and tried to flush it down the toilet. She was arrested on arrival in Jakarta for attempted murder of the baby. She was threatened with a jail sentence. At her trial she was assisted by the Solidaritas Perempuan group. After several expert witnesses were called, Imas was found not guilty. With Imas’s agreement t, the baby was later adopted.
Ø In 2001, an East Javanese woman, Boniyem was sent home dead. According to a letter from her employer, she killed herself. Solidaritas Perempouan demanded a full investigation, but none ever occurred.
Ø In May 2004 Sulastri fell from the20th floor of an apartment building in Singapore. In the same month, news emerged of the vicious torture of Nirmala Bonat by her female employer.
Ø Many workers experience robbery or even sexual attack after arrival at Jakarta airport. It should be noted that migrant workers are channelled through a separate terminal in Jakarta. This discriminative practice also makes them targets of violence and trickery, as there is little control in this area.
Ø These workers are also forced to work long and uncertain hours, low wages and no holidays while there passports and documents are held by their employers.

It is often very difficult to investigate the violence suffered by these women as it all takes place behind closed doors.

Of course, there is also a psychological suffering involved in all these experiences. many women experience great shame and can be shunned on return home to their village.

Some must suffer the additional burden of spending time on death row, even though they are sometimes found not guilty later on. This was the experience, for example, with the famous case of Nasiroh, who was raped by her employer but fought back. She was accused of murder. In Saudi Arabia the penalty is death by beheading. She was later freed after being found not guilty.

Violence and the violation of human rights

All these cases, including the cases of Nirmala Bonet, Nasiroh, Sopiah and thousands of others, represent a violation of basic human rights. They all are violations of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women of 1993. Article 3 of this declaration guarantees: “(a) The right to life; (b) The right to equality; (c) The right to liberty and security of person; (d) The right to equal protection under the law; (e) The right to be free from all forms of discrimination; (f) The right to the highest standard attainable of physical and mental health; (g) The right to just and favourable conditions of work; and (h) The right not to be subjected to torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

We can see that there are three actors involved in these violations:

Ø first, governments who issue the discriminative and exploitative regulations and allow the violence to continue
Ø second are the manpower agencies that more concerned with profit that protection of the workers
Ø third are the immediate employers of the maids who often exploit, humiliate and treat maids with extreme violence.

Recommendations.

It is clear that this trafficking in women brings suffering to many women: all forms of discrimination as well as violence and even death. There us an urgent need for governments to pass laws to provide the necessary protection. This will require, of course, the necessary political will.

Urgent actions include:

Ø the ratification of all states involved of the 1990 UN Convention on the protection of migrant workers. It is ironic that many countries that use or send many migrant workers, such as Indonesia, have not ratified the convention.
Ø domestic service (i.. employment as maids) must be recognised as formal work. Use of the term “informal sector” must be ended. Domestic workers must have the same legal protections as other workers.
Ø there must be bilateral and multilateral coordination in the implementation of such protection

An agenda for Amnesty International

1. There needs to be a campaign educating the community and raising the issues of the structural vulnerability of women migrant workers employed as domestic workers (maids). This can be combined with a campaign demanding that maids be granted all the protection which is their right under the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

2. there should be a campaign to ensure that these domestic workers have assistance to legal aid and an adequate legal defence when charged for acts against their employers

3. there should be a campaign to win justice for the real victims in these cases who are more often the migrant workers themselves, suffering under both structural injustice as well as acts of violence by their employers. There should be a campaign to demand the release of women imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for “adultery”, “looking at men” and other such crimes, while men guilty of violence against tjheir maids go free.

4. Maids threatened with the death sentence for killing their employers, often charged on the basis of statements from their employers, should be important cases used in Amnesty’s campaign against the death penalty.

[1] Faiza Mardzoeki has been an activist in the women’s rights movement since 1997 involved in campaigning for Indonesian migrant workers and projects to use art and culture to raise awareness on women’s rights issues. She is a member of the West Australian Branch Committee of Amnesty International. This presentation was ade as part of the programme of the Amnesty International Australian conference on violence against women in Perth, 4-6 June, 2004.

[3] Kompas, June 2, 2003.
[4] Press statement, Tenaganita, malaaysia, Irene Fernandes, May, 2004.

-------------------------

Malaysia and Indonesia both exploit workers
this article has published in The Jakarta Post

Faiza Mardzoeki,
Women's Solidarity for Human Rights (Solidaritas Perempuan), Jakarta

Since Malaysia passed Immigration Act No. 1154 2002 in August, there has been a mass deportation of migrant workers from there. The new law applies to those workers not possessing legal documents and also to their employers. The new law imposes penalties of caning, fines as well as prison terms for both parties. Like an avalanche, the flight of fleeing workers has led to thousands being left stranded on the island of Nunukan, which lies on the border between neighboring Tawau and East Kalimantan.

Figures for the period up until August show that 350,000 people have passed through the island, with 70 deaths occurring among these workers and their families as a result of a delayed reaction from the Indonesian government.

Criticism and protests against the Malaysian government need to be stronger. But the Indonesian government is equally guilty of unjust and inhumane policies. It is false nationalism to oppose the policies of only one government.

Our government has been extremely slow in responding to the emergency situation, and even gives the impression of being unconcerned. The President apparently prefers to travel the world rather than visit her people who are suffering so much.

Mahathir's government is meanwhile applying a double standard in handling the issue of Indonesian migrant workers. Most of these workers are in the construction or plantation industries, while the remainder are in domestic service. They are paid low wages and interviewed workers say they are constantly harassed by the police -- but say they prefer to return because of even lower wages and less certainty in their own country. According to data from the Indonesian Consortium for the Defense of Migrant Workers (KOPBUMI), 700 Indonesian workers have been arrested and placed in detention camps, and 23 have been sentenced to caning.

The Malaysian government has unfairly accused Indonesian workers as being behind past riots and unrest in that country. This is in fact a form of discrimination toward Indonesian workers. The Malaysian government should also be prepared to investigate the repressive practices of its police, who use threats and violence in raids known as Operasi Pengenyahan (drive-out operations) and also extort migrants for money.

As it has often been noted, Malaysia's prosperity would not have been possible without Indonesia's workers. Its plantations, the nation's pride -- the Petronas Towers, its international airport and the Formula I racing circuit are all the result of the hard work of Indonesian migrant workers, many of whom suffered during the construction of these buildings.
The Indonesian and Malaysian governments have used, and abused, these migrant workers. For Indonesia, these workers reduce unemployment at home, while the government continues to be unable to create adequate employment for the rest of the country. The workers have become a major source of foreign exchange and contribute an average of Rp 23 billion per year to the economy. The Ministry of Manpower revealed there were 387,304 workers sent overseas last year.

At the same time, Malaysia needs these workers to carry out work in the "3D" category -- dirty, dangerous and difficult -- the type of work that locals are reluctant to be engaged in.
The mass deportations have provoked tension between both countries. Resolving these problems in the future requires an approach that goes beyond just fixing up documents.
The Indonesian government needs to learn to listen to its people. To date, the government has only looked upon migrant workers as commodities bringing in foreign exchange. The only regulations the government has produced are rules relating to those for labor placement.
The government needs to stop viewing these people as a commodity and see them as people with human rights that have to be protected. There should immediately be a new law extending this protection to Indonesian migrant workers. Indonesia needs to quickly ratify the United Nations Convention on the protection of Migrant Workers and their Families.
The Malaysian government needs to have their eyes opened to see that their police are also violating the human rights of these workers. They need to review their laws on these matters. They should respect the principles laid down in the international conventions on migrant workers.

Now is the time for these two governments to take these issues seriously. The two countries need each other. There needs to be a bilateral agreement that gives protection to the Indonesian migrant workers and it should be accompanied by a high level of labor diplomacy that is in the principles of justice.
These are the tasks ahead of Megawati and Mahathir. But perhaps this is all beyond them and someone else needs to take over?
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Wajah TKI kita = budak yang tergadaikan
Artikel ini pernah dimuat di Sinar Harapan

Oleh Faiza Mardzoeki

Nunukan, di Kalimantan Timur, di dekat perbatasan dengan Malaysia Timur, adalah sebuah pulau kecil, sebuah kabupaten sebenarnya. Tetapi bukan lagi sekedar kabupaten, sekarang sudah menjadi wilayah darurat rakyat terlantar dan memang terlantarkan.

Sejak bulan Maret sampai dengan bulan Agustus sudah ada 107,000 orang Indonesia, kaum buruh perkebunan dan konstruksi, tiba di kabupaten Nunukan datang dari Malaysia. Diantara 5-7 Agustus 47,506 orang tiba di pulau kecil itu. Ada pekerja yang kemudian pulang ke daerah asalanya, biasanya Indonesia Timor, ada juga yang berhasil kembali ke Malaysia. Pada waktu saya berada di sana, tanggal 11 – 16 Agustus, menurut sumber di SATGAS Penanggulungan TKI yang dibentuk oleh Pemda, ada paling sedikit 24 ribu orang yang masih tertahan di sana. Dan penduduk Nunukan sendiri hanya sekitar 30 ribu orang. Wilayah ini hanya menjadi Kabupaten pada tahun 2001. Fasiliitas-fasilitasnya masih sedikit. Sekarang kebupaten ini dengan hanya 30 ribu penduduk haris menanggung lebih dari 100 ribu orang terlantar selama enam bulan.

Pekerja-pekerja konstruksi dan perkebunan ini kembali ke Nunukan dalam kapal besar Angkatan Laut sesudah bekerja di Malaysia. Sebagian besar dari kaun pekerja ini kembali ke Nunukan di Indonesia membawa sekitar 150 ringgit (Rp337500) sebagi bekal menunggu proses pembuatan dokumen untuk kembali ke majikannya di Malaysia. Uang bekal ini merupakan pinjaman dari majikan atau Agency. Nanti uangnya akan dipotong dari upah mereka kalau sudah kembali di Malaysia. Mereka tiba sebagai budak tergadaikan.

Tiga ratus ribu rupiah biasanya habis dalam kurang dari seminggu. Sebagian besar dari pekerja-pekerja ini yang saya lihat terlantarkan dimana-mana, tidak ada penginapan. Mereka harus urus diri: tidur di gedung-gedung yang belum jadi, di pinggir jalan. Mereka menyebar di hampir semua celah untuk cari tempat tidur dan berlindung. Ada juga yang bisa dapat tempat di rumah penduduk. Banyak rumah penduduk, yang sudah sempit juga sebenarnya, berisi sepulah pendatang dari Malayisa, kadang-kadang lebih. Ada juga yang bisa tinggal di tenda-tenda barak yang disediakan – tetapi saya hanya lihat 10 tenda di seluruh Nunukan!

Agency-agency, yaitu makelar-makelar tenaga kerja, yang mendapat pekerjaan mengurus nasib mayoritas pekerja-pekerja ini. Para buruh ini, laki-laki yang banyak kurus kering, antre untuk mendapat makanan dua kali sehari. Ikan asin dan sayuran, setiap hali, tak pernah ganti. Inipun buruh harus berhutang lagi pada Agency-Agency.

Buruh-buruh ini semua pada mengeluh bahwa untuk menjamin makanan dan mengurus dokumen untuk kembali ke Malaysia hutang mereka pada Agency bisa membeludak sampai 1500 ringgit (Rp3,375,000). Nanti kalau berhasil kembali ke Malaysia melalui agency tersebut upahnya dipotong tiap bulan. Upah mereka di perkebunan atau konstruksi di Malaysia hanya upah budak juga: sekitar 6-8 ringgit. Untuk hidup layak di Malaysia membutuhkan sekitar 15 ringgit sebagai standar minim. Dengan gaji maksimum 8 ringgit per hari, kemudian dipotong untuk melunasi hutang ke Agency dan majikan, standar hidup nanti di Malaysia akan jatuh dibawah kehidupan budak.

Untuk mereka yang mau pulang ke daerah asalnya, mereka harus coba hidup dengan bekal Rp300 ribu sampai di desanya: di Flores, di Ambon, di Jawa atau Makassar.

Setiap celah yang bisa untuk berlindung bersisi manusia. Air yang sangat kurang: air minum maupun air mandi. Untuk mandi bayar Rp2,000 per orang pada wiraswasta pencari untung: untuk mebuang air bayar Rp1000. Untuk air minum tergantung pada pemberian dari Agency, pada waktu ambil ikan asin dan sayurnya. Di luar itu tidak ada air, keculai mampu beli air botol.

Tidak heran kemudian kalau penyakit mulai mewabah. Menurut dokter di PUSKESMAS Nunukan, Dr Edi, 55% dari semua orang yang lapor ke PUSKESMAS menderita infeksi saluran pernafasan atas. Penderita diarrea merupakan 18%; demam 15%,kemudian ada juga yang kena Malaria, disentri dan TBC. Menurut data PUSKESMAS, sampai dengan tanggal 15 Agustus, sudah 12 orang meninggal. Menurut Pak Vincentius, Ketua Kerukunan Umat Nusantenggara (KUN), ada 10 orang lagi yang juga meninggal karena sakit. Tentu saja dengan hanya satu PUSKESMAS dan satu POSKO Kesehatan untuk puluhan ribu orang, tidak heran juga kalau statistik penyalit dan kematian sebenarnya lebih daripada itu.

*

Diantar oleh sukarelawan KUN, saya berkunjung ke rumah penduduk, sebuah rumah kayu terdiri dua petak berisi satu keluarga, suami isteri dan empat anak, berumur dari dua bulan sampai empat tahun. Pak Blas, seorang buruh serabutan, memberi perlindungan pada 10 orang pekerja terbuang dari Malaysia. Keluarga ini yang juga mencari makanan untk 10 orang ini, sesuatu hal yang berat sekali untuk keluarga miskin ini. “Apa dapat bantuan dari Agency atau pemerintah?” saya tanyaakan pada Bu Blas. “Sama sekali tidak,” jawabnya, “tapi mau bagaimana lagi, ini kan sesama manusia, sesama orang Flores juga.”

Saya ngobrol dengan Pak Tomas, lelaki berumur 45 tahun, tetapi berwajah 80 tahunan, matanya menarawang, berbadan kurus, . “Saya sudah bekerja di Malaysia sejak tahun 1983. Tiba di sana tanpa bekal dan tanpa paspor. Kerja di perkebunan coklat, kemudian dipindahkan ke perkebunan kelapa sawit sampai saat saya dibuang.” Dia ceritera bahwa upahnya sering hanya sampai 7 ringgit, setengah dari kebutuhan minim untuk hidup layak. Pak Tomas ini, yang pumya isteri dan empat anak di Flores, juga jarang sempat kirim uang ke sana: “Sering habis,” dia mengeluh. Dia ceritera dia rindu sama isterinya, tetapi di Flores, katanya, tidak ada pekerjaan.

Pak Thomas masih menunggu kabar dari Agencynya apakah mereka akan urus supaya dia bisa kembali ke perkebunan sawit yang sudah menjadi tempat dia selama hampir 22 tahun. “Saya tanya terus kesitu, belum juga ada kabar.” Terlantarkan tanpa uang sama sekali; ditinggalkan dan didiamkan selama ini oleh Agency; nasibnya sama sekali tidak jelas.

*

Di daerah Sungai Bolong berlindung sekitar 10,000 manusia Indonesia: laki-laki, perempuan dan anak. 10 ribu pekerja terdeportasi ini berlindung dibawah tenda terpal diurus oleh agency P.T. Kaltim, atau dikenal dengan sebutan Penampungan Haji Ali. Tenda terpal ini dibangun di pinggir jalan raya di dekat sebuah pasar dimana orang mencoba survive dalam situasi sepadat-padatnya. Juah di belakang ada sekitar 12 WC di tutup terpal untuk melayani 10,000 orang. Sekali lagi bayar Rp1000 setiap kali berak.

Di tempat ini saya ketemu dengan Joko, 23 tahun tamatan SMA, berasal dari Solo. Dia juga ingin balik ke Malaysia untuk bekerja. Dia tadinya bekerja sebagai buruh kebon kelapa sawit sudah tiga tahun. Kalau Joko marah-marah: “Tolong suruh Ibu Mega kesini, lihat kondisi kami. Banyak yang sakit tidak diurus. Sudah ada yang meninggal.” Joko juga ceritera bahwa dia lebih senang bekerja di Indonesia. “Di Malaysia,” dia bilang, “saya tidak tenang, dikejar-kejar polisi, sekarang dibuang begitu saja.” Tetapi, dia mengeluh: “Di Indonesia tidak ada pekerjaan.”

“Saya ikut saja dengan rombongan besar teman-teman yang dibuang kesini. Tak ada uang sama sekali.” Joko juga sekarang nasibnya juga sudah tergadaikan pada P.T. Kaltim. Mengurus dokumen dan semua “pelayanan” di Penampungan Haji Ali juga menciptakan hutang juga buat Joko.

*

Salma, perempuan 31 tahun, lagi demam di Posko Kesehatan TKI, yang berletak juga dekat dengan PUSKESMAS. Matanya berair merah; badannya panas. Dia lagi antri untuk diperiksa doktor. Saya ajak dia ngobrol. Salma sebenarnya lahir di Sabah, Malaysia dari orang tua pekerja yang merantau ke perkebunan Sabah, berasal dari Jawa Timur. “Tak bisa jadi warganegara Malaysia,” katanya, “karena saya ‘Jawa Indon’. ‘Jawa Indon’ juga tak boleh sekolah lewat SD,” katanya. Pada akhirnya dia kerja di sebauh kedai di gaji 600 ringgit (Rp1,320,000) per bulan.

Salma disuruh “pulang” ke Nunukan oleh agencynya untuk urus paspor. Orangtuanya sudah punya dan tetap di Sabah. Tetapi tergadaikan juga si Salma karena kunjungannya ke Nunukan juga terbayar dengan berhutang ke Agency. Salama belum tahu jumlah hutangnya karena itu diurus antara agencdy dan majikannya di Malaysia.

*

Pemerintah cuek saja

Menurut Bapak Edi, staf Departemen Sosial yang dikirim ke Nunukan, Departemen Sosial sudah sediakan 1.3 milyard rupiah untuk pelayana sosial di Nunukan. Katanya Pak Edi baru 350 juta yang turun, yang sebagin besar untuk obat-obatan.

Memang saya bisa saksikan berjalannya POSKO Kesehatan, yang berisi hanya dua doktor untuk melayani puluhan ribu orang. PUSKESMAS yang juga kerja keras adalah PUSKESMAS Kabupaten yang juga melayani penduduk Nunukan sendiri.

Dimana lagi wujud dari respons pemerintahan? Seratus ribu lebih manusia warganegara Indonesia berbondong-bondong dibuang ke Nunukan dalam keadaan tergadaikan ke agency-agency dan majikan-majikan di Malaysia. Puluhan ribu orang ini mendarat di sebuah pulau berfasilitas sedikit dan hanya berpenduduk sekitar 30 ribu.

Ini jelas-jelas sebuah situasi darurat yang membutuhkan penanangan darurat juga. Dimana tim respons darurat yang bisa membangun perlindungan, memberi pelayanan kesehatan – dan tidak hanya satu dokter - bersama cepat-cepat mengurus dokumen-dokumen yang dibutuhkan pekerja-pekerja ini. Rakyat Indonesia ini, yang terpaksa mencari pekerjaan di luar ini, juga semakin tergadaikan sebagai budak dengan sisitem berhutang untuk membiayai pemulangannya, makanannya selama di Nunukan kemudian pengurusan dokumen. Semua ini seharusnya menjadi tanggung pemerintah Indonesia, kalau pemerintah Indonesia memang berprinsip tidak mau melihat warganegara menjadi budak tergadaikan.

Pengalaman kaum pekerja merantau yang diperbudakkan ini menunjukkan suatu hal yang jelas. Buat sebagain besar mereka – mereka yang berusaha kembali bekerja di Malaysia – penderitaan dan semakin berhutangnya mereka adalah akibat kegagalan politik luar negeri pemerintah Indonesia dan kebrutalan pemerintah Malaysia. Menagapa mereka harus berhutang ke Nunukan, hanya untuk kembali ke Malaysia lagi. Mengapa 23 orang harus mati – dan itu di Nunukan saja, bukan di tempat-tempat lain.

(Faiza Mardzoeki adalah Koordinator Divisi Pendidikan dan Pengorganisasian Solidaritas Perempuan.)

About Frida Kahlo and David Malouf's An Imaginary Life

2008-05-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

FRIDA KAHLO …
Spirit of Pain and Painting

Faiza Mardzoeki

Frida Kahlo is an important woman Mexican artist who is still very popular until today. Kahlo had painted based on her experiences; her ideas came from her deep heart and flowed from her passion and her pain. The canvas had been Frida’s friend. How was her pain and her whole life transformed on canvases very impressively, realistically and vividly
.
Leon Trotsky, one of her heroes, the Russian communist party activist said “ Frida, you paint with your heart. Its very expressive and I love it…” (one of scene in a Film “Fida” directed by Julie Taymor, Frida acted by Salma Hayek, 2003, Video)

Today, the Museum of Frida Kahlo in Coyoacan, Mexico City is still visiting by people from around the world. The Museum of Kahlo called The Blue House.

Frida Kahlo was born in Mexico city, on July, 1907, at 8.30 morning, in the midts of the summer rainy season. But she told others that she was born in 1910. This year was the outbreak of the Mexican revolution. “Since She was a child of the revolutionary decade, when the streets of Mexico city were full of chaos and bloodshed, she decide that she and modern Mexico had been born together” ( Herrera,Heyden, 1989, “ Frida----The Biography of Frida Kahlo”----Bloomsbury publishing, p-4)

Guillermo Kahlo, her Father is Hungarian Jews, from Arad, now part of Rumania. He migrated to Germany settled in Baden-Baden and then migrated to Mexico in 1891. In 1894 he married a Mexican woman, Matilde Calderon. Matilde gave four children, and Frida was number third. Gillermo Kahlo was work as photographer and was very close to Frida. He was very support to Frida in her talent of painting. A while, Frida’s mother, Matilde was a very conservative catholic and asked to the children to be religious person.

Since Frida’s childhood, she got sick. At age 6, Frida was stricken with polio, with caused her right leg to appear much thinner than the other. And then, when she was 18, she had got an accident. This is the day after Mexico had celebrated the anniversary of independence from Spain. The day when Frida and Alex (Alejandro Gomias Arias-Frida’s boy fried), went home back together from school. The bus that they were travelling in had an accident. “Three peoples died, and Frida had seriously injured. Her spinal Column was broken in three places, her collarbone was broken, and her third and forth ribs. Her right leg had eleven fractures and her rights foot was dislocated and crushed. Her left shoulder was out joint, her pelvis broken in three places. The steel handrail literally skewered her body at the level of the abdomen; entering on the left side, it had come out through the vagina. “I lost my virginity” She said ( Herrera, Heyden, 1989, “FRIDA---The Biography of Frida Kahlo------Bloombusry, p 49)

Frida spent in hospital almost two monts. During that time she was paint wahatever she was feeling and watever she was seing. From that on, She was more produced paints. In other side, she was constant struggle between life and death. “The Dream or the Bed”, 1940 present herself lying in bed. It was describe what Frida was feeling during in bed becouse of her injury. Or Her self –potrait “The Boken Column”, 1944, is harrowing image of Kahlo in steel corset with the fractured column symbolising her injured spine.

On August 21, 1929, Frida Kahlo married to Diego Rivera. Rivera is mexican muralist. He was a member of Communist Party in Mexico. A year before wedding, Frida Kahlo joined the Mexican Communist Party too, in 1928. Frida Kahlo and Rivera were hand in hand together support their party and joined in rally on the street. Kahlo’s family didn’t like to Rivera. Except her father Guillermo. Her mother, Matilde didn’t come to their wedding. Her mother and her sister said that it was like marriage between an elephant and dove. Her father comes to support Frida and basically, he adores Diego Rivera as muralist. It was clear, because Guillermo was a photographer and supported what Frida had done, drawing, wedding and loving.

It was a unique and contradictive relationship between Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. From the beginning, Frida loved Diego obsessively. She adored Diego very much. Diego admired strong and independent women. It was there in Frida. But, their relationship was up and down. Diego had affairs with others women. Include Frida’s young sister. In other hand, Frida also had affairs with men and women. Both were jealous each other and got pain from this situation. The contradictive side could see in what Frida said “ Being the wife of Diego is the most marvelous thing in the world……I let him play never will be, but he is a great comrade “ ( Herrera, Heyden, 1989, “Frida---Biography of Frida Khalo---“, Bloomsbury, p 365). At other time Frida said : “ I suffered two grave accidents in my life. One in which a street car knocked me down, the other accident is Diego…” (www.riveramural.com, htp//members.ad.com,/frida net/kahlo.htm).

Frida was expressed what her feeling to painting such as “Diego and I”, 1944, Frida’s despair over Rivera’s philandering is almost hysterical. His portraits lodged in her forehead, but he him self is elsewhere, and Frida seems to be strangling in the swirl her own hair.

With Diego, Frida got pregnant three times. But they were lost. One of her case is because of her fetus. Her fetus was in the wrong position and he had abortion. On July 1932 She had in hospital for thirteen days. She was very sad. Frida gave her affection to Lupe’s children. Lupe is the first wife of Diego. Beside that, She gave warm attention on her numerous pets-dogs, monkeys, cats, parrots, doves, an eagle and a deer. Many of her painting express this fascination with procreation and some directly reflected her despair at not having children. The painting “ Henry Ford Hospital”, 1932 was presented what had happen in her pregnant. Or “Me and My Doll”, painted in 1937. Both of these paintings speak vividly that she was very sad because not having children.

Frida was struggling between life and death. But she had a lot of passion to do something. She had lot of contradictions in her character. She was very flamboyant but she was fragile. She loved very much Diego while at the same time she had pain. “ Her physical suffering were compounded by profound emotional pain” ( Ulrike Lehman, “I never painted dream”, 2003, Taschen, p 107)

The year she died, she told a friend, “ my painting carries within the message of pain. Painting completed by life. I lost three children…paintings substituted for all this I believe that work is the best thing” (Herrera, Heyden, 1989 “Frida---“the biography of Frida Kahlo----Bloomsbury) . She died in 1954 in Coyoacan Mexico city.

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

1. A film Frida , 2003, directed by Julie Taymor. Video

2. Herrera, Heyden, Frida---The Biography of Frida Khalo---, 1989, Bloomsbury Publishing, London.

3. www.riveramural.com, htp//members.ad.com,/frida net/kahlo.htm).

4. Ulrike Lehman, “I never painted dream”, 2003, Taschen, p 107, from a book Women Artists in the 20th and 21th century.

David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life
The significance of the figure of “the Child” in David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life

Faiza Mardzoeki

In David Malouf’s novel An Imaginary Life, one of the most significant aspects of characterisation revolves around the Child. Malouf explores the issues of the interrelationship between an old man, Ovid and the Child, and the changes it brings in human personality. The Child in An Imaginary Life is not a child as a child, but here, the Child is a wild boy, as a symbol of barbaric or uncivilized society and reflects the process of reflection and of the deepening of humanity’s evolution into a new self. Ovid represents civilized man who has to face changed life situation, in “new place”, as an exile. In this process, the inner balance of Ovid self-ness has been tested through many experiences. Furthermore, the figure playing main role in Ovid’s process is The Child. Thus, the chronology of the meeting between Ovid and the child in Tomis is really about the process of shaping self-ness. Both of them interact with each other resulting in the process of transformation. This essay will examine the significant role of the Child in the whole process of reflection, evolution and humanisation of Ovid (and the Child).

The construction of reflection
The main character, Ovid, is a vivid example of how lives can be changed through the processes of life’s experiences. Ovid is a key character and narrator who presents Malouf’s argument about the society and life. The old man, Ovid, as a poet in Rome was clever, arrogant and of course, civilized man. But he is changed when he lives in exile. He is no one. Ovid said in soliloquy: “Have you heard my name? Ovid? Am I still known?” (Malouf, 1994, p.19). As a popular poet in Rome, Ovid is partly responsible for a moral decline in the national style. However, in Tomis as an exile, there are no more glorifications, even he does not speak the language in “the new place”. He is suffering displacement and disorientation.

As an exile, Ovid, beside displacement and disorientation, he also has been facing a challenge to the inner balance of his attitude and his integrity. These values are the basic standard for human life wherever and whenever you exist. An Imaginary Life, bring this issue to the reader. From the point of view of the personal context of Malouf who has experience as a migrant family, Malouf consciously put his experiences and his feeling into his novel (His Christian father’s family came to Australia from Lebanon and his Jewish’s mother from London). The combination of personal history and his knowledge is the basic his strong imagination. An Imaginary Life is narrative platform for Malouf, which is reflecting LIFE through his placement of Ovid, himself and the reader into an alien existence. While, the Child is Ovid’s alter ego.

In the beginning of this book, Ovid speaks directly to the reader about his experiences in exile, in Tomis with frustration sound and alienation. “The desolateness of place“ is clearly an introduction to the weary place and unpleasant arena for a poet, Ovid. Then, he describes his felling with strong words: “But I am describing a state of mind, no place. I am in exile here”. (p.16).

What Ovid says about his feelings is fully understandable. He suffers emotionally and intellectually from the displacement and disorientation.

It is an interesting and important point that Malouf chose a process of life change, where a poet in Rome is grabbed into desolateness, as an exile in Tomis where he meets a wild boy, the Child.

Since the beginning, Malouf gives clues about questions of self. It’s about existence. Furthermore Malaouf illustrates what Ovid’s thinking in the new place about the Child:
“The child is here. I am three or four years old.
It is late summer. It is spring. I am six. I am eight. The child is always the same age” (p.9).
The numbers four three, four, six or eight are meaningless in themselves, but reflect that Ovid starts to rethink on his life, through the Child. However, there is a question about the child that is he real or just Ovid’s imagination? Here, the memory and imagination are working together and shaping the process of a new awareness and creating a different realities.
The incident when he saw the poppy means he suddenly goes to the past, and his mind works through the screen of his memory. However, the words, which are dancing in his memory, show an obvious bitter nuance and take him back to want his past. Ovid says in his mind:
“Poppy, scarlet poppy, flower of my far-off childhood and the corn fields round our farm at Sulmo, I have brought you into being again, I have raised you out of my earliest memories, out my blood, to set you blowing the wind (p.31) “. In this phase, is it a real? Is there real poppy? Following that, Ovid still dancing with his memory, “Magic world on the tongue to flash again on the eye. Scarlet. And with all the other colours come flooding back… I am making the spring” (P. 31).

The vivid scarlet is come from his mind and crash to his childhood. From a structural point of view, the chronology of the meeting between Ovid and the child in Tomis builds the process of shaping identity. Many times, Ovid moves forward and backward and is sometimes absurd. He goes around and around, raising the issue: it is real or not. I think, this novel has “hidden agenda” to ask the reader to think about life or and about complex philosophical questions such as what is reality, what is identity or what is existence?

“Wild” and “Child”: nature and innocence
The child is universally a symbol of innocence. But he is the wild child wild is a symbolizes nature. So, when Ovid goes back to his memory on childhood, it means he is reviving the connection and interaction with the natural world.

In chapter two, the villagers agree to Ovid’s plan to capture the wild boy. The Child is finally subdued after a frantic chase and struggle, and is brought into the village. Here, Ovid has moved from alienation to acceptance of his life in exile. He is not only involved in the new circumstances but he tries to embraces the surrounding nature. He does planting with the people and starts to observe everything that can be seen in Tomis. This moment is the starting point of how Ovid transforms into a “new person”. With different values, the evolution is occurred:

“My life has been so frivolous. Brought up to believe in my own nerves, in restlessness, variety, change: educated entirely out of books, living always in a state of soft security, able to pamper my self, to drift about in a cloud of tender feeling, and with comfortable notions of my own intelligence, sociability, kindness, good breeding; moved by nothing that I couldn’t give a name to, believing in nothing I couldn’t see; never for a moment challenged by ore than a clever boy can handle, who has learned early…
…. Tomorrow I am go to with the old man’s hunting party to birchwoods, where are there are deer ” (p.39-40)

Then, Ovid starts to develop deep relations with the Child. However he begins to be “obsessive” over the child:
“I have seen nothing like it before, except from the eyes of my Child, so many years ago” (P. 50)
My Child, emphasises that Ovid relates memory to his father through acting as a father to the child. The ego of Ovid as a civilized man still there when he plans to introduce the child to the ways of human living, while he still wants the “power over” the Childs reflects that Ovid is still in a process of transformation. It can be analogous to human can “power over” nature. Both, “power over” need wisdom. Ovid begins to deepen wisdom in his relationship with the “wild Child”. The moment where Ovid and the Child walk together in the swampy land by the river, they are sharing of consciousness. It is the man who learns, who transform himself to let the universe into his soul. The natural world lead Ovid to embraces the life wisely. The cycle of seasons also important here. Spring, summer, autumn and winter is reflecting of the cycling of life. Malouf emphasises the impact of nature on mankind. He shows the bounty of nature and creating the nurturing force (Barbara & Stanners, 2005, p. 44).

The condition of nature, in the literary world is often symbol of the human condition. The cycle of seasons here reflects the situation, the different emotions and of hope. Malouf’s reference is not unique, and cliché:
“ It is autumn. Tomorrow we go again to the birchwoods after deer. I dare not mention the Child” (p.57) …“another spring. I understand all that is said to me now in this crude”…. “ It begins to autumn again. There is smokiness in things. Once again we go to birchwoods” (p.58).
Here, the seasons pointed that changing situation and the process of adaptation in Tomis begins.

In the term of nature, the urban existence of Ovid is challenged. As a poet, a civilized and coming from the cultural city, Rome, it is interesting how Ovid reflects to the surrounding nature. Does Ovid escape from nature? For Malouf Ovid is a man is undergoing change. In the beginning, Ovid is frustrated; later on Ovid tries to embrace nature, not exercise power over nature. Malouf seems romanticise nature, which can contribute to the wisdom of human life. When the child got fever, falls and into a state of apathy, once again, Ovid tries to be his guardian. Now he must show wisdom.

Ovid is more and more reflecting him self. He feels very closed to the Child. Ovid finally accepts that he now belong in Tomis and will not return to Rome. His mind is wiser then before. “ What I have done?” (p.73). This words are reflecting that he start move forward of his phase of reflection. Interrelationship of Ovid and the Child is deeper.

Here are the peak of Ovid’s reflections and the process of interrelationship between Ovid and the child. The process of humanisation occurred when both of them interact with each other more sympathically and deeply:

“ I think and think. What must steps be? How should I begin? Kindness, I know, is the way -and time” (p.77) and then Ovid says: “ The room I know, is filled with emotions that are not mine only, thoughts not mine, that leap into the damp atmosphere of late morning where I sit scribbling and the boy, taut as spring…” (P.79-80)

Ovid seems to have planned to bring the Child into human society. On the other hand, Ovid more and more thinks on his life. He thinks of LIFE. Now, on this phase, Ovid’.s humanity deepens.

In the end of this book, it not really clear whether Ovid is dead or has just becomes a wiser man?
“…The Child’s moving away from me…” and then”… I am three years old. I am sixty. I am six. I am there”. (152)

Malouf style is full of symbols, concepts and philosophical words. As novel, the plot is simple, the man who before was “in spot light” then grabbed into desolate place, become nobody, and then changed to become “a different man”. It’s simple but strong words and more complex when he put the character of the Child. Is the Child is exist? Or the child is Ovid’s imagination? Ovid’s alter ego? (1952 words)

Bibliography:

Barbara&Stanners, M, David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life & Selected Poems: Wordsworth, Five Senses Education pty, ltd, NSW, 2005

Malouf, D, An Imaginary Life, Picador, 1994

6 Film Reviews-old articles: Jane Austen, Vera Drake, Mooladee, ect

2008-05-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

Pandaemonium
Romantisme penyair pemberontak

Faiza Mardzoeki

Apakah jadinya jika seorang seniman film memvisualkan puisi-puisi imajinatif romantik abad 18, dari Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

Bagi yang pernah belajar sastra Inggris atau yang menggemari pusi-pusi klasik, rasanya sulit melewatkan puisi-pusi karya Coleridge, seperti The rime of the Ancient Mariner atau Kubla Khan. Julien Temple, sutradara asal Ingris yang mengawali karir filmnya dengan membuat film dokumenter tentang Punk (Punk Can take It, 1979) di Inggris, dengan cukup baik -menghibur sekaligus imajinatif- membawa Coleridge ke dalam layar lebar, berjudul Pandaemonium.

Pandaemonium, adalah film biopic drama yang menyorot penggalan sejarah hidup dan proses kreatif kepenulisan puisi, Coleridge, yang kecanduan opium dan sedikit kisah sahabatnya, yang kemudian mengkhianatinya, William Wordsworth.

Pandaemonium ini scenarionya digarap oleh Frank Cottrell Boyce, mengedepankan plot cerita yang intriguing dan dramatic, melalui dua tokoh penyair yang bersejarah itu, Coleridge(dimainkan oleh Linus Roache) dan Wordsworth (oleh John Hannah). Spirit film ini sangat berjiwa muda, penuh passion dan rebelian dengan struktur flashback ( tahun 1816 kembali ke 1795) yang cukup artistik dan imajinatif.

Shot-shot yang diambil dari panggung orasi politik, pembacaan-pembacaan puisi, dan kejadian-kejadian chaotic lainnya. Coleridge dan istrinya, Sarah (Samantha Morthon), lari dari kota, menuju sebuah desa setelah kejadian kolapnya pemberontakan, anti perbudakan, dimana Coleridge aktif ambil bagian berorasi di panggung. Bisa dimengerti kenapa seorang penyair seperti Coleridge, turut ambil bagian dalam proses pergerakan saat itu. Semangat puisi jaman romatisme (1780-1830) ini adalah semangat yang diwarnai oleh semangat perubahan yaitu revolusi industri di Inggris yang membawa perubahan besar dalam masyarakat. Bersamaan dengan itu revolusi Perancis dan Perang kemerdekaan di Amerika terjadi. Latar belakang sejarah inilah yang membentuk Coleridge muda berjiwa romatik pemberontak. Ide-ide tentang harapan, ketakutan, tension merupakan emosi kompleks yang mewarnai pusi-pusi Coleridge. (Hampshire&Macmillan, 1988)

Di desa mereka kedatangan sahabatnya, yang juga seorang penyair, Wordsworth dan adik perempuannya, Dorothy (Emily Woof). Mereka menjalani sebuah kehidupan penyair, bohemian dan utophis. Mimpi tentang dunia yang damai, sambil menulis puisi dan terkenal. Pada saat itu penyair adalah “bintang pujaan” yang digandrungi dari kalangan bangsawan sampai masyarakat biasa. Terutama Wordsworth yang begitu snobbish, gandrung akan kepopulerannnya, meskipun puisi-pusinya tidak sehebat Coleridge. Berbeda dengan Coleridge yang berjiwa spontan, apa adanya dan penuh passion. Sementara, Dorothy, secara jiwa kepenyairaanya lebih nyambung ke dalam imajinasi dan kreativitas syair-syair Coleridge ketimbang, terhadap puisi-puisi kakaknya, Wordsworth itu. Di sana kecemburuan diam-diam dari diri Wordsworth kepada Coleridge.

Selain itu yang menonjol dalam roh Pandaemonium ini adalah opium yang membuat kecanduan, sang penyair Coleridge.

Isu gender disentil sedikit oleh Temple. Ketika Colerigde dan istrinya, Sarah merencanakan pindah ke desa. Sarah diposisikan sebagai istri “tradisional” yang sama sekali tidak “mengerti” dunia kepenyairan suaminya dan hanya memikirkan anak dan keluarganya.

Cinematrografi dalam Pendaemonium ini sangat puitik. Visualilisasi bagaimana opium yang men-drive Colerigde, embun yang menempel bergerak perlahan di jendela di tengah malam hari, di mana Coleridge saat mengendong anaknya sambil melantunkan syair, gelas berisi anggur yang tumpah saat Coleridge mabuk oleh opium, bergerak dan berbicara dengan slow motion yang cukup puitik. Jadilah visual image yang cukup dramatik sekaligus puitik yang getir.

Coleridge, menjadi kecanduan opium, terutama saat-saat menulis puisinya. Digambarkan bagaimana ia seperti “kesurupan” ketika ide datang menghentak jiwanya. Bahkan seperti sebuah halusinasi yang meledak-ledak dan mengintai jiwanya, hingga akhirnya harus ditumpahkan melalui tintanya ke atas kertas.

Lirik balada, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner dan Kubla Khan, adalah puncak kepenyairan Coleridge yang divisualkan Temple, bagaimana proses kepenulisannya dan bagaimana imajinasi Coleridge bermain. Coliredge pergi bersama Wordworth ke sembuah kampung nelayan dan bertemu dengan seorang pelaut tua yang bercerita tentang rasa bersalahnya. Di adegan ini warna gelap yang misterius sangat kuat. Seolah mau menggambarkan batin si pelaut tua yang penuh agony. dan jiwa menggelegak sang penyair. Imaginasi Colerigde dalam lirik-lirik The Rime of the Ancient Mariner muncul begitu kuat. Burung albatross yang menembus lautan gelap, mampu membuat begidik bulu roma. Albatross adalah burung yang mensimbolkan alam ciptaan Tuhan dan simbolisasi dari manusia yang menanggung beban dosa.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner adalah lirik balada yang mengisahkan seorang pelaut yang membunuh burung albatross. Kemudian dihukum oleh alam, oleh Tuhan, dengan seluruh crew kapalnya mati, sementara sang pelaut sendirian hidup menanggung rasa bersalah, hingga ia harus berkeliling dunia mengabarkan kepada umat manusia. Isu moralitas, kepercayaan dan symbol-simbol alam cukup menonjol dalam puisi terpanjang Coleridge ini.

Sementara pada proses kepenulisan Kubla Khan, divisualkan dengan sangat berbeda dengan cerita tentang burung albatross itu. Kubla Khan, adalah lirik yang menceritakan sebuah negeri imajiner yang begitu indah, orang-orangnya penuh passion, dan yang memukau, di Xanadu.

Bagi Coleridge, alam adalah kegelapan dan kecahayaan yang tiada tara. Misterius. Malam dan siang. Ia menyimpan berjuta cerita. Inilah kekuatan Coleridge yang mampu menangkap alam, melalui imajinasi dan kepekaan dan kespontanannya Berbeda dengan Wordsworth yang melihat alam sebagai sesuatu yang indah banal tanpa mendalami jiwa alam itu sendiri. Bahkan Wordsworth terlalu menikmati dirinya sebagai penyair yang cenderung narsis.

Temple dengan cukup baik, mampu menvisualkan ide-ide puisi abad romantik. Meskipun secara umum ada sedikit kesan hiperbola, apabila kita mencermatinya lebih teliti. Tapi spririt film ini cukup menggairahkan. Sosok Coleridge cukup mengena, sebagai penyair pemberontak yang romantik. Pandaemonium cukup indah dinikmati dan tidak terlalu rumit, meskipun belum membaca pusinya Coliredge atau karya Wordsworth.

Film ini diproduksi oleh BBC tahun 2001, tapi entah kenapa baru diputar di bisokop Australia, Juli 2005.

Sydeny, Juli 2005.

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Film Dokumenter Indonesia

Geliat kreativ kritis yang minim ruang

Faiza Mardzoeki

Film dokumenter atau lazim disebut sebagai film non cerita atau film non fiksi adalah film yang menggambarkan suatu realitas dan analisis. Ia tidak hadir semata-mata dengan setumpuk obyek yang terekam tanpa suatu tujuan tertentu. Dari pengamatan penulis, sejak tahun 1998 film, tahun berakhirnya sang rezim, film dokumenter di Indonesia memulai geliatnya dengan ditandai antara lain: lahirnya kelompok-kelompok film (independen), semakin banyaknya karya film dokumenter, semakin beragamnya tema film dan semakin seringnya acara putar film serta diskusi film. Hal ini sangat terkait dengan dengan arus kebebasan pasca Soeharto, dan (secara kebetulan) munculnya technologi audio visual yang mudah dan murah.

Kreativitas masyarakat Indonesia umumnya sangat dipengaruhi oleh kondisi sosial politik. Pada jaman Soeharto berkuasa, film dokumenter hanya menjadi medium propaganda satu arah dari rezim yang berkuasa. Pada masa ini produksi film dokumenter nyaris sepenuhnya dimonopoli oleh Pusat Produksi Film Negara (PPFN). Film-film buatan negara ini ditayangkan melalui program-program televisi yang pada waktu itu, hanya ada satu stasiun televisi milik pemerintah yaitu TVRI. Masih segar dalam ingatan penulis film dokumenter yang ditayangkan oleh TVRI selalu berisikan propaganda keberhasilan pembangunan, keakraban bapak pembangunan, Soeharto dengan rakyatnya misalnya program klompencapir (Kelompok Pendengar, Pembaca, Pemirsa ) atau film tentang keindahan dan kekayaan alam Indonesia.

Baru mulai awal 1990 an selain film dokumenter produksi PPFN mulai muncul film yang dibuat oleh sineas muda dari Institut Kesenian Jakarta. Salah satu tonggaknya adalah film buatan Garin Nogroho berjudul, Air dan Romi ( tahun 1991), merupakan film bertema lingkungan sempat menang di Festival Film Lingkungan Hidup Internasional Okomedia di Freiburg, Jerman. Namun film yang sukses di festival ini tidak lantas sukses di Indonesia, bahkan nyaris tidak bisa disaksikan oleh masyarakat karena, karena tiadanya tempat putar untuk film kategori dokumenter.

Kemudian menyusul film-film dokumenter yang mulai ditayangkan di stasiun televisi swasta, yang mulai ada di tahun 1999, antara lain Anak Seribu Pulau buatan Garin Nugroho, Enison Sinarno, Srikaton, Robert Chappel, Gary Hayes serta Nan.T.Achnas. Anak Seribu pulau ini merupakan produksi bersama RCTI, SCTV, INDOSIAR, TPI dan ANTV dalam rangka peringatan 50 tahun Indonesia merdeka. Dari sini masyarakat luas mulai bisa menikmati film dokumenter melalui stasiun televisi swasta, meskipun masih terbatas.

Bisa dibilang, bahwa dua tahun setelah Soeharto jatuh, film dokumenter semakin meluas, kritis dan advokatif. Ada eforia dari berbagai kalangan untuk membuat film dokumenter. Lalu eforia berkarya semakin disambut dengan mulai semakin banyak program training membuat film untuk pemula. Geliat ini lanats semakin meluas ke kalangan masyarakat sipil lain, yaitu kelompok independen dan LSM (Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat) yang mulai menggunakan film sebagai medium advokasi. Situasi ini juga telah mendorong munculnya tema film yang cukup kritis yang bernuasa menggugat, dan mepertanyakan kembali berbagai peristiwa di masyarakat. Mari kita telusuri beberapa contoh film-film dokumenter ini:

Film berjudul “15 Tembok Kota” (Indonesia 2001, sutradara F. Tejobaskoro, produser Semar T. Doc, durasi 22 menit ) bicara soal Ruang publik saat ini yang telah kehilangan fungsi dan maknanya bagi publik itu sendiri. Banyak pihak yang berusaha mengkooptasi makna ruang publik sesuai dengan kepentingan meraka. Baliho, spanduk serta poster-poster telah memenuhi ruang publik kita dengan pesan dan propaganda bisnis. Singkatnya, ruang publik kini telah menjadi sebuah bisnis, sebuah etalase bagi produk-produk industri. Film ini diproduksi oleh Apotik Komik, sebuah komunitas seniman yang berada di kota Yogyakarta menggagas ide untuk berusaha mengembalikan makna dan fungsi ruang publik di Yogyakarta dengan proyek mural Sama-Sama.

Film lain berjudul “Our Journey” ( Indonesia 2003, sutradara Fatima Nona Astuti, Produser Cinema Society, Durasi 50 menit). Sutradaranya mengaku bahwa film ini dibuat dalam rangka melakukan penguatan sekaligus kampanye bagi para korban. Sang sutradara menambahkan bahwa dalam proses pembuatan film ini seminim mungkin ia intervensi.. Film ini mencoba melihat lebih dekat rasa dan asa yang dimiliki mereka (korban yang menjadi subyek dalam film ini) sebagai bagian dari perjalanan hidup mereka. Dengan gaya testimony, film ini menampilkan para korban kerusuhan 1998 dan mengajak serta para subyek dalam film ini untuk hadir dalam acara putar perdana filmnya. Bahkan salah satu subyek kemudian diajak dalam forum diskusi yang membahas film tersebut.

Fenomena berkembangnya film-film kiritis tidak lepas peran dari masyarakat sipil yang mengelompokkan diri ke dalam komunitas independen maupun kelompok LSM (Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat). Kelompok indenpenden ini biasanya mempunyai cukup banyak ide, kemauan kerja keras dan kritis tapi tidak punya modal dan banyak diantara mereka berangkat dari dunia aktivis. Sebagai contoh Lexy Junior Rambedetta, Daniel Indra Kusuma dan Gadis Arivia. Film berjudul “Saya rasa itu sulit dihilangkan, sulit dihilangkan” (th 2003), versi pendek dari Kado Buat Rakyat merupakan film dokumenter dengan menggunakan tehnik wawancara dari berbagai sumber. Antara lain Sulami, tokoh gerwani yang ditangkap dan dijebloskan ke penjara oleh Orde Baru, Arief Budiman, aktivis angkatan 66, serta beberapa tokoh lain seperti Rahman Toleng, Film yang digarap Daniel ini mencoba membongkar sejarah kelam Indonesia. Daniel mencoba memberi “pejalaran sejarah kritis” tentang bagaimana sebenarnya orde baru dibangun. Film ini menang di Jakarta Internasional Film Festival untuk katagori tehnik wawancara terbaik.

Film Mass grave/Kuburan Massal (th 2002) garapan Lexy Junior Rambadetta yang rajin diputar diberbagai festival merupakan film kritis yang menyuarakan korban 65. Sebelum Soeharto tumbang, wacana kritis sejarah 65 atau sejarah terbangunya orde baru hanya bisa dinikmati di buku-buku tebal hasil analisa asing atau pamflet sembunyi-sembunyi. Selanjutnya Lexy banyak memproduksi film-film “advokasi” antara lain 20 billion dollars(th 2002) tentang sindikat perdagangan manusia/buruh migran, kemudian film berjudul Batas Panggung (2004) tentang orang-orang hilang yang diculik oleh orde baru.

Gadis Arivia, aktivis perempuan yang juga dosen filsafat UI adalah salah satu pioner di bidang perempuan dan media. Gadis, melalui Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan menerbitkan jurnal perempuan feminis, program radio hingga merambah ke dokumenter film. Dua film yang sudah diputar di berbagai tempat dan festival adalah Perempuan di Wilayah Konflik (2002) dan Perdangan Perempuan dan Anak(2003). Film-film ini selain diputar untuk komsumsi film festival atau penikmat film, Gadis melakukan pemuataran di ruang-ruang diskusi, seminar tentang perempuan dan anak.

Kemudian YLKI (Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia) membuat film berjudul Air Mata Ibu (Indonesia 2004, sutradara Tonny Srimarsanto) mengangkat tema seputar program KB (Keluarga Berencana) di Indonesia. Lebih dari 30 tahun program Keluarga Berencana (KB) DAN Kesehatan Ibu dan Anak dilaksanakan secara nasional. Untuk mendukung suksesnya program ini, pemerintah melibatkan tokoh masyarakat, aparat pemerintah dan militer. Program tersebut memang sukses luar biasa. Dibalik kisah sukses program tersebut, sesungguhnya menyimpan air mata. Film ini mengungkap sisi gelap dari suksesnya program KB dan Kesehatan Ibu dan Anak di Nusa Tenggara Timur.

Di Jogyakarta telah muncul satu kelompok yang menamakan diri Etnoreflika, mengkhususkan diri pada visul ethnography. Mereka mempunyai cara sendiri dalam pembuatan film dokumenter. Para penggiat film di kelompok ini melibatkan si subyek yang direkam dalam proses pembuatannya. Si subyek diajari bagaimana menggunakan kamera, bahkan sampai pada proses editing. Dalam diskusi dengan penulis bulan Juli lalu di Jogyakarta, Budi Satriawan, salah satu penggiat Entoreflika menyatakan bahwa melibatkan si subyek ke dalam proses pembuatan dokumenternya sebagai salah satu landasan keberpihakan terhadap masalah yang direkam.

Masih banyak lagi kalangan LSM yang telah memproduksi film-film dokumenter. Di Jakarta misalnya, Urban Poor Concorcium (UPC) telah memproduksi film dokumenter tentang kaum miskin kota yang digusur oleh pemerintah daerah Jakarta, berjudul Killing the days. Lalu kelompok Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (PEKKA) telah memproduksi seri film dokumenter tentang kisah-kisah perjuangan perempuan tanpa suami di berbagai daerah.

Film-film dokumenter tersebut telah mewarnai khasanah perfileman Indonesia. Selain itu, kekuatan dan kelebihan film-film dokumenter ini adalah kekayaan tema, yang rata-rata sangat dekat dengan persoalan bangsa Indonesia. Meskipun masih ada kelemahan-kelemahan di segi tehnis misalnya. Tetapi geliat ini sungguh sangat menggembirakan di tengah terbatasnya tema-tema film Indonesia yang ada. Namun sayangnya, Film-film dokumenter ini masih sangat terbatas ruang putar atau edarnya. Film-film dokumenter yang sudah ratusan jumlahnya ini belum bisa muncul di siaran di televisi. Mudah-mudahan di masa mendatang, stasiun-stasiun televisi di Indonesia mulai gemar menayangkan film-film dokumenter. Jadi tidak melulu sinetron!.

Sydney, 1 November 2005

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MOOLAADE

Sebuah film fiksi humanis feminis dari Afrika

Faiza Mardzoeki

Moolaade, adalah film fiksi Afrika, karya Ousmane Sembene, seorang sutradara film dari Senegal, berusian 81 tahun. Sembene ini dikenal sebagai bapak film Afrika. Namun dalam Moolaade, ia tegas bersimpati pada kaum feminist, dengan menciptakan gambar gerak indah dan pro kemerdekaan kaum perempuan. Film ini menyoal penindasan kaum perempuan yaitu penyunatan dan perusakan kelamin serta pengekangan kebebasan kaum perempuan di wilayah pedesaan muslim Afrika Barat, tepatnya di sebuah desa di negeri Afrika Burkina Faso. Meskipun secara hukum, praktek penyunatan ini sudah hampir tidak ada, namun secara tradisi di beberapa wilayah masih terjadi.

Bercerita tentang Colle (Fataumata Coulibaly), seorang istri ke-dua dari salah satu petani kaya dan sesepuh di desanya menawarkan perlindungan kepada empat gadis kecil yang telah melarikan diri dengan penuh ketakutan dari ancaman pisau tajam penyunatan. Dalam tradisi wilayah desa ini perempuan mempunyai hak menawarkan pelrlindungan buat anak yang memohonnya. Perlindungan ala tradisi ini bernama “Moolaade”. Dari sini, mulailah, perlawanan terhadap adat penyunatan yang dianggap keliru ini dan menolak tunduk kepada patriakh ulama di desa muslim ini.

Di dalam perjuangannya itu, Colle menghadapi sebuah tradisi yang sangat mengakar yang bergandengan dengan ajaran agama yang memasung kemajuan perempuan. Sembene, sang sutradara, dengan sangat baik, tidak hanya memajukan kepahlawanan si Colle ini, tetapi dengan cukup sederhana, runut dan jelas memotret kehidupan sebuah desa di Afrika secara riil. Ini adalah gaya realisme Sembene memotret sisi kehidupan desa dimana hubungan tradisi dan agama (Islam) berjalan beriringan, kadang menguatkan satu dengan yang lainnya, yang menghasilkan ketimpangan relasi perempuan dengan laki-laki, dan ulama dengan umat dan sesepuh-warga biasa. Spirit film berhasil memberi jawaban-jawaban ke-mengapaan-nya relasi timpang itu terjadi, dan berujung pada sebuah proses perubahan akibat dari jawaban-jawaban itu.

Moolaade adalah film humanis feminis yang kaya akan pembelajaran, sehingga ketika nonton Moolaade ini, kita akan memetik jawaban-jawaban kenapa penyunatan perempuan itu tidak perlu, dan kenapa perempuan perlu melawan pada saat tertentu.

Burkina Faso adalah potret negeri muslim di belahan Afrika Barat. Para lelakinya, rata-rata mempunyai istri lebih dari dua. Pemegang kekuasaan desa ini adalah sesepuh atau pemimpin agama sekaligus pemimpin desa. Para lelaki ini menduduki tempat terhormat dan para perempuannya selalu merunduk sembah apabila bertemu dengan para sesepuh ini. Sedang kekuasaan lainnya adalah para dukun sunat perempuan, yang secara tradisi sudah turun temurun.

Seluruh anak-anak gadis diwajibkan baik oleh agama maupun tradisi untuk disunat oleh para dukun ini. Para dukun menggunakan pisau-pisau tajam untuk memotong klitoris perempuan. Para gadis kecil akan lari ketakutan dan menjerit kesakitan apabila pisau tajamnya sudah menyentuh, mengiris clitorisnya. Bahkan sering juga ada yang mati akibat ‘pembedahan’ ganas ini. Dalam Moolaade, diceritakan dua orang anak lari dari desanya dan ditemukan bunuh diri (mati) daripada menderitakan penyunatan ini. Sementara empat gadis kecil, yang kemudian lari mencari perlindungan kepada si Ibu Colle. Mereka tahu bahwa tujuh tahun sebelumnya Colle, sebagai seorang ibu, juga pernah menolak anak gadisnya sendiri dipotong alat kelaminnya. Colle, tergerak melindungi ke empat gadis kecil itu, dengan menggunakan strategi kepercayaan tradisi pra-Islam, Moolaade. Sementara istri pertamnya, (the elder) tidak mau dan takut turut campur, tetapi diam-diam mendukung aksi Colle ini. Para dukun sunat dan Colle yang yang telah menyatakan perlindungan bagi ke empat gadis kecil yang sedang diburu untuk disunat itu, berhadapan, tetapi masih saling menghargai, tidak saling menyerang. Sementara kaum lelakinya mulai tidak suka dengan aksi Colle, yang dianggap melanggar agama dan tradisi. Dalam keyakinan desa muslim ini, perempuan yang tidak disunat, atau disebut Bolokorok, adalah tidak suci dan tidak boleh dikawinkan. Para lelaki akan menolak perempuan yang tidak disunat clitorisnya.

Situasi memuncak, ketika para suami, yang domotori sang sesepuh memaksa radio-radio yang bertengger di rumah untuk dibakar. Catatan menarik, bahwa radio, rupanya telah manjadi teman sepi sekaligus alat pencerahan kaum perempuan di rumah. Para perempuan di desa Burkina Faso ini selalu menyetel radio sambil kerja di rumah, mendengarkan lagu-lagu atau mendengarkan ceramah. Sementara para lelakinya kerja di luar atau mengaji di mesjid. Ketika Colle melakukan perlawanan, menolak sunat, kaum lelaki menngangap bahwa radio telah punya andil bagi para perempuan, yaitu menyebabkan perempuan menjadi berani melawan dan tahu sesuatu. Akhirnya, para lelaki itu membakar semua radio yang ada bahkan melarang menyetel TV. Meskipun pada saat itu dalam film ini yang mempunyai TV adalah satu orang, yaitu ketua desa dan sesepuh ulama, yang dibelikan oleh anak lelakinya yang baru datang dari Perancis.

Dalam film ini, anak sesepuh desa ini digambarkan sebagai lelaki yang punya watak dan pikiran berbeda dari lelaki kebanyakan di desa itu. Ia lebih modern dan lebih menghargai perempuan meskipun masih tunduk kepada adat dan ayahnya. Orang tuanya marah dan tidak menyetujui rencana kawinnya dengan anak gadis Colle, yang tidak disunat. Namun disisi lain, sebagai anak lelaki yang bekerja di luar desanya (Perancis) ia selalu dipuja, disanjung karena banyak uang dan menghidupi keluarganya. Potret situasi ini memang banyak dijumpai di desa-desa, terutama di keluarga petani miskin namun “religius”. Kebutuhan dasar ekonomi mengalahkan prinsip-prinsip religius yang diyakininya sendiri.

Menarik untuk dicatat, bahwa film ini dengan jelas berkesadaran berempati pada kaum perempuan. Ketika radio-radio itu telah dibakar, para perempuan itu mengadakan musyawarah, mengeluarkan unek-uneknya, mempertanyakan kenapa radionya dibakar. Semangat sisterhood dikalangan kaum perempuan ini dalam menghadapi kebersamaan masalah cukup menonjol. Seperti pada karakter si istri tua, yang selalu melindungi dan mendukung prinsip si Colle, sang istri ke dua. Pada saat ini poligami hampir dilakukan oleh semua lelaki yang mampu, dan kaum perempuan tidak punya pilihan, wajib tunduk pada tradisi dan agama. Sementara para tetangganya, meskipun mereka takut-takut, diam-diam mendukung Colle, yang menolak sunat.

Pengalaman sakit yang sama, karena di sunat dan kungkungan tradisi dan agama yang kuat, membuat ikatan batin kebersamaan dan membangun spirit melawan tyran patriarki kecil ini secara diam-diam.

Si Colle, yang rajin mendengarkan radio, ceramah dan punya pengalaman sakit akibat sunat, berjuang melawan maut saat melahirkan anak gadisnya dan harus melakukan operasi cecar yang menyebabkan Colle bersentuhan dengan dunia dokter, membentuk karakter sendiri, menonjol, diantara kaum perempuan lainnya. Pengalamnnya itu membangkitkan kesadaran melawan yang diam-diam didukung oleh pengalaman perempuan lainnya.

Puncaknya, ketika Colle harus dicambuk oleh suaminya atas paksaan kakak iparnya sendiri, yang didukung oleh kaum sesepuh dan ulama. Suami Colle, sambil nangis karena dalam hatinya tidak mau melakukan ini mencambuki isterinya berkali-kali untuk memaksa Colle mengatakan mantra tradisional yang akan mengakhiri perlindungan moolade. Colle yang tegas, punya prinsip, tidak mau menyerah. Situasi ini justru semakin mengikat batin kebersamaan kaum perempuan di desa itu untuk bersama melawan. Para perempuan ini akhirnya menolak tunduk kepada ajaran penyunatan perempuan. Menuntut kepada kaum ulama dan sesepuh desa dan kepada dukun sunat untuk menghentikan praktek penyunatan.

Moolaade, adalah sebuah film humanis feminis yang mengingatkan kita akan harga manusia yang tidak bisa membedakan laki-perempuan, ulama-umat, maupun sesepuh-warga. Pertemuan tradisi dan agama yang seharusnya bisa mengantarkan kemajuan umatnya, laki-laki dan perempuan, karena mereka adalah sama, MANUSIA. Inilah setidaknya pesan yang hendak disampaikan, Sembene, sang sutradara dari Senegal, seorang lelaki berumur 81 tahun yang pro perempuan. Bahwa penyunatan perempuan adalah bagian dari praktek perusakan tubuh perempuan, di mana perempuan bisa menderita berkepanjangan, tidak bisa menikmati hubungan sex secara sehat, karena luka dan rusaknya saraf dan bahaya karena bisa terjadi infeski. Untuk itu, Moolaade, bermaksud mempertegas, bahwa penyunatan tidak perlu, baik atas nama agama maupun tradisi.

Jadi, siapa bilang film tidak boleh berpolitik? Sembene, dengan sadar berpihak pada suara perempuan dan keadilan. Jadilah film ini kaya spirit, mengandung muatan humanisme yang kental. Toh, dengan gaya realisme yang berpihak, Moolaade, tetap merupakan film yang digarap secara serius dan baik. Secara alur dan cerita, film ini cukup enak dinikmati. Karakter-karakter yang ada semua punya peran yang mampu memberi motivasi dan jawaban. Sehingga semua adegan, tampak rapi, terkontrol, dan jelas tujuannya. Sementara fotografinya pun sangat indah. Seting desa Afrika, sangat berkarakter.

Tidak heran, Moolaade, telah memenangkan un certain regard atau penghargaan khusus di Cannes Fetival 2004 dan menjadi official selection di New York Film Festival 2004,Official Selection Toronto Film Festival 2004, Chicago film Festival 2004, Official selection Telluride Festival 2004 dan official selection di Mil Valley Film Festival 2004.

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A film review: VERA DRAKE
Abortion as an issue in film – Is there equal morality between classes?

Faiza Mardzoeki

Abortion is an issue, which is related to women’s decision. It’s about a problem between reality and moral issues in society. What is the women’s role in this issue? Is it true that women who perform abortions are immoral? And is it true that morality is universal for the poor, for the rich and for women and men?

Vera Drake, a housewife from working class is a portrait of woman who faced a choice between moral issue and reality in society. It is based on a true story in London, after World War II, 1950. Mike Leigh who is well known as a director who always stands for “marginal people” directs this film. Imelda Staunton acts as Vera Drake very well and she has received some awards. This film won as the best actress in Venice Film Festival 2004, the best Actress in Los Angles Critique Film Association and she received the best actress nomination in Golden Globe.

This story is about Vera Drake, a housewife who helped working class women and other women who needed help to get abortions and then she was arrested by the police and put into jail for 2 years and 6 months.

Vera Drake lived with two children, Syd and Ethel. Syd worked as a tailor’s assistant and Ethel worked at lamp factory as low worker. Her husband, Stan, loves and respects Vera very much. Stan worked as a mechanic assistant. They were a working class family in London. They lived in a very small flat on the 6th floor.

From a half an hour, we see how Vera does daily routine work happily. In the morning Vera goes to another house for cleaning work for money. And then rushes home cook for her family. Vera does house chores with happiness and She believes that work is a moral obligation. She is also a very helpful person. When she comes home from her work, she always comes and sees her mother who is very old and needs help. She always offers a cup of tea to other people when they look unhappy.

Vera Drake is an example of a typical woman, a housewife from working class people in London 1950. Every woman has to go out to work because of poverty. But Vera is special. She believes that with work, life can go on and bring her family some simple peace. She is very tough and she has the power of her femineity in her life.

The story flows into Vera doing “the secret work”. She helps working class women and other women who want to abort their pregnancy. She believes that she has to help those women. She does abortions with traditional way and very simple.

In other way, Lily Clark, Vera’s old friend who always helps organise Vera’s clients, takes money for those women for 2 pounds without Vera knowing.

This film is not verbally explained why those women do abortion and why they are pregnant. Almost all the scenes are describing visually that women are poor, not ready, or afraid. Because of these, Vera decides that she has to help. Even though she has to do abortions in the back street and with risk. During that time abortion was illegal and criminal.

I think, Mike Leigh does not want to make an issue of what and why that women do not want to get pregnant. That’s Vera attitude. Leigh is only focusing on women’s authority over their body. The message is: Women have rights to make decision on their body.

Furthermore, the setting of visual portrait of social structure is vivid. The women had to go out, rush for work as factory workers or cleaning services, such as Vera. The lived in a very small flat, poor and it was impossible to share with more than one baby. There was no contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

By contrast, a woman from a middle class family, Susan, found herself pregnant because of date rape. Her boyfriend raped her. Then she went to her aunt to ask her how to solve the unwilling pregnancy. Her aunt suggests Susan to go to a professional psychiatrist who is able to give a statement that a woman can be aborted. But she has to pay 100 pounds. This amount is impossible for working class women during that time.

This is obviously an example of double standard attitude in society that moral value and law is not equal. Morality is depending on who says it. A poor woman who performs abortion is criminal; it’s illegal with the jail sentence. But a woman who can afford a doctor and a psychiatrist can get an abortion safely and easily.

This situation is clear that oppression against woman is not only come from gender factor but economic factor is very determining.

Women who helped by Vera, and Vera herself are more vulnerable, because of poverty. Finally, Vera arrested by the police accused of crime, while the psychiatrist is safe. Until 1967, abortion in London is illegal.

Apart from economic factor and class in term of put women’s issue (abortion), this film is “ pro voices of woman”. This film put the women as a subject as decision maker on women’s body. (13 Feb 2005)

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Thursday, November 24, 2005

Pride and Prejudice sebuah film dari novel Jane Austen

Roman cinta “Cinderella kompleks” abad 19 yang tak lekang ditelan zaman

Faiza Mardzoeki

Novel karya-karya Jane Austen adalah karya klasik yang berulang kali diadaptasi ke dalam film dan mempunyai penggemar fanatik hingga sekarang. Salah satu karya yang paling sering diadaptasi adalah novelnya yang berjudul Pride and Prejudice. Kisah ini menukik persoalan “klasik” perempuan, yaitu masalah keuangan keluarga, perkawinan dan hak-hak perempuan. Untuk memberi warna segar cerita ini dibalut dengan kisah soal asmara.

Sekilas mengenal Jane Austen
Jane Austen adalah pengarang perempuan asal Inggris yang sampai sekarang nama dan karya-karyanya masih terus memasuki ruang-ruang baca, dan gedung-gedung biskop, film. Ia lahir di sebuah kota Inggris di Steventon, Hamsphire, Inggris pada 1775 dan meninggal tahun 1817. Jane lahir sebagai anak ke tujuh dari delapan bersaudara. Ayahnya, George Austen, seorang pendeta desa yang berpenghasilan cukup baik pada jamannya, yaitu sekitar 600 pound per tahun. Namun, meskipun berpenghasilan cukup baik pada jaman itu, dengan mempunyai anak sebanyak delapan, uang itu tidak mencukupi kebutuhan hidup keluarga Austen sebagai kelaurga kelas menengah. Ayahnyapun menjadi mencari uang tambahan dengan menjadi tutor murid-murid orang kaya.

Tahun-tahun di mana Jane Austen lahir dan tumbuh, masalah ekonomi (keuangan) dan perkawinan merupakan masalah yang cukup menonjol di masyarakat Inggris. Pada abad 18 dan 19 ini, borjouasi Inggris mulai bangkit. Ini adalah jaman “peralihan” dari jaman feodal ke jaman borjuasi. Pada jaman peralihan ini banyak hal terjadi di masyarakat. Struktur sosial pelan-pelan menggeliat, berubah. Salah satunya adalah perubahan yang berdampak pada persoalan-persoalan perempuan (kelas menengah).

Sebagian kaum borjuasi yang bekerja keras langsung memimpin usahanya, memulai memberikan kesempatan kepada anak-anak perempuannya untuk membaca buku, belajar musik atau melukis. Para perempuan mulai memasuki babak baru. Para perempuan mulai mengenal dunia ide dan dunia lain dari luar dirinya. Namun kesempatan perempuan ini baru sebatas diperbolehkan pada “dunia buku atau seni”. Persoalan-persoalan lain, seperti hak waris, kaum perempuan masih gigit jari. Hak waris hanya jatuh ke tangan laki-laki. Di samping itu kaum perempuan kelas menengah ini tidak diperbolehkan bekerja, kecuali membantu pekerjaan-pekerjaan rumah tangga atau “belajar dirumah”. Kelanjutan hidup perempuan haruslah dilanjutkan ke perkawinan dengan laki-laki yang mempunyai property agar hidupnya bisa berlangsung dengan baik dan terhormat.

Masalah-masalah perkawinan, keuangan dan ekonomi keluarga inilah yang banyak melatari cerita-cerita dalam novel yang ditulis Jane. Karya-karya Jane yang cukup terkenal antara lain Emma, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility dan Pride and Prjejudice. Karya-karya Jane nyaris semua sempat difilmkan. Akan tetapi yang paling popular dan paling sering difilmkan adalah novelnya yang berjudul Pride and Prejudice.

Pride and Prejudice-Kisah Cinta “Cinderella Kompleks” yang masih laku

Novel karya Jane berjudul Pride and Prejudice pertama kali diterbitkan pada tahun 1813. Novel ini memotret kehidupan masyarakat desa di Inggris dengan latar kehidupan seorang keluarga petani menengah pemilik peternakan dan juga kehidupan keluarga keturunan ningrat yang kaya raya. Novel yang aslinya ditulis pada tahun 1796-1797 berjudul First Impressions ini bercerita tentang lima perempuan bersaudara yaitu Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet - di Georgian Inggris. Kehidupan mereka mulai bergejolak saat hadir pemuda pemilik tanah luas yang sangat kaya, Mr. Bingley, dan sahabatnya, Mr. Darcy, seorang pemuda tampan, keturunan bangsawan dan kaya raya yang hadir di sebuah pesta di desanya.
Mr Bennet, ayah lima perempuan bersaudara itu adalah seorang ayah yang mulai maju, membebaskan anak-anak perempuannya memilih jodohnya. Sedangkan istrinya selalu kuatir dengan masa depan anak-anaknya yang semua perempuan dan selalu berharap “sang pangeran kaya” datang meminangnya.

Cerita bisa ditebak, kehadiran dua pemuda kaya raya itu telah mencuri gadis-gadis Bennet, terutama si Jane, anak sulung yang pemalu dan Elizabeth, anak nomor dua yang cerdas, pemberani dan pintar. Si Jane berhasil menaklukan si pemuda kaya raya, Bingly dan si Elizabeth sukses mencuri hati si bangsawan tampan nan kaya, Darcy.

Sebenarnya secara plot cerita, kisah ini sangat mudah ditebak. Tidak ada twist, kejutan yang berarti. Namun kekuatan cerita Pride and Prejudice adalah tepatnya dialog-dialog yang mampu menggambarkan suasana dan jaman. Kadang terkesan lucu dan menyenangkan. Jaman di mana masalah perkawinan menjadi impian para gadis dan memendam cita-cita bertemu “pangeran kaya dan tampan”. Masa di mana para perempuan tidak bisa tidak harus kawin karena dengan perkawinan itulah perempuan bisa melangsungkan kehidupannya dengan baik. Karena perempuan pada waktu itu tidak boleh bekerja, tidak pula berhak memiliki property atau warisan.

Cerita Pride and Prejudice, adalah kisah serius yang segar dan temanyapun sangat relevan dengan isu-isu sekarang. Masalah perempuan, perkawinan, kisah asmara, impian gadis merupakan masalah-masalah yang hidup hingga sekarang. Yang patut dicatat dalam karakter-karakter yang dibagun Jane adalah munculnya sosok perempuan yang rebelius dan pintar. Pada jamannya, seorang perempuan menolak dijodohkan, berani berdebat adalah hal yang cukup maju. Dalam Pride and Prejudice, karakter ini sangat pas di sosok Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth menolak dijodohkan dengan keponakannya oleh ibunya demi menyelamatkan warisan. Tetapi Elizabeth menolak, karena tidak cinta. Elizabeth justru mendapatkan lelaki yang lebih kaya raya dan tampan, Darcy, dengan cintanya yang menggelora!. “Perempuan mulai memilih jodohnya sendiri yang baik!“ Inilah impian para gadis, para perempuan: Mendapatkan suami yang mapan, kaya kalau perlu tampan juga. Dengan jodoh seperti lelaki model Darcy, hidupnya akan aman dan terhormat. Inilah protret “cinderlla kompleks” yang masih menghuni di sebagian para perempuan di masyarakat.

Namun, seandainya Jane Austen masih hidup sekarang, pastilah sosok Elizabeth akan dikembangkan dan maju. Elizabeth tidak saja sekedar gemar membaca, tetapi akan berkarir dan tidak terlalu membutuhkan Darcy! Atau barangkali masih perlu Darcy, tetapi tidak ada alasan keuangan, karena tidak mau bergantung. Darcy adalah cintanya. Titik. Mengingat Jane adalah seorang perempuan yang cukup pintar dan maju.

Pride and Prejudice dalam film

Novel ini pertama kali diadaptasi ke dalam media film pada tahun 1938 oleh Michael Barry untuk film televisi berdurasi 55 menit, masih hitam putih. Lalu pada tahun 1940 dibuat lagi ke dalam film oleh Robert Z. Leonard. Lalu berturut-turut pada tahun-tahun berikutnya dibuat kembali ke dalam film Televisi yaitu pada tahun 1952, 1958, 1967, 1980, 1995. Selanjutnya tahun 2003 diangkat ke layar lebar oleh Andrew Black. Sedangkan pada tahun 2004, dengan versi Bollywood musik dikerjakan oleh Gurinder Chada. Akhir tahun 2005 ini Pride and Prejudice kembali dibesut ke layar lebar oleh Joe Wrights.

Di film garapan sutradara juga yang pernah menyutradarai film Notting Hill ini unsur cinta dan “cinderella kompleks” masih kuat dan terkesan modern. Latar Inggris abad 19 yang indah, natural dan tata artistik berbau sejarah, masih mampu memukau penonton dengan dialog-dialognya yang segar dan cerdas. Meskipun seperti yang sudah diulas di atas bahwa film ini sangat gampang ditebak ceritanya, apalagi bagi pembaca novel-novel Jane Austen. Namun tema cerita ini masih sangat digemari. Sosok Darcy si pemuda kaya raya nan tampan dan karakter perempuan cantik Elizabeth Bennet yang pemberani, keras kepala namun sayang saudara-saudaranya, menjadi kekuatan tersendiri. Selain itu, film ini apabila masuk dalam bingkai kisah-kisah popular masa kini pun masih sangat relevan dan akan terasa “cewek banget”. Namun yang menjadi penyegaran tersendiri kisah-kisah Jane Austen ini adalah proaktivnya para subyek tokoh-tokoh perempuan ini. Inilah mengapa cerita Pride and Prejudice menjadi kisah yang tak lekang dimakan jaman. Film produksi Inggris yang dibintangi antara lain oleh Keira Knightly (Elizabeth Bennet) dan Mathew Macfadyen (Darcy) telah menjadi official selection di Toronto Film Festival 2005.

(Ashfield, Sydney, 8 November 2005, faiza_mardzoeki@bigpond.com)

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The Motorcycle Diaries
Sebuah Perjalanan menuju RevolusiOleh: Faiza Mardzoeki

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are comrade of mine”
(Ernesto “Che” Guevara)

Itulah kalimat Ernesto Guevara atau lebih dikenal dengan sebutan “Che” Guevara yang gemanya masih terasa hingga sekarang terutama dikalangan kaum muda yang menyebut diri “kaum muda revolusioner”. Che adalah ikon kaum muda, Che adalah symbol perlawanan kaum muda. Che adalah poster, topi, pin dan kaos yang masih bergelantungan di pojok-pojok trotoar Malioboro, Jogyakarta, venezuela, hingga Cuba.

Di penguhujung tahun 2004, sebuah film yang mengangkat bagian kisah hidup Ernesto Guevara ini bertengger di cinema alternativ DENDY, sebuah bioskop yang rajin memutar film-film non Hollywood. Terletak di suburb paling dekat pusat kota Sydney, Newton. Suburb ini dikenal sebagai kawasan “alternativ” tempat kalangan muda profesional, aktivis, seniman mupun para mahasiswa mangkal. Hampir 2 lebih bulan film ini diputar dan masih terus dikunjungi oleh “penggemar” Che. Film inipun telah mendapat pujian dimana-mana bahkan para kritikus dan pengamat film memberi bintang sebanyak 5!

Film dengan atmosfir fotografi sangat indah berjudul “ Diaros Motocicleta” atau The Motorcycle Diaries, karya sutradara Brazil, Walter Salles (dikenal dengan karyanya berjudul Central Station), mengangkat sepotong peristiwa kisah hidup Che ketika masih mahasiswa. Che pada saat itu adalah mahasiswa kedoketeran, berumur 23 tahun (diperankan sangat baik oleh Gael Gracia Bernal), seorang anak muda yang punya mimpi, naïve, senang berputualang, suka sepak bola, ganteng dan punya pacar dari kelas menengah kaya, cantik bernama Chinchia (diperankan oleh Mia Mestro).

Untuk merayakan ulang tahun sahabatnya yang ke 30, Alberto Granado, (diperankan oleh Rodigro de la Serna), bersama Che melakukan traveling panjang dengan menggunakan sepeda motor, Norton 500 cc. Mereka berangkat dari rumahnya pada tanggal 4 Janauri 1952. Tujuannya satu: Have Fun!

Namun perjalanan yang ditempuh tidak mudah. Semua berbalik. Perjalan itu merubah semua mimpi hidup Guevara Ernesto muda di kemudian hari. Apa yang dijumpai di jalanan bukanlah kesenangan, tetapi sebuah dunia muram, miskin dan sulit. Che yang muda nan naïve namun peka terhadap sekitar menjadi bertanya-tanya tentang dunia. Sementara sahabatnya, Alberto, yang kocak dan merupakan sahabat sejati selalu mengajak bercanda, memaki, dan mengeluarkan adegan-adegan kocak, meski dalam situasi sulit dan muram. Disinalah perjalanan petualanganya menjadi hidup dan mengharukan. Alberto yang diperankan oleh Rodigro ini juga bermain sangat gemilang. Karakternya begitu pas dilihat. Seluruh wataknya tercermin dari tingkah polahnya sepanjang perjalanan.

Dalam perjalanan sepeda motor tuanya mengeluarkan asap dan slang olinya bocor. Berkali-kali motornya jatuh melewati jalanan yang sulit. Mereka harus camping di tengah-tengah angin yang sangat kencang, salju yang dingin dan mereka harus memanjat gunung Andes dan menyeberang Chili.

Perjalanan dilanjutkan ke Peru. Ditengah-tengah perjalanan mereka berdua bertemu dengan dua orang laki dan perempuan yang kedinginan, kecapaian dan berjalan jauh melintasi desa-desa terjal. Mereka adalah dua orang miskin yang melakukan perjalanan panjang untuk mencari pekerjaan di luar desanya. Che dan Aberto beristirahat sejenak dan bercakap dengan dua orang itu. Che merasa ada yang berbeda dari hidupnya. Ia dan Alberto melakukan perjalanan untuk perlajalan itu sendiri. Travel for travel. Untuk kesenangan. Sementara ia dihadapkan dua orang yang kecapaian berjalan jauh demi untuk bertahan hidup.

Dari sini Che mulai dihadapkan pada realitas hidup yang lain. Sepanjang perjalanan Che dan Alberto bertemu dengan orang-orang miskin. Para pekerja tambang yang kehausan, petani tak bertanah. Penduduk yang tidak punya rumah di atas tanahnya sendiri.

Dijalanan, Che yang calon dokter itu sering menjumpai orang-orang miskin yang sakit dan tidak punya obat. Dengan pengetahuan seminimnya, ia berusaha menolong. Perjalanan sampai ke San Pablo. Di tengah perjalanan dengan menaiki kapal sedang, melintasi laut. Di tengah-tengah laut, ia menemukan sebuah perahu kecil berisi tumpukan manusia. Kapal kecil itu sarat dengan orang-orang miskin yang tidak mampu membeli tiket yang berfasilitas. Pikiran dan hatinya terus bekerja. Che muda dihadapkan pada kontradiksi-kontradiksi yang membuatnya berpikir tentang dunia, jauh dari jangkauan Che sebelumnya. Ia dengan rajin sepanjang perjalannya menulis apa yang dilihat di catatan hariannya. Tak lupa ia selalu menulis surat kepada ibundanya tercinta.

Di San Pablo ini, Che dan Alberto berhenti di perkampungan masyarakat yang terkena penyakit kusta. Dengan dokter dan para suster, Che dan Alberto tanpa sungkan berbaur denagn mereka. Membantu mengobati, memberi semangat, bermain sepak bola, berdansa dan bercanda. Che muda tanpa sungkan memeluk mereka. Dorongan kemanusiaan yang tinggi, kepekaan terhadap “perbedaan” yang telanjang ia lihat, membuat Che dengan mudah berbaur dengan mereka yang sakit ini.

Dari San Pablo, mereka terus menuju Venezuela. Albarto sahabatnya itu menghentikan petualangannya dan mulai bekerja di Venezuela. Dalam adegan ini terlihat bagaimana Che yang telah “menjadi manusia yang berbeda dari kemarin” . Alberto berkata “Jangan lupa kau bisa bekerja di sini nanti kalau kau sudah tamat dengan doktermu itu. Hei…kau akan meneruskan sampai selesai khan?”

“Entahlah saya tidak tahu. Saya tidak tahu. Begitu banyak ketidak adilan yang saya lihat. Saya tidak tahu. Yang saya tahu bahwa saya merasa, saya telah berbeda dari yang kemarin”. Begitulah Che menjawab

Adegan itu mengakhiri filmnya. Sang sahabat, Alberto menatapi pesawat yang membawa Che. Kamera beregrak ke Alberto tua yang masih hidup hingga sekarang sedang berdiri mengenang sahabatnya, Che Guevara yang telah memilih jalannya. Di kemudian haru jalan revolusi itulah yang dipilih Che.

Dalam sejarah yang tercatat, Ernesto Guevara kemudian melakukan perjalanan bergabung dengan para gerliyawan Cuba melawan rezim Batistuta hingga kemenangan revolusi Cuba. Setelah kemenangan Revolusi Cuba ini, Che pernah menjabat sebagai menteri keuangan.

Namun panggilan untuk terus berjuang dijalan gerilya terus menarik hatinya. Hingga ia berangkat lagi untuk bergerilya di Bolivia. Di Bolivia inilah Che ditemukan mati, dibunuh dengan bantuan CIA.

Film ini sangat kuat menggambarkan tema kemanusiaan. Melalui catatan seorang Che, kita diajak mengenali berbagai kontradiksi-kontradiksi di tengah masyarakat kita. Yang cukup mengasyikan dan mengharukan, adegan ditengah-tengah persoalan kemiskinan, penderitaan dan kesulitan hidup yang hendak disampaikan selama perjalanan Che dan Aleberto ini, si Walter sang sutradara dengan cerdas membuat gambar-gambar pengadeganan dan dialog yang cukup sederhana tapi kuat.

Banyak kelucuan dan dengan bahasanya yang jujur, halus dan tanpa jargon film ini mampu mengangkat jiwa kita yang kadang terbius dengan razzle dazzle Hollywood maupun gemerlap kata-kata megah penuh jargon dan tanpa pendalaman. Dengan kesederhanaan kata, keindahan gambar-gambar di film ini, rasa kemanusiaan kita diuji pendalamnnya. Ada pesan yang dalam bahwa “hidup itu bergerak dan berubah, bahkan kita diberi kesempat untuk merubah dunia itu”.

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