Solo. Wiji Thukul, a prominent Indonesian poet, human rights activist and freedom fighter, has been missing since 1998, just weeks before Suharto and his totalitarian regime collapsed.

While many believe that he was kidnapped by the Suharto government because of his resistance against the abusive regime, the Indonesian public is still in the dark about his disappearance. The state has yet too officially proclaim his death, though his whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

In an attempt to help raise awareness about Wiji’s role in bringing down the totalitarian state and his fight for the nation’s freedom, as well as to help unveil the mystery surrounding his abduction, non-profit organization Muara Foundation has announced plans to produce a movie on the poet’s life.

Novelist and Muara Foundation chairwoman Okky Madasari, who met with Wiji’s children, Fitri Nganthi Wani and Fajar Merah last week, said the family fully supported the project.

“We approached [publisher] Gramedia about releasing a compilation of Wiji Thukul’s poems, called ‘Nyanyian Akar Rumput’ [‘Grass Root Songs’] last year. Now, we will bring his story to the big screen and hope that people can enjoy it at theaters across Indonesia next year,” Okky told the Jakarta Globe on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Literary Festival in Solo, Central Java, on Monday.

Okky, who is also ALF’s program director, underlined the importance of celebrating Wiji’s life and work as an example of courage and the fight for freedom in the face of an oppressive government, especially among Indonesia’s youth.

The poet was one of many victims of human rights atrocities committed by the Suharto regime. He was hunted down, tortured and, ultimately, he was most likely abducted by members of the military.

The movie aims to keep the memory of both Wiji and this repressive era of Indonesian history alive in its people’s minds, according to Okky.
She hopes the film will inspire the younger generation to defend and support freedom of speech.

“The nation owes him [Wiji], and this film is a way to sustain his spirit and legacy among us,” she said. “We will enlist the help of young movie makers as we want to spread Wiji’s spirit among the younger generation.”

The script — which was written by writer and journalist Is Mujiarso, better known Mumu Aloha — has been completed and shooting is scheduled to start in October or November.

The story will follow Wiji’s early life, his freedom-fighting efforts, up until the time of his disappearance during massive protests to topple Suharto from his throne in May 1998.

The project will be directed by Yogyakarta filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen, who was also responsible for “A Lady Caddy Who Never Saw a Hole in One.” The short film garnered a Sonje Award at the 2013 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and won the Ladrang Award at Solo’s Film Festival (SFF) last year.

His first feature-length movie, “Peculiar Vacation and Other Illnesses” (2012), was screened at several international film festivals, including in Toronto, Stockholm, Rotterdam and Busan.

Wiji’s family, including his wife Siti Dyah Sujirah, or Sipon, hopes the movie will help Indonesians, young and old, better understand the reasons behind her husband’s plight and his kidnapping.

It may even inspire others to step forward about loved ones who also went missing 17 years ago, she said.

“I expect the movie to tell the truth [about what happened to Wiji],” Sipon added.

Who is Wiji Thukul?

Wiji worked in several factories in Solo to make ends meet. He was an active member of the Jagat Theater as well as literary communities of the Central Java Cultural Center. He studied dance at Arts Vocational High School (SMKI), but dropped out.

He soon began writing poetry to provoke and encourage people to confront the Suharto dictatorship, then joined the Budiman Sudjatmiko-led People’s Democratic PARTY (PRD) in 1996 — a move that did not sit well with his wife.

“I did not agree [with his decision to join the PRD]. I told him that he could be pro-proletarian through poetry and the theater, instead of joining a political movement,” Sipon said.

It didn’t take long for the PRD to appear on Suharto’s radar and secure a spot on the dictator’s long list of enemies. Wiji began moving from city to city to avoid military arrest, Sipon recalled.

His family last heard from him in February 1998. The poet had contacted them to say he was in Jakarta to meet up with other activists.

Several witnesses have confirmed spotting him at student-led rallies protesting the government in the capital. But Wiji never came home and was never heard from again.

Budiman, fellow activist Andi Arief and even Sipon believe he is still alive.

“I hope Jokowi [President Joko Widodo] will reveal my husband’s whereabouts. He must have some clue [to where Wiji is],” Sipon said.

Pure poetry

Wiji’s poetic style was heavily influenced by Marxist criticism, combining realism with socialist genres.

In addition to daring poems defending the rights of blue-collar workers, Wiji also encouraged Indonesians to rise up and fight against totalitarianism, such as in his piece titled “Warning,” which ends with the stanza: “If ideas are rejected without a thought/Voices are silenced and criticism is dismissed without reason/Labelled subversive and a threat to security/There is only one word: Fight!”

The poem is among Joko’s favorites. During his term as mayor of Solo, the president would often invite human rights activist to his residence, the historical Lodji Gandrung, to honor those who went missing while fighting for democracy out.

Notable poems by Wiji are “Say Your Words,” in which he warned against the dangers of keeping silent (“If we enslave ourselves to fear, we will lengthen the line of slavery”) and “Flower and Wall” — this time a warning to an oppressive tyrant (“If you force silence, I will prepare for you: Rebellion”).

Many of his writings continue to appear throughout Jakarta as graffiti art.

Wiji’s inspiring work earned him an  award from the Wertheim Foundation in the Netherlands in 1991 and the Yap Thiam Hien Award from the Center for Human Rights Studies in 2002.

ALF goes to school

The Asean Literary Festival headed to Wiji’s hometown with its ALF Goes to Solo event, staging discussions with the literary community Pawon and visiting two of the cities largest universities to promote literature among students. The festival also travel to Yogyakarta and Sumatra.

“ALF will tour several cities, meet local literary communities and promote literature. Our mission is to instill a love of literature among young people,” Okky said.

The ALF program director addressed students of Muhammadiyah University (UMS) and Sebelas Maret University (UNS) to deconstruct Indonesia’s literary scene, which she said is currently dominated by books that disregard women’s rights.

The country’s selection of pro-feminist novels, she added, is very limited.

“Under the guise of morals, norms and religion, best-selling novels teach [women] to accept polygamy as a divine practice. Women are forced to be weak and do nothing. [In these novels], women are ruled over,” Okky said.

She added that Indonesian literature has long treated women as objects to be dominated.

Okky also singled out the popular Chick Literature (Chicklit) genre and its motto of “be single and happy” for portraying “powerless” women who are controlled by capitalism.

The post Still-Missing Activist’s Struggle to Reach Silver Screen appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Jakarta. Activists have filed a pretrial motion against Sukoharjo Police for the lack of progress in the allegations of child trafficking and sexual abuse against the king of Solo, Pakubuwono XIII.

“We have already sent a pretrial motion to Sukoharjo District Court and the first hearing will be held in a few weeks,” Tedjo Kristanto, a lawyer representing the Indonesian Children and Women Protection Institute (Elpapi), told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

Tedjo said the pretrial motion was filed because Sukoharjo Police in Central Java did not make any progress in the investigation.

The police have said that they did not have grounds to interrogate Pakubowono XIII, who has been accused of raping a 16-year-old girl and fathering her child.

Police claimed that testimony from all witnesses questioned, except for the victim, did not provide sufficient evidence that a rape had occurred.

Without additional testimony, the allegations did not meet the threshold needed to launch criminal proceedings, Sukoharjo Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Andy Rifai said.

Tedjo said Elpapi feared the police would likely drop the case and a pretrial motion was needed to ensure the law was enforced.

The case was unveiled when a 10th-grade vocational high school student filed a report to the police that she had been trafficked and raped. The girl also reported the case to Elpapi and sought assistance from the group in July last year.

The girl said a woman with the initials W.T. offered to give her a job working for the king but instead “sold” her for Rp 2 million ($155).

W.T is currently being detained and has been named a suspect. However, Tedjo said, according to child protection law in an illegal prostitution, both trafficker and buyer must be charged.

Andi has denied Sukoharjo Police would drop the charges. He said the investigation was ongoing.

“The case is under investigation, it is not closed,” he said.

The post Pretrial Motion Filed Against Police Over Solo King Rape Case appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Women’s rights activist Dewi Candraningrum, third from left, used art to help convey messages of abuse, violence and discrimination against women. (JG Photo/Ari Susanto)

Yogyakarta. Prominent feminist and artist Dewi Candraningrum exhibited her visual artworks “Dokumen Rahim,” or “Documents of a Womb,” in Yogyakarta’s Sangkring Art Project earlier this March. Through acrylic painting and charcoal drawing, she captures portraits of neglected women — the victims of violence, rape, and an unjust authoritarian regime.

Dewi serves as a lecturer at the Surakarta Muhammadiyah University in Solo, Central Java, and is the editor of the Indonesian Women’s Journal.

Most of the 128 sketches displayed in the exhibit were inspired by her own experience in advocating for women rights, and draw from the pain and sorrow of survivors she encountered.

“Dokumen Rahim” is a series of images resembling documents that contain Dewi’s notes on woman rights abuse cases in Indonesia and abroad, from physical abuse and rape to genital mutilation.

Dewi said she chose the thought provoking title because a woman’s womb is a symbol of her purity, from which all human life begins.

Rahim also means merciful in Arabic, reflecting the strategy she chose to take in criticizing violence against women — through peaceful measures, rather than violence. Dewi says she believes the important task of speaking out for victims must be carried out with compassion rather than pugnacious confrontation.

One of her portraits depicts mothers from Mount Kendeng in northern Central Java who camped in front of a cement plant to peacefully protest its construction for ecological reasons.

The painting also reflects Dewi’s passion for defending the rights of Indonesia’s indigenous community in wanting to preserve the environment.

” ‘Dokumen Rahim’ sends the message that we must fight for women’s rights with love and compassion,” Dewi said at the exhibition’s launch last week.

A series of portraits in the exhibit depicts the forgotten ianfu, so-called “comfort women” held captive and raped by Japan’s soldiers during the former empire’s occupation of the Indonesian archipelago.

She also reminded visitors of the Indonesian Women’s Movement (Gerwani) from the 1960s — an organization associated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) — through black and white sketches of four former Gerwani members, titled “Plight of Gerwani.”

In the dawn of former dictator Suharto’s New Order regime, women believed to have ties to Gerwani were jailed without trial, raped and tortured.

Those who survived were discriminated against by a government driven by its hate of Godless communism. Those identified as former members were stripped of the right to vote in regional and presidential elections, and forbidden from joining the military or civil service. Each job they applied for required them to also submit a police report on their “criminal” past.

In “After the Rape,” Dewi paints the anguished faces of rape victims of the 1998 May riots in rich colors.

She explained that pain can also be expressed through vivid hues to reflect its depth. The stark contrast implies a strong impression of hope behind the sorrow, Dewi added. With “After the Rape,” Dewi underlines the crippling impact of rape on a woman’s self esteem that lingers long after the physical scars heal.

“Rape victims are precious; they are not shameful in any way,” she says. “Thus, sadness sometimes needs to be illustrated with bright, colorful images.”

Dewi is an outspoken activist for rape victims of the ’98 riots in Jakarta, Solo and Medan, most of whom were of ethnic Chinese decent.

With the help of the National Commission on Violence against Woman (Komnas Perempuan), Dewi continues to campaign for government-led efforts to investigate the mass atrocities.

“Though it occurred 17 years ago, the victims and their families need acknowledgement from the government, not denial,” she said.

Charcoal sketches titled “Daughters from Zambia” portray the young women she met during her mission to the African country last year to raise awareness about child exploitation — trafficking, sexual abuse and early marriage — in developing countries.

A combination of poverty, little to no access to education, the spread of HIV and AIDS, child trafficking and the ritual of female genital mutilation, or FGM, pose a serious threat to the women of Zambia — as well as Indonesia.

At least 27 countries in Asia and Africa still practice FGM, putting at risk 125 million girls of life-long physical pain,infection and even death.

“Every girl in Zambia undergoes FGM and the death rate if very high in Africa,” Dewi said.

In “Ecological Body,” the activist uses flowing lines to capture the female body. She underlined that each individual has the authoritative right to define their own body, desires and sexual orientation.

“Dokumen Rahim” does not focus solely on women; Dewi used her artistic skills to also pay respects to fathers in “Lelaki Rahim,” (translatable variously as “Man of the Womb” or “Male Womb.”)

Prominent visual art and literature curator Kris Budiman refers to Dewi’s work as “talking pictures,” calling her one of Indonesia’s “exceptional” rising artists.

He praised Dewi for her versatility, marveling at her ability to portray melancholy in vibrant colors, while also producing striking black and white sketches.

“This exhibition shows the other side of Dewi, who is widely known as an activist, researcher, and writer on feminism issues,” Kris said. “She stimulates emotions with her images using unconventional [artistic] techniques that are just as good as her writing,” he added.

Komnas Perempuan chairwoman Yuniyanti Chuzaifah called Dewi one of the few feminist artists who tirelessly dedicates her time and energy to representing the rights of marginalized women.

Dewi, a single parent, began painting two years ago after finding inspiration in her 15-year-old son, Ifan Ufuq Isfahan, who suffers from autism spectrum disorder and is himself a very talented artist. Their first joint exhibition took place in Solo’s Balai Sudjatmoko in 2014.

What started as a hobby became a medium for Dewi’s passionate cause. For the activist, arts is another language with which to express her thoughts and ideas on women’s rights.

The post Portrait Exhibit Examines Violence, Injustice Against Women appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Semarang, Central Java. Rain pours down in Gintungan hamlet, in rural Semarang, Central Java, one afternoon. The local community leader, Suwarno, checks the surrounding yards and appears satisfied; there hasn’t been any flooding around his house since he installed two infiltration ponds in his front yard.

The ponds, essentially two basins of 8,000 liters in volume each, are lined at the bottom in concrete and buried in the ground. They are designed to absorb rainwater from the soil and leach it out underground to replenish the groundwater reserves.

Many of the villagers were initially skeptical about the idea of digging such ponds in their land without any compensation. But after witnessing how Suwarno’s ponds helped keep the area around his house relatively flood-free, they changed their minds and began installing their own basins.

“All residents have recently allotted a space in their yard for pond construction, because they’ve been convinced it will recharge the groundwater [that will keep supplying] their wells during drought, while preventing floods during the rainy season,” Suwarno says.

More than 20 years ago, the village was blessed with abundant groundwater. Villagers could easily reach into their wells with a dipper and scoop out water. Today, they have to go much deeper: the water table has dropped to 11 meters below the ground.

Located on the lower slopes of Mount Merbabu, Gintungan hamlet is part of the rain catchment area for the Senjoyo spring, which supplies clean water for residents of Semarang and the neighboring town of Salatiga, as well as two tapwater companies owned by the municipal administrations.

The spring, situated at 615 meters above sea level, is recharged by four villages in Semarang — Butuh (where Gintungan hamlet is located), Patemon, Karangduren and Bener – and the two Salatiga villages of Noborejo and Randuacir.

The flow of water from Senjoyo, however, has slowed significantly in the past two decades. It had a discharge rate of 1,334 liters per second in 2000, before dwindling to 838 liters per second in 2008. The flow rate shrinks by a further 40 percent during the dry season.

Villagers have now dug infiltration ponds extensively in catchment lands in the upstream areas, which host a growing number of homes and farms. This is being done to replenish the groundwater aquifers that supply the spring, in order to restore Senjoyo’s once-abundant flow.

Each pond is expected to fill up with rainwater a hundred times a year, contributing 800,000 liters each to the groundwater reserves.

“I’ve agreed to make my yard available for an infiltration pond because it has some benefits for the environment, mostly saving water and curbing floods,” says Hardi, a resident of Butuh village.

He says he has not seen any rise in the water level in his own well, but attests to the fact that the pond has helped reduce the excessive rainwater runoff around his house during heavy rains, by quickly absorbing the water.

Rain harvesting

The construction of these ponds is jointly funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation Indonesia and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under the latter’s five-year program Indonesia Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Iuwash) program. The agencies have  partnered with a local farmers’ group in Salatiga, the Qoryah Thoyyibah Farmer Association Union (SPPQT), to work on the project.

So far the project has seen the digging of 920 infiltration ponds – 732 of them in Semarang and the rest in Salatiga. In all, the basins are expected to catch at least 600 million liters of rainwater per year and transfer it into the groundwater reserves.

The project is aimed at conserving groundwater through the simple technology of rain harvesting. Besides restoring the flow rate of the Senjoyo, the ponds in Semarang and Salatiga are also expected to revive the smaller Ngablak spring on Mount Ungaran.

A similar project commissioned by USAID’s Environmental Service Program in West Java, in which 51 ponds were dug in cooperation with a local community, successfully more than doubled the discharge of the Cikareo River from 48 liters per second to 110.

“Not only it is easy to build, but an infiltration pond is also effective to increase groundwater reserves as well as to reduce flooding,” says Iuwash’s chief of party, Louis O’Brien.

The pond is designed to resemble a cubical tank to capture rainwater that would otherwise naturally flow into a river and then out to sea. It captures excess water that the ground is unable to naturally absorb. The tank is designed to let the rainwater permeate the ground and fill the aquifers, which is especially useful during the dry season to fill wells and maintain the spring volume.

This method of rain harvesting is also aimed at boosting groundwater supplies for the local tapwater companies, or PDAM, in Salatiga and Semarang, from which thousands of families in the cities’ urban areas get their drinking water.

The Salatiga PDAM currently pumps out 350 liters per second of clean water to some 27,000 families, or 78 percent of the town’s population. It currently draws around 150 liters per second of raw water from the Senjoyo.

The Semarang PDAM, meanwhile, takes  30 liters per second from the Senjoyo. The flow rate from the Ngablak, currently at 10.4 liters per second, is inadequate to supply the PDAM, which distributes piped water to 29,000 families, around 20 percent of the district’s population.

Each infiltration pond costs Rp 2.4 million ($184) to build and install. In Semarang, the cost for installing some of the ponds is borne by local authorities as well as earmarked in a Rp 1.4 billion fund to be disbursed to each village across Indonesia under a national village development scheme, which will also pay for future ponds.

“We have 286 infiltration ponds built by CCFI-USAID, but our target is to have 600 to 700 because our village is always in shortage of water during drought,” says Budiono, a Patemon village official.

Even as it experiences severe water shortages during the dry season, Patemon also sees frequent floods during the rainy season.

“We expect the infiltration ponds built across the village to be an effective solution for our water problem during the dry season, by lifting the water level in our wells,” says Joko Waluyo, a Patemon resident who has two infiltration basins in his yard.

Farming communities have shown the most interest in the project, given that ensuring an adequate supply of water is a crucial element of agriculture. The Senjoyo spring alone supports around 60 farmers’ collectives.

“We hope the ponds will raise water stocks for farming activities along the riverbank,” says Mujab, the coordinator of the local farmer group SPPQT.

Other projects

Since 2011, CCFI has also worked on replenishing groundwater supplies in Mojokerto, East Java, as well as Sibolangit and Pematang Siantar in North Sumatra. With the Semarang and Salatiga projects, as well as an ongoing project in Malang, East Java, the latter of which targets the construction of 800 ponds, the foundation is building a total of 3,300 infiltration basins in six Indonesian municipalities and districts.

“Groundwater conservation is a part of our global sustainability platform to deal with water issues,” says CCFI chairwoman Titi Sadarini. “We’ve set aside $1 million for the infiltration pond project in Indonesia.”

CCFI’s global program of Water Replenish Initiative is the part of the company’s work to become a “water neutral” business by 2020. That means that by that date, it will be returning water to nature, and to the communities living around its bottling plants, at the same rate that it draws water for its beverages.

The post Rain Catchers Revive a Wellspring of Life in Semarang appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Yogyakarta/Solo. The national commission for women’s protection has called on the government to acknowledge as a national tragedy the mass rape of ethnic Chinese women during the May 1998 riots that preceded the downfall of the late strongman Suharto.

“The victims and families just need the government’s affirmation that rape and violence against women on a massive scale occurred 17 years ago, and that most of the victims never got justice,” Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, the chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, told the Jakarta Globe in Yogyakarta over the weekend.

“Let the people today know and recognize it. Never conceal or forget, as we need to learn from the past.”

Yuniyanti said she supported Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s plan to build a memorial in the Pondok Rangon cemetery, as well as a move by Mayor F.X. Hadi Rudyatmo of Solo, Central Java, to conserve Purwoloyo cemetery. Both sites are the final resting places of victims of the outbreak of violence that tore mainly through Jakarta, Solo and Medan, North Sumatra, in early and mid-May 1998 and that targeted primarily Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese community.

The rights commissioner said she was worried that this dark chapter in the country’s part would eventually be glossed over as part of the price that had to be paid to force Suharto from power, and not as a series of serious human rights violations that warranted its own investigation.

A fact-finding team set up by the government later recorded at least 85 instances of sexual violence targeting ethnic Chinese women during the episode, although independent observers have put the true figure at closer to 500.

The mobs responsible also looted and torched ethnic-Chinese-owned businesses and homes.

Thousands of Chinese-Indonesians fled the country in the wake of the violence, and while many returned, it was to a life that was markedly subdued than before.

Sumartono Hadinoto, a prominent Solo resident and community organizer whose businesses were targeted in the rioting, said that he and other families preferred to forget the tragedy, but acknowledged the need to recognize what happened.

“I and most of the other victims wish we could erase our memory of the tragedy. Remembering the rape and violence will mire the families in misery and despair, and won’t give them back their previous lives,” he said.

The post Women’s Rights Chief: Never Forget May ’98 appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.

Yogyakarta. Islamic radical groups in Yogyakarta attempted to storm a screening of Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary film “Senyap” (“The Look of Silence”) at
Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN) on Wednesday.

The film, which tells the story of Indonesia’s 1965-66 anti-communist purge from the perspective of a family member of one of the victims of the state-sponsored killings, has caused concern in some corners that the film promotes communism — which it does not.

A mob of about a hundred of people calling themselves the Yogyakarta Islamic People’s Forum (FUI) and the Indonesian Anti-Communist Forum (FAKI) appeared in front of the campus after warning of their plans by SMS the previous day. However, the protesters were unable to enter the campus; security guards shut the gate at 9 a.m., an hour before the screening was to begin.

The film screening and discussion went on successfully, with students who were prepared to fight the mob blocking the campus gate to prevent a breach.

The mob outside insisted the rector disband the event, saying they believe the film aims to revive communism in Indonesia — which it does not — and revise history as they understand it — which in fact the film does, and admirably so, critics say.

Despite the screening’s support from Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the radical group argued, incorrectly, that “Senyap” was forbidden from public screening by the Film Censorship Board (LSF).

“We reject any film with communist propaganda,” FAKI coordinator Burhanuddin said. “It must be terminated.”

The university’s rector, Ahmad Minhaji attempted shuttle diplomacy between the mobs of protesters and students, and endeavored to persuade the organizers to resume the discussion without screening the film.

They did not — and pressed “play” instead.

Minhaji then met with protesters outside, whom he told that those inside were young students who only wanted to learn about and discuss history — and that the mob should not overreact with such fury.

The event’s coordinator, Ahmad Haidar, said “Senyap” screenings would continue despite threats of vigilante raids by hard-line groups.

“We are ready for the risk,” Haidar said. “We will not concede as it is our right to fight for our academic freedom,” he added.

The post Muslim Hard-Liners Fail to Halt ‘Senyap’ Screening in Yogya appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.