KARTINI: What is with kebaya and cooking competition?
For
many Indonesian women who grew up during the regime of Second Indonesian President,
Suharto, being a girl on Kartini Day means “kebaya-an”
(wearing a traditional Javanese blouse dress) or dressing up in traditional
costume, while some older women participated in cooking, flower arrangement, and
make up competition. This celebration was meant to commemorate Kartini’s effort
on women empowerment during Dutch colonial day. From the Old Order regime (Sukarno
era) up until now, Kartini is hailed as a national symbol and pioneer of women
emancipation in Indonesia.
Being
born 137 years ago on April 21 1879, Kartini was part of a Javanese aristocrat and
the 5th daughter of 11 of Raden Mas Adipati Ario Sosroningrat, while
her mother was her father’s secondary wife. Her father was the Regent of Jepara
and one of 80 such native regents who held office through the Dutch colonial system,
thus her family was considered to have a high social status among the natives.
She got a chance to attend ELS (Europese Lagere School), where she became a
passionate reader and fluent in Dutch, a rare accomplishment for Javanese women
at her time. However, due to Javanese nobility tradition called Pingit or seclusion until the age of 12
before went to marriage, she has to be confined in her home.
From
that point, Kartini spent her time reading a lot of newspapers, magazines,
novels, and textbooks. She also corresponded with her schoolmates and Dutch
officials, but perhaps the most influential person she interacted with was Rosa
Abendanon-Mandri, the Spanish wife of J.H. Abendanon. Later, Kartini married a
Regent of Rembang, Raden Adipati Djoyo Adiningrat and became his fourth wives
(it is usual to have polygamous marriage in Javanese culture back in colonial
era) through an arranged marriage by her parents. Unfortunately, she passed
away the next year after delivering a baby boy in 1904. Five years after
Kartini passed away, Abendanon collected all of Kartini’s letters and published
it into a book, Door Duisternis Tot Licht
means “From Darkness to Light”.[1]
During
President Sukarno era in 1964, Kartini was declared as a national heroine,
Kartini Day was established as a national holiday and is held on the
anniversary of her birth, April 21. This is to commemorate her dedication on
improving the conditions of Indonesian women who have low social status,
through education. Other than that, she also challenged the idea and concept of
education system and mainstream religion in her era, an unusual accomplishment
for women in colonial days.
When
President Suharto reigned in 1965 until 1998, the image of Kartini as pioneer
of women emancipation figure has shifted and narrowed to a dutiful wife and
domesticated women. She became a perfect example of mother role. All over
Indonesia, women wear their national dress, nation enjoys lectures, school
activities, parades, and competition to win a shiny trophy. Women replicated
Kartini’s attire (kebaya) but in reality wearing an invented and more
constricting ensemble than she ever did.[2] While this practice provides
settings which students can be exposed to Indonesian history and its rich
cultural diversity, also to promote the unity of different ethnicities of
Indonesia, it also demoted Kartini’s role by de-emphasize the essential of
Kartini’s legacy to support the rights of Indonesian women on achieving progress
through education.
To
understand how the New Order regime picturized the role of women, one can
reflect to Suryakusuma on her book “State
of Ibuism: The Social Construction of Womanhood in the Indonesian New Order”,
the first gender analysis of the Indonesia New Order era (Ibu refers to mother, Ibuism:
motherhood). She argued that women’s gender role was heavily defined and
arranged through state-engineered program. Women were seen as supporters of
their husbands, through participation on organizations for the wives of civil
servants’ like Family Welfare Movement (PKK) and Dharma Wanita.[3] The New Order regime seems
to construct feminism and fill the normative role for women in Indonesia on
purpose. In addition, due to the alignment with religious scripture
interpretation, this method gained massive supports, hasting Suharto’s method
on constraining the role of women, hence limiting the possible future activism
of women in Indonesia. Further, the New Order arrogated Kartini’s work and
identity by celebrating Kartini Day with women and schoolgirls wearing
traditional costume, followed by cooking, make-up, and fashion show
competitions to generate subtle messages the best way to appreciate Kartini is
by being feminine and conformable women.
On
another article “Is State Ibuism Still Relevant?”, Suryakusuma explained how
authoritarian government prioritized economic development and national
stability. Politics was therefore seen as a risk to national stability, which
the regime saw as a prerequisite for that development. Making up half of the
population, women – including poor women – were depoliticized and mobilized to
support the New Order’s developmentalist goals through a series of highly interventionist
state institutions.[4]
By
practicing Kartini Day in such manner, what part of history did it exclude? Celebrating
Kartini Day should rather be also about remembering her ideas and what she
fought for. To understand Kartini is to look into complexity of Islam,
nation-building and Western Value (Yulius 2016) . As Yulius on
“Kartini: Between Islam, Nation-Building and Feminism” explained:
“…her interest in Western knowledge
coincided with her love and respect for her family and nation. Consequently,
although she was fascinated with the advancement of women’s rights in the West,
she could not entirely detach herself from either Javanese culture or Islamic
values. Some resources even indicated that she was a disciple of famous Islamic
scholar K. Saleh Darat as-Samarani (1820-1903)…” [5]
Kartini’s fondness of Western
culture is coexisted with her respect for her own culture and background. She
went against herself on her view about polygamous marriage that she strongly
opposed, when she decided to accept her father requests of arranged marriage
with Regent of Rembang who already had 3 wives and 25 years older than she was.
In addition, a year prior to her marriage, she obtained a scholarship to study
in Holland, but decided to reject it as her family press her to get married
instead. On Kartini’s letter to Estella Zeehandelaar, she wrote:
“Nothing can be done about it, one
fine day it will happen, must happen, that I will follow along behind an
unknown husband. Love is a fairytale in our Javanese world. How can husband and
wife love each other if they only see each other for the first time when they
are already well and truly bound in marriage?” [6]
She still followed the Javanese
gender ideal of being mother, supporting husbands in the way of preparing the
next generation. But rather than lose herself in further marriage question, in
1903 she asked her husband’s permission to open the first-ever all-girls school
for daughters of Javanese officials. The school aimed for character development
of young women, while also provide vocational training and general education in
art, literature, and science.[7] By the time she passed
away, the school had 120 students.
Other things to remark are the
downsides of the single practice of Kartini Day to celebrate women movements in
Indonesia. As Mr. Masuda explained in his lecture on week 8, the study of
particular movement sometimes does not put attention to ordinary population.
Powerful feminists from Indonesia such as Cut Nyak Dien, Cut Meutia, Martha
Christina, and other Indonesian female heroines who fought colonialism in
battlefield, might not be suitable for the New Order regime that defends
patriarchal hegemony. Sukarno choice of Kartini, further strongly supported and
applied in the New Order era, also describe ethnicity dominance of Javanese,
reducing local histories of women movements from other parts of Indonesia by
just one single event celebration throughout the country. It only explores the
specific narratives through Kartini’s lenses, prevent us from seeing the
progress of women movements in Indonesia in much broader contexts.
Nevertheless, in Indonesia male
dominated society, Kartini’s legacy still remain strong. Nowadays, she is still
recognized as national symbol of women struggles to free themselves from the
shackles of ignorance, feudalism, and patriarchal construction in society. With
her minds, she opened horizons for Indonesian women that change is possible
within society. Her establishment of school for girls, her writings and also
her life, shows possibilities and limitations of gender equality in Indonesia.
[2]Ramusack, Barbara N. 2005. "Women and Gender in
South and Southeast Asia." In Women's History in Global Perspective,
by Bonnie G. Smith, 101-138. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
[3] Suryakusuma, Julia I. 2011. State Ibuism: The
Social Construction of Womanhood in the Indonesian New Order. Depok:
Komunitas Bambu.
[4]Suryakusuma, Julia I. 2012. Is State Ibuism Still
Relevant? July 1. Accessed October 17, 2016.
http://www.insideindonesia.org.
[5] Yulius, Hendri. 2016. Kartini: Between Islam,
Nation-Building and Feminism. April 21. Accessed October 17, 2016.
http://www.thejakartapost.com.
[6] Kartini. 2005. On
Feminism and Nationalism: Kartini's Letters to Stella Zeehandelaar, 1899-1903.
Edited by Joost Coté. Translated by Joost Coté. Clayton: Monash Asia Institute.
[7] Hurights Osaka. 2009. Raden Ajeng Kartini:
Indonesia's Feminist Educator. June. Accessed October 17, 2016.
http://www.hurights.or.jp.
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