Kindergarten students wear traditional kebaya for the upcoming Kartini Day in Bandung, West Java on Friday. Students had annual traditions to celebrate Kartini Day as a symbol of women's emancipation in Indonesia.
As the nation celebrates the birth of national heroine Raden Ajeng Kartini today, her spirit and passion for female emancipation lives on in today’s generation of women.
The fruit of her thoughts and labor can be seen in five extraordinary Indonesian women who have shaped the news in the past year, dedicating their lives to the good of the nation.
These women’s achievements in their respective fields have not only redefined the role of women in today’s society but have also improved and touched the lives of many and served as an inspiration for future generations of women in the country.
Albertina Ho In the male-dominated world of the Indonesian judiciary, Judge Albertina Ho stands out not just for being a woman leading a panel of predominantly male counterparts but also for showing no compromise to those embezzling taxpayers’ money and those who break the rule of law.
Albertina was the presiding judge in the graft trial of former mid-level taxman Gayus Tambunan, who came under scrutiny after it was discovered that he had amassed an unusual fortune of at least Rp 28 billion ($3.05 million). She sentenced him to seven years in prison after a different panel of judges had acquitted him in an earlier trial.
She also presided over the case of disgraced prosecutor Cirus Sinaga, who helped Gayus escaped justice by leaking sensitive documents.
During her time presiding over Cirus’s case, Albertina was entrusted to lead a district court in Bangka-Belitung, forcing her to juggle the responsibilities of hearing cases in both the western province and Jakarta.
The 51-year-old has been on the bench since 1986, when she began her career at a district court in Yogyakarta. Before moving to Jakarta in 2005, she had spent most of her career at courts in Central Java.
Aleta BaunThe petite, fragile-featured woman has spent her life protecting her ancestral lands near Kupang in West Timor from destruction by big mining and forestry companies.
In activist circles, Aleta is known as the “Indonesian Avatar,” a reference to a fantasy sci-fi film about war waged between indigenous people and an army of outsiders intent on reaping the forest’s wealth. It’s a fanciful analogy that rings alarmingly true.
Since the mid-1990s, Aleta has led an effort to expel mining companies from East Nusa Tenggara. With her fellow activists, she has successfully driven away at least three marble interests from her land.
In a bold, clear voice, Aleta matter-of-factly recalls her years of seemingly impossible struggles against mining and timber companies.
She’s been called horrible names, beaten up and forced to hide for months in the forest with her three children after her house was attacked and threatened with arson.
In 2010, Aleta organized Ningkam Haumeni, an annual cultural gathering where three tribes were brought together to share their knowledge in search of solutions for their day-to-day problems. The tribes are now working to replant adaptive crops, seeds of which remain scarce, and develop traditional cloth-weaving as one way to make ends meet.
Anis HidayahFor migrant workers in trouble abroad, there is only one person whom they trust is always ready to lend a hand: Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah.
Her activism, which began in 1997 as a law student at Jember University in East Java, last year earned her an Alison Des Forges Award from New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Anis is no stranger to getting calls at all hours, including threatening ones and particularly nasty calls from men who think she is a prostitute.
And the intimidation is aimed not just at Anis, but also her husband, an expert in Shariah at Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UIN).
But these attempts have not swayed Anis in her fight for the rights of thousands of migrant workers who are vulnerable to exploitation and subject to human rights abuses, from the recruitment process right through to their return home from abroad.
Rieke Dyah PitalokaThe last few months have been a joyous time for the 38-year-old Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker.
In January, she gave birth to twins Misesa Adiansyah and Jalumanon Badrika, and a few months before that the House of Representatives passed legislation on social security she had been advocating for years.
The legislation unifies existing social security and pension funds as well as health and workers’ insurance schemes into a single entity and allows nearly all Indonesians to be covered in a social security scheme including those in the informal sectors.
This month she achieved another milestone when the House ratified the convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families, another bill she had fought to be on top of legislators’ agendas.
Rieke has been an activist most of her adult life, participating as a student in rallies that preceded the fall of former president Suharto in 1998.
She is an intellect who is both ambitious and passionate, especially when it comes to workers’ rights, making sure that their voices are heard.
Marie Elka PangestuThe former Trade Minister had to take a challenging new role when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reassigned her to lead the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.
Trained as an economist at the University of Indonesia, University of California at Davis and later the Australian National University, she is tasked with managing Indonesia’s arts, crafts, music and dance as well as Indonesia’s modern design, fashion and architecture.
But she soon used the new role to do what she does best: marketing. Quickly she revamped the tourism sector by outlining Indonesia’s poor infrastructure and devised plans to overcome it.
In the past few months, she has lured international film and documentary makers to visit the country, using Indonesia’s scenic landscape as both subject and background for their projects.
The fruit of her thoughts and labor can be seen in five extraordinary Indonesian women who have shaped the news in the past year, dedicating their lives to the good of the nation.
These women’s achievements in their respective fields have not only redefined the role of women in today’s society but have also improved and touched the lives of many and served as an inspiration for future generations of women in the country.
Albertina Ho In the male-dominated world of the Indonesian judiciary, Judge Albertina Ho stands out not just for being a woman leading a panel of predominantly male counterparts but also for showing no compromise to those embezzling taxpayers’ money and those who break the rule of law.
Albertina was the presiding judge in the graft trial of former mid-level taxman Gayus Tambunan, who came under scrutiny after it was discovered that he had amassed an unusual fortune of at least Rp 28 billion ($3.05 million). She sentenced him to seven years in prison after a different panel of judges had acquitted him in an earlier trial.
She also presided over the case of disgraced prosecutor Cirus Sinaga, who helped Gayus escaped justice by leaking sensitive documents.
During her time presiding over Cirus’s case, Albertina was entrusted to lead a district court in Bangka-Belitung, forcing her to juggle the responsibilities of hearing cases in both the western province and Jakarta.
The 51-year-old has been on the bench since 1986, when she began her career at a district court in Yogyakarta. Before moving to Jakarta in 2005, she had spent most of her career at courts in Central Java.
Aleta BaunThe petite, fragile-featured woman has spent her life protecting her ancestral lands near Kupang in West Timor from destruction by big mining and forestry companies.
In activist circles, Aleta is known as the “Indonesian Avatar,” a reference to a fantasy sci-fi film about war waged between indigenous people and an army of outsiders intent on reaping the forest’s wealth. It’s a fanciful analogy that rings alarmingly true.
Since the mid-1990s, Aleta has led an effort to expel mining companies from East Nusa Tenggara. With her fellow activists, she has successfully driven away at least three marble interests from her land.
In a bold, clear voice, Aleta matter-of-factly recalls her years of seemingly impossible struggles against mining and timber companies.
She’s been called horrible names, beaten up and forced to hide for months in the forest with her three children after her house was attacked and threatened with arson.
In 2010, Aleta organized Ningkam Haumeni, an annual cultural gathering where three tribes were brought together to share their knowledge in search of solutions for their day-to-day problems. The tribes are now working to replant adaptive crops, seeds of which remain scarce, and develop traditional cloth-weaving as one way to make ends meet.
Anis HidayahFor migrant workers in trouble abroad, there is only one person whom they trust is always ready to lend a hand: Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah.
Her activism, which began in 1997 as a law student at Jember University in East Java, last year earned her an Alison Des Forges Award from New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Anis is no stranger to getting calls at all hours, including threatening ones and particularly nasty calls from men who think she is a prostitute.
And the intimidation is aimed not just at Anis, but also her husband, an expert in Shariah at Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UIN).
But these attempts have not swayed Anis in her fight for the rights of thousands of migrant workers who are vulnerable to exploitation and subject to human rights abuses, from the recruitment process right through to their return home from abroad.
Rieke Dyah PitalokaThe last few months have been a joyous time for the 38-year-old Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker.
In January, she gave birth to twins Misesa Adiansyah and Jalumanon Badrika, and a few months before that the House of Representatives passed legislation on social security she had been advocating for years.
The legislation unifies existing social security and pension funds as well as health and workers’ insurance schemes into a single entity and allows nearly all Indonesians to be covered in a social security scheme including those in the informal sectors.
This month she achieved another milestone when the House ratified the convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families, another bill she had fought to be on top of legislators’ agendas.
Rieke has been an activist most of her adult life, participating as a student in rallies that preceded the fall of former president Suharto in 1998.
She is an intellect who is both ambitious and passionate, especially when it comes to workers’ rights, making sure that their voices are heard.
Marie Elka PangestuThe former Trade Minister had to take a challenging new role when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reassigned her to lead the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.
Trained as an economist at the University of Indonesia, University of California at Davis and later the Australian National University, she is tasked with managing Indonesia’s arts, crafts, music and dance as well as Indonesia’s modern design, fashion and architecture.
But she soon used the new role to do what she does best: marketing. Quickly she revamped the tourism sector by outlining Indonesia’s poor infrastructure and devised plans to overcome it.
In the past few months, she has lured international film and documentary makers to visit the country, using Indonesia’s scenic landscape as both subject and background for their projects.
