In a webinar conducted by Perempuan Mahardhika (28/05), Ita F. Nadia says that it is time for women to rise and redraw the direction of their fight because women are being shunned by the State when it comes to women history. Ita represents Ruas Indonesia – a space for women archive and history - that collects documents and archives about women’s movement that are taken out of eliminated from the history. "We try to relive memory about women’s movement and women leaders that history does not recognise. WE are conducting one advocacy or campaign to reject re-writing history or revision of history by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs," she says.
The action involves historians, activists, academics, and human rights figures, and focuses on ways to reject all forms of history re-writing. As historian, Ita wants to share about women’s perspective, feminist perspective. Ita talks about how to look at women history writing by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs from women’s perspective, how the Ministry eliminates it, and why it is eliminated?
Why Ita and colleagues reject re-writing of history by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs? Because it is done without public consultation, is not open and narrow timeframe of 7 months. It is impossible to write an extensive history of Indonesia starting from scratch – prehistory – modern day Indonesia in 7 months.
This re-writing is a means to legitimise the regime in power. Why? Because when one looks at the idea of re-writing the history, it is very specific, how four presidents - Soeharto, SBY, Jokowi, and Prabowo play significant roles in Indonesia.
Then this history is deemed official history or national history. History is not written to clarify political power, yet this re-writing may exactly do that – to clarify political power of the four presidents.
The structure involves book one to book ten, and the most crucial is book six. Books 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are very specific – to glorify the political power. The essence of history is that it belongs to the people. The historical truth must be truth that has undergone historical clarification, yet the re-writing misses this point. There is no historical clarification. There is no women citizens. No resources that represent the voices of victims and resources are secondary. If it involves secondary resources, why the need to re-write? There is nothing new, and the Minister of Cultural Affairs - Fadli Zon – claims that human rights violation will not be included in the official version.
This is interesting because he later mentions about serious human rights violation and increasing the voices of victims. “When I look specifically at books 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 yes, for example Maria Ulfah who has a significant role. Maria Ulfah is a centre figure who is not so radical, and yet she was only mentioned as Maria Ulfa as this and that.” Says Ita. But how has Maria Ulfah become part of the international women movement and international solidarity – both are missing in the history books, and then there is also Fransiska Fangidae. Figures like them disappear despite being in the golden age women’s movement of international solidarity movement.
Then, how was Indonesia becoming so influential internationally in 1943, 1945 up to 1965 and how all that is being erased in history? So this is the right time for women activists to look again at the State’s logic on women’s position. Why the rejection is critical? As women activists working on women movement, we see the idea of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs as the official version of history. That means it has an authoritative interpretation. This is crucial in shaping the country’s view point, identity, and the government has the legitimacy to represent the citizens. This is dangerous in terms of its legitimacy to define collective identity, as women, as State. Who gives the right and legitimacy to the government to shape our identity? How can they say that the history is written in this particular manner?
The third argumen for the rejection is that the government idea to re-write history is an illusion – in that it has the right to define life and identity. This is dangerous – the illusion that the State has the right to define identity. Then who are you? Then there is the legitimacy of the illusion which, according to them, should be the only interpretation, when it has no right to tell us who we are. The single interpretation only applies in totalitarian and authoritarian states. This point is important to remember for women’s movement. Single interpretation only works in authoritarian and totalitarian states and the history as conceived by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs is highly selective and manipulative. What are selective and manipulative? They define what should be written, what to use to consolidate the government position in order perpetuate the existing power that is manipulative in nature.
History should be from below, affirming the voices of women, of victims, of past serious human rights abuses/infringements.
The part that belongs to the authoritarian and totalitarian regime is the serious human rights abuses. It is crimes against humanity, and this type of history will only benefits those in power. Women’s political participation is written on the basis of fascist and militaristic ideology
This is dangerous because official history, national and militaristic history are the same in the context of authoritarian regime that glorifies militarism. Ita takes an example of a radical author or feminist that defies militarism - Cynthia Enloe in her book that says true nationalism originates from masculine memories and expectations. So militarism or nationalism is sourced from dreams built on masculine expectations and memories regarding militarism, referring to ideology that glorifies military power, military symbols, and use of violence as main instruments to solve conflicts in order to maintain power.
Is this still happening? It happened in Papua in 1965, in Aceh, and in East Timor when it was under Indonesia, in Poso in 1998. And how did the military use symbols and violence to subjugate those that resisted them. How to perpetuate power, what is the relationship between militarism and masculine hegemony – they are tightly intertwined. What is masculine and hegeminic will be internalised into people’s belief, citizen’s personal belief, particularly men.
In her book, Cynthia Enloe writes that a number of countries are reconstructed on the basis of masculine memories and expectations after independence. Women involved in the struggle for independence would then be integrated as the nation’s mothers. This looks great, but in fact it is a domestication and discrimination of women because it assigns women’s tasks in the domestic sphere, reproduction sphere of the nation, taking over the production of the people, to become what is expected to defend the family. It is all part of masculine hegemony and strengthened by militarism.
The current government is going in that direction, to turn women into a masculine state institution, including policies and activities on women that are often used as instruments where women promote militarism agenda, and join in marches wearing military uniforms. They become object of militarism, and their body and sexuality no longer belong to them. They become parts of the national identify as defined through amongst others the revision of military law, that would strengthen the version of national history being re-written. This is ideological basis to promote socio-cultural- political reform towards militarism and authoritarianism. This is a massive political change.
How is this hierarchical military reflects patriarchy with men as the ultimate power holder while women in subordinate position, as object to be protected? The wind is going in that direction, the militaristic drive is at war of hegemony to get control of the gender roles. Then the gender roles would shift and slowly it is under the control of those in hegemonic position.
"I touched on this in October when Prabowo was officially inaugurated as president and afterwards, he took so many ministers to Magelang. I was restless for a week. I waited for women activists to voice their opposition, only Vivi understood my restlessness. It was so strong because it was the beginning of fascist militarism and women are in the middle of this fascist politics in Indonesia," says Ita.
Then Ita wrote down her restlessness and sent it to Kompas, and the latter featured it on 22 November 2024 with the title “Perempuan Militeristik dan Poligatif.” The idea of re-writing history has not started, yet the restlessness is certain. Yes it is true, Kompas January announces the re-writing of Indonesian history by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Then Ita search for her old concept and she could not find it. Then a good friend, via Bonnie Triyana, obtains the concept and Ita and her colleagues discussed it with Amnesti International. There are historian and academic friends, there are Sulistyowati Irianto, Jaleswari, and Mardjuki Darusman. They sat together and discussed the concept and that led them to a revelation that it as the beginning of the implementation of a militaristic regime and that was strengthened by the military directive after the draft Law on Military.
Dispatchment of military battalions in so many points down to the district level is just one side of the coin. Ita says that the civilian population is not only constructed on the basis of social contract but also sexual contract by a patriarchal and masculine militaristic system – which means that our sexuality will be under our sexual contract, not just with regards to access to women’s body, but also women’s mind control and imagination, through historical construction that obliterates women’s roles. So control is not just about sexuality but also imagination, and women could not do this or that.
"We should be highly alert to this. As a women activist, I also represents women’s ability to resist injustices and stigma in order to open spaces for new history based on truth and justice," she says. Women have the ability to formulate that and it was assumed that they did not have that ability – hence the importance to open that space in order to become aware of the neglect of important women figures in national movement that have been obliterated in Indonesian history.
"In this space, we constructs timelines of women’s movement and the standout figures, women’s involvement in international solidarity and peace movement, in global democracy, femicide (murder of women activists – re. Gerwani in 1965). There is no mention about mass rape in May, no mention of violence against women in Aceh, Papua, East Timor, Poso and Women Congress. This is so painful," she adds. (Ast)
