Jakarta, 19 July 2009.

My answer is very simple: because they don't have domestic staff there! People usually laugh, not because they think it's funny but because they realize the depth of the truth in my reply. Having pembantu rumah tangga (PRT), literally, household helpers, can make all the difference for the ease and comfort of our (middle and upper class) lives.

It certainly does for me. Most middle-class families have PRTs, but few are as fortunate as me with my band of three: Yayah, my talented cook; Ani, who does the washing and can fix almost anything; and Bagus, my driver, computer assistant and right-hand-man.

The truth is that, like me, Indonesia could not get by without its PRTs. The National Bureau of Statistics (BPS), for example, estimates that in 2008 there were three million domestic workers in this country, and six million abroad, and as far back as 1995 the UNPD Human Rights Development Report calculated that PRTs contribute 30 percent to the productive sector, that is, to income generation. We feminists have known that for ages, and I'll bet that the figure is likely a lot higher.

Despite this, stories abound of PRTs enduring appalling work conditions, long working hours (basically on call anytime!), grossly inadequate pay, and verbal, physical and even sexual abuse. Sadly, the fact that many families are entirely dependant on the work their helpers provide does not mean they treat them in a decent, humane way. As Bernard Shaw said in "Man and Superman: Maxims for Revolutionists", "when domestic servants are treated as humans, it's not worthwhile keeping them".

Shaw, an ardent socialist, was being sarcastic of course, but this is the attitude of many employers. The media reports the most atrocious treatment of domestic servants - beaten, having hot water thrown at them, branded by hot irons, kept as virtual prisoners, and treated like slaves. Unfortunately, most get away with it as there is no law that protects PRTs. Already disadvantaged by the fact they invariably come from a remote village, are poor and uneducated, and are often unskilled at running a 'modern' household, the isolated nature of PRT work, hidden in private homes, has made them legally 'invisible'.

Of course, not all employers are bad and not all PRTs are good. Some are lazy, stubborn, rude, dishonest, or don't work properly, are difficult to teach, cheat or engage in criminal activities like stealing. But whatever way you cut it, there's clearly an urgent need for better regulation of the relationship between the two parties, like employers and employees in a formal work situation. Sadly, until now nothing has been done.

I say 'until now', because draft legislation to protect domestic workers is finally coming. The draft law calls them PRT, but the "P" no longer stands for 'pembantu' (helpers') but for 'pekerja' (workers), recognizing that the work they do is valuable, and not to be looked down on just because it's in the private sphere.

One of the organizations pushing since the early 1990s to improve the lot of PRTs is Rumpun Tjoet Nyak Dhien (RTND), a women's NGO based in Yogyakarta and named after a famous Acehnese heroine who fought the colonizing Dutch. They invited me to share my (sociological) thoughts on domestic workers when they first started, and I remember giving a talk on a pandan mat on the floor in a small house in a very low-rent part of town.

Almost twenty years later, RTND have come a long way. In May 2001 they became a formal association, and in 2003 initiated training programs for PRTs and underprivileged women along with other women's NGOs. Now RTND also engages in advocacy and lobbying with major organizations like the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), the Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy (The 'Barongsai' Syndrome
A few days before Imlek - what we call Chinese New Year in Indonesia - I decided to check out the scene in Glodok, the shopping district in Jakarta's Old Town that is the biggest Chinatown in Indonesia. 

In fact, with an amazing 500,000 square meters of shopping space, it's apparently one of the biggest in the world!



I imagined Glodok would be abuzz with activity at this time of year, full of people and shops selling various needs related to Imlek (which actually just means "lunar calendar": Xin Nian is the Mandarin name for New Year). 

Glodok is famous for electronics and hardware, but I targeted shops that sold Chinese paraphernalia as I had a somewhat more eccentric shopping list: a retractable (plastic!) tai chi sword (no home should be without one), a Chinese exercise board, some three-legged toads for feng shui purposes (of course, and some dodol Cina - the Chinese toffee-like "cake" made from glutinous rice flour and caramel sugar that is traditional for Imlek. 

Dodol Cina is sweet and sticky, so you eat it hoping that your life will be sweet and that you stick (stay close and loyal) to the family, as family is a big thing for the Chinese. And for most Indonesians, for that matter.Strangely enough, dodol Cina are also traditionally made at Idul Fitri, the Muslim festival after the fasting month of Ramadhan. This has long been a custom of the Betawi, Jakarta's own indigenous ethnic group, perhaps because their culture has a heavy dose of Chinese influence. Other ethnic groups throughout Indonesia have also made their own versions of dodol adding brown palm sugar, and coconut milk. Perhaps they too know that family relations tend to be "sticky" if not always sweet!

I was somewhat disappointed with Glodok, because I didn't see the throng of activity I had expected.

Of course the shopping center I went to was awash with red lanterns, red Chinese jackets and tacky fake plum blossom trees, and I could hardly move without treading on dodol Cina, the ground was plastered with the soft, round banana-leaf-wrapped things. 

But Glodok really wasn't all that different to all the other malls and shopping centers across Jakarta.

These are also festooned with red lanterns, pink plum blossoms, Gong Xi Fat Choi (Happy New Year) signs and sales attendants wearing red Chinese jackets and Mandarin hats. 

So, looks like the Chinese can go anywhere for their Imlek shopping, not just Glodok. Does that mean that after decades of discrimination Chinese culture has finally been truly integrated? 

Yes, if one is to believe one's eyes but that is something one should never do, especially given that retail businesses will never let a hot sales opportunity go by. Don't confuse commercialization with the real thing: genuine ethnic and religious pluralism. 

Take Christmas for example, another big opportunity for sales. Yes, fake snow, fake Santas and (still more) red outfits abound, but that doesn't mean Christian churches are safe from bombings and attacks (like the recent case in Bekasi: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/19/residents-attack-church-be...) or cancelled church building licenses. 

Well, what can you expect when some ulema pass fatwas stating that Indonesia's ancient religious pluralism is haram (forbidden)? 

They don't seem to grasp that, regardless of their pronouncements, Indonesia is already de facto pluralist. They should embrace that, because it makes us strong and very, very interesting as a nation and people. But they don't. 

The ulema may be out of touch with reality, but they are certainly in touch with Indonesia's long history of institutionalized cultural intolerance. 

It's all about politics of course. A brief rundown on how it affects Chinese culture: in 1965 president Sukarno issued the 1965 presidential decree which included Confucianism as one of six officially recognized "religions" in Indonesia. 

After Soeharto took over, anti-Chinese policy became official, with the Presidential Instruction No. 14/1967 effectively Chinese "cultricide". 

Between 1967 and 1990 the status of Confucianism was buffeted by conflicting laws at different levels, and it was not until 2000 that the government finally allowed Chinese Confucians to officially practice their beliefs.

It's great that the Soeharto-era bans on the public celebration of Imlek and the public display of Chinese culture are gone, but the underlying prejudice and bigotry die hard. 

My tai chi teacher says that the barongsai dragon dance, usually performed during Imlek and other auspicious occasions (weddings, for example), is now done by non-Chinese, like a sport. 

There are even barongsai competitions. That's nice, of course, but someone should tell the ulema in Aceh, where there's now a barongsai ban. It's a cultural event, boys, not a religious one! And even if it were religious, what right does anyone have to ban it?

The truth is that the ulema get away with it because anti-Chinese sentiment is still strong in Indonesia, and is constantly manipulated to win public support. Just read our cheapo scandal-mongering newspapers some time. 

They love running stories about the Chinese as troublemakers, reminding the public about the Bibit/Chandra case, where two Chinese businessmen, brothers Anggodo and Anggoro, are accused of bribery in a conspiracy to bring down the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). 

And they emphasize that Bank Century is Chinese-owned, as is the Omni International Hospital with its celebrated Prita case. 

And then they ask why the government bailed out Bank Century, and why is it now clashing with Aburizal Bakrie, an indigenous pribumi entrepreneur, chasing his unpaid taxes? 

The implication is clear - the same old racist story: the Chinese are the root of all corruption. 
Hey folks, wake up! 

It's a simple matter of demographics: the majority of corruptors are pribumi, true-blue Indonesians, born and bred here! 

So, the idea of making former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid the "father of pluralism" is surely a tad premature! We've still got a lot more work to do as a nation before pluralism becomes more just than an excuse for shopping centers to redecorate. 

In any case, if anyone is to be called the "father of pluralism', surely Sukarno with his Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) was waaaay ahead of Gus Dur. 

So if barongsai dances at malls are touted as a symbol of nondiscrimination in Indonesia, it's a pretty hollow one. At this rate, shopping will end up Indonesia's seventh official 'religion"!

View Point The 'Barongsai' Syndrome

They were part of a course on literary journalism run by Pantau (meaning 'to monitor'), a media NGO working to improve the quality of journalism in Indonesia pantau index kontributor.

Some of the participants were already working journalists, but wanted to brush up their skills. Others were neither journalists nor writers, but felt being able to write better would help their work. Part of their program involved meeting established writers, and I happened to be one of them. I was impressed by the Pantau course, and remember feeling sure than some of my visitors would one day make important contributions.

Sure enough, I met one again last year: Lexy Rambadeta was recognized as one of the new Fellows at the Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs Induction Ceremony for 2009, for his efforts in using documentary films for civic and political education.

Watching movies for education sounds like fun. I've always believed in the power of films to reach a wide audience and, at the same time, touch people in a way the print media often cannot. But civics education?

When I was a schoolgirl, 'civics' was a euphemism for indoctrination. That was all I knew from age 12, when Soeharto took over in 1966 and installed his so-called New Order, until I reached 44 in 1998, and he finally stepped down. While he ran the place, civil servants were obliged to take the two-week P4 (Upgrading Course on the Directives for the Realization and Implementation of Pancasila) state ideology indoctrination course, just as were employees in state and private companies, members of social organizations, students and, of course, journalists. These courses were just exercises in rote memorization, insufferable boredom and an insult to intelligence (ours, that is, not the state's so-called 'intelligence' service!).

Now the P4 courses are gone, and civic and political education is no longer a monopoly of the state. In fact, since Reformasi began in 1998, it's mainly been NGOs that offer political education courses, often supported by foreign funding agencies. You'll find opportunists everywhere and some NGOs were created with the express purpose of cashing in on the surge of donor funds that accompanied Reformasi.

But Lexy was among those who were genuine, and he chose an underdeveloped medium to teach the true meaning of civics: documentary films and video journalism. In 2001 he got a bunch of young volunteers involved in return for training in film-making. Besides providing educational materials, the group's objectives include network building to develop independent journalism, telling the true story of Indonesia and its history (and how it shapes us today), and defending human rights, women, pluralism, and, naturally, democratization. He named the group Offstream, as a counter to mainstream journalism - perfect name, huh?

Sometimes Lexy uses his own money to make low (even zero) budget films. At other times he has accepted funding, but he is always firm on his principle of no intervention from donors, well-known for their 'strings-attached' policies.

Lexy disseminates his films by screening them in schools and universities. He once screened "Shadowplay" (a doco on the alleged Communist coup of 1965) to thousands of (doubtless gobsmacked) high-school students at the Goethe Haus German Cultural Centre. How's that for real civics education!

But Lexy's main channel is the internet, with his website offstream making the most of the rise of digital media use in Indonesia that accompanied democratization. Between 2000 and 2009, the increase in the number of users was 1,150% Internetworldstats asia! Penetration is only 12,50% which is more than India (7%), but still less than China (26,9%), despite the current Google hullabaloo News Cnet. But that's more than enough for Lexy - he can be sure of a big market because he encourages people to copy his films for free!

You see, Lexy's aim is not making money, but raising public awareness and sensitivity and throwing light on issues the government has overlooked or deliberately suppressed. Even now? Ah well, old mentalities die hard, and in addition to the Rightwing conservatives left over from the new Order there are now plenty of newly-emerged ones - usually exploiting a 'religious' platform, parading as politicians defending the people's interests.

The films Lexy shows are varied, from "Shadow Play"; "Garuda's Deadly Upgrade: the Murder of Munir Said Thalib'; "2,5 Billion Dollars for the State" (about women domestic migrant workers); and "Batas Panggung" (about the disappearances of 13 students in 1997-98); and many others. All are poignant and gripping enough to compete with any Hollywood blockbuster _ except that they're based on fact, and cost a fraction as much!

The titles make it clear that Lexy's themes are often uncomfortable, but they are ones we must confront to mature and develop as a society. It's not exactly day-time TV material, and many would have been banned in the New Order, and the maker detained, interrogated _ or worse. Even today Lexy has often encountered government intervention, but so far he's been able to deal with it.

But now a new danger looms, in the form of a draft ministerial regulation proposed by Tifatul Sembiring, the new Communications and Information Technology Minister. He claims it's to "reduce Internet crimes", but who is he kidding? The draft calls for an Ombudsman named "The Multimedia Content Team" to receive reports of Internet material that is 'pornographic' or 'defamatory' of religions or races. It will also have authority to block websites.

Come one - surely this is just the Pornography Law Mark II? It is little more than an attempt to re-introduce New Order political and moral censorship: first it's 'pornography' they are aiming at; freedom of expression and political comment will be next.

Not surprising, I suppose, once you know that Sembiring is from PKS, the religiously-conservative Justice and Prosperous Party that pushed so hard for the Pornography Law. They must have been watching Communist China closely to learn these methods of suppressing civil liberties. Ironic, isn't it?

The truth is that Indonesia is in the midst of major cultural battle between liberal pluralists and repressive conservatives, in the arts, religion, politics, media - almost everywhere, in fact.

The outcome is far from certain, but I know which side I'm one: let's keep Offstream online!