Gender Equality Campaign in Indonesia Through
Radio Jurnal Perempuan

Latifah and A. Budiyanto
University of Gadjah Mada

Budie Santi, Ed. Perempuan Bertutur: Sebuah Wacana Keadilan Gender dalam Radio Jurnal Perempuan. Jakarta: Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan. 2005. 434 p. (ISBN: 979-3520-03-5)

The book Perempuan Bertutur: Sebuah Wacana Keadilan Gender dalam Radio (Women Speaking: A Discourse of Gender Equality on Radio) is a documentation book of Radio Jurnal Perempuan (RJP/Women Journal Radio) program which is begun in 1998. The Radio Jurnal Perempuan is produced by Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan (Women Journal Foundation), which in every week is being broadcasted through almost 180-radio stations in Indonesia.

Besides Radio Jurnal Perempuan (RJP), Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, which is concern on woman empowerment through media, actives in improving public awareness on the gender equality via the other of four main programs: Jurnal Perempuan (Women Journal) published per 2 month; documentary film making about women issues such as violence against women, women in conflict area, and trafficking; book publishing; and website www.jurnalperempuan.com publication, which contents updated news on women issues everyday.

Every media mentioned above has its character. Compared with Jurnal Perempuan, which her readers commonly from middle to high class of high educated readers, RJP able to reach more wide audiences since it is freely accessed, more flexible (it may enjoyed while doing everyday duties, like in working hours or parenting), moreover it able to attracts and draws the audience’s imaginary. Because the targeted audience is broader, RJP was designed with more popularly style than Jurnal Perempuan, which emphasize its scientific element.  With its magazine style or mini feature the Radio Jurnal Perempuan warmly greets her audiences and transmits any of related issues on woman..

Although it is delivered with her fun and easy style, Radio Jurnal Perempuan cannot steer clear of its negative response of the audience because of her controversial thing that she triggered in society. Even, those negative responsive tend to anarchism. Some of those sensitive issues that triggered the controversies are the ”pro-contra on Abortion” and “trafficking”. However, as said by Andriana Venny, Executive Director of Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, this controversial-matter exactly as the challenge to workout more in advocating the gender equality issues through media, particularly via radio that available to mass society. Besides, advocating through media is still needed since many of the negative response reflect the strong domination of patriarchic culture in Indonesian society. 

As the alternative media that has aim to woman empowerment, the audacity of RJP in lifting up those sensitive issues and put it in gender equality perspective is not intend to look for a sensation, as in the case of common mass-media that dominated by patriarchal power beyond capital power. With this valor, RJP is struggling the right to get information that has its important meaning due to the empowerment of woman as the subject, which is dare to decide and do the best thing for her own-self. In the approach to present woman as a subject, not just an object, particularly in mass media, in this program RJP also gives a space to woman expressing freely her feelings and thoughts and to talk about that as uniquely as woman, which is documented in this book. However, the struggle to reach a stage of gender equality in the society is really not woman business alone and only. Man also is part of that struggle. That is why, in addition to the woman voices, this program also not neglecting the voices and perceptions of man about this woman issues.  The principle of equality might be seen at the program of vox pop aspiration (the voices of mass society) that deal on the gender issues in which not just a common people, the bureaucrat official, scientist, academician, and woman activist are ask to be involved in.

From the voices of the vox pop, that is documented in this book, we can see the broad society views and expectations toward many problematic matter related to woman in Indonesia such as the pro-contra of RUU pornography (pornography bill program). In that time, when interviewed in 2003, Mariyana, a student, expressed her wish that the RUU is made with deep consideration, mature, not in a hurry, but through a long thorough discussion with all of component interest groups (p. 162). In this 2006 we could see the reality that this RUU is made in haphazardly, without concerning with the competent experts, such the academicians. The result, this pornography bill, as stated by many groups of interest that this bill has the aim to protect the woman, in reality is threatening the woman position in more critical state and tend to criminalized woman. The disregard of the broad voices of society, chiefly from the traditional society at far regions and the minorities groups, in the posing of this bill might also threatening the plurality of this nation. Looking at many potential of bad impact to woman because of that RUU bill, it feels that the existence of this RUU is unneeded anymore. This matter actually had already stated by Vivi Widyawati, Head-section of KPP PRD (Partai Rakyat Demokratik or Democartic People Party). Vivi argued that this bill really limit the woman’s space of expression and content many of vague interpretation, for instance in the definition of pornography and its borderlines, in doing so this Bill truly insignificant a lot (p. 163). 

From the vox pop voices, we can hear many voices of woman’s lives experience, such as the story of Fransiska Moga, woman of Toraja, which she shared her premature experienced (p. 279-280). In this program, RJP Journalist, Budie Santie, reports the still high rate of mother’s death because of giving baby birth and pregnancy in Indonesia, especially at Tana Toraja. It is reported some factors as the cause of the high rate of death in pregnancy, for instance it is support by its geographical landscape that make hard for them to access the health service center, lack concern of family and society toward pregnant mother, lack of apprehension to the officer of health service, and the minimum of health facilities equipments. “There is a ‘homework’ that should be campaigned to society that the health of pregnant mother and giving birth is essential thing and cannot be neglected on behalf of any other reason, including tradition,” said the RJP journalist Budie Santi closing her report. Because of her journalistic work at RJP, Budie Santi was success in the selection toward International Federation of Journalist (IFJ).

As the book editor, Budie clustering the RJP script into 10 topics: violence against women, women and children trafficking, women and politics, women and policy, women and social problem, women’s health, women and working world, women and mining, women and art, women and family, and women’s profiles.  Besides the clustering, the editor also added the visual dimension in this RJP script, which in reality this is an audio dimension only. If in the broadcast radio the audiences only heard the voices of the expert speakers or resource person and the RJP journalist, with this book the audiences might see the faces and the environments in the subject of discussion through some of those interesting pictures and illustration. By publishing of this book, readers get more comprehensive understanding and awareness on women issues through her/his reading. As well as the means of gender equality awareness campaign for Indonesian people, this book might useful to international society who is concern and care with the condition of woman in Indonesia and want to know the dynamics of woman movement in Indonesia.* 

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