New York, on March 17, 2016

STRATEGY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

IN INDONESIA
By Sri Suari
To:

Mrs. Madaleine Albright as the Head of NDI

Mrs. Sandra Papera, as the Director Gender, Women and Democracy
Conference Attendee
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the

organizer who has provided the opportunity for Indonesia, especially for me to
participate in this ics conference.
Please allow me to briefly introduce myself, my name is Sri Suari, I am a female
police officer, who serves in the field of detective. I specifically have handled
cases of violence against women and children, for approximately 17 years. My
experience in the uncovering of various crimes, particularly the violence against
women and children, has brought me to specific tasks, namely to join a legal
drafting team, including the law on child protection (Law No. 23 of 2002
amended by Law No. 35 of 2014), the law on the Elimination of Domestic
Violence (Law No. 23 of 2004), the law on the Protection and Placement of
Indonesian Workers Abroad (Law No. 34 of 2006), the Law on the Combating of
Human Trafficking (Law No. 21 of 2007), as well as various implementing
regulations.
But since last year, I was assigned outside the police structure, namely in
the National Resilience of the Republic of Indonesia that is better known in
Indonesia as Lembaga Pertahanan dan Keamanan Nasional (Lemhamnas). Here
is a brief information about the National Resilience of the Republic of Indonesia;
this is a Non Ministry Institute directly under the President which has three main
functions, namely (1) to educate and prepare cadres of leader of the nation, to
be leaders with statesmen characteristics; (2) to strengthen the national values;
this is one of the key why Indonesia still stands as a unitary state even though it
is an extremely diverse group (consisting of more than 1,340 tribes, tens of
thousands of customs, 746 local languages, 6 major religions, with a population
of more than 252,000,000 people in more than 17,500 islands); and (3) the
function of strategic assessment, which is the area where I serve today. Output
or the results of National Resilience Institute study are presented in the form of
policy recommendations directly to the President, so that the National Resilience
*) Presented in the conference of #NotTheCost Stopping Violence Against
Women in Politics.

New York, on March 17, 2016

Institute is also called the Think-Tank institute of the President. In conducting the
study, we have also refers to the assessment of gender-responsive policies,
ranging from the establishment of research topics, perspective studies, the
establishment of resources, respondents and key informants as well as the floor
has also been based on consideration of the proportion of female representation.
Therefore, the results of our study depart from the a comprehensive, holistic,
integral perspective which it is expected to result in a humanist policy
recommendation. Furthermore, it is presented to the president as a reference for
national policies. Although this time I do not fully represent the Indonesian
National Police, more precisely represent the National Resilience Institute, my
experience as an investigator and my work in National Resilience Institute today
are still relevant to the issue we are talking about.
Thus a brief info about myself ... Okay, now we proceed to our topic today:
#NotTheCost' Stopping Violence Against Women in Politics.

Sistem Sosial
Violence against women in a social system can be understood from

several perspectives at once, where each perspective overlap, influence, and

shape each other, namely the perspective: Culture or Civilization; State Politics;
as well as Legal System and Legal Politics.
When the dynamics of culture and civilization have managed to foster
understanding and common awareness that the violence against women is a
cultural product that needs to be intervened and reconstructed, then at that
point the process of syncretism is likely to occur which gives the effect of
enlightenment, which enables the reconstruction of culture that lead to the
development of humanist civilization.
The process of cultural reconstruction that allow the birth of

IN INDONESIA

enlightenment will affect the realm of state politics, which one of the form is the
policy of the State, including in the form of law products. When we are talking
about law, then one important dimension of the law is how the legal politics
works in the process of enforcing the law. In particular, the legal politics that I
refer to is the strategy of law enforcement to stop the violence against
women, particularly in the realm of criminal law.
*) Presented in the conference of #NotTheCost Stopping Violence Against
Women in Politics.

New York, on March 17, 2016

In practical terms, the law enforcement objectives are: to protect the
victims and stop the violence, and prevent the recurrence of violence.
In my country, Indonesia, as well as in other parts of the world, culture is
one of the major root causes of the problem or the backdrop of violence against
women, not least against children. Normative law enforcement alone or any
action that only relies on legalistic aspects will not be immediately able to
suppress the violence against women. Normative-legalistic laws are only able to
reach the victims and the perpetrators, and they are limited to those who act as
witnesses in the case, and not able to touch and give a wide learning effect to
the other communities. Therefore, to achieve the purpose of law enforcement, it
is necessary to apply a special method in enforcing the law. I call this special
method a strategy or in political theory it is called the legal politics. The special
method that often I apply is how to combine the normative-legalistic aspects and
the existing social system where the law is working. How to reach social
system is publishing the existing cases --- publishing legal cases on violence
against women. This method is very effective when combined with institutional
programs such as socialization programs which also have limited coverage,
advocacy and other programs.
Therefore, the key of success is a good relationship with the media and the
quality of media maturity, such as the television, Radio, Print Media /
Newspaper / Magazine / Tabloid, Media Online, as well as social media. Strategy
in the use and involvement of the media in publicizing and at the same time
analyzing cases of violence against women provides a multiplier effect. For
example, this will strengthen the transparency and accountability of law
enforcement officers which will be directly followed by the strengthening of
public control aspects; publication also triggers the development of public
curiosity so it will correlate with the increased intelligence, maturity and social
participation in law enforcement that directly contributes to the legal culture of
society. In such a context, the law enforcement agencies should be able to
provide proportionate, professional and on time explanations. They must not be
late and must not leave the issue of handling the cases become uncontrolled,
and they must remain alert and anticipate the possibility of trial by the media. In
addition, it is also necessary the networking and collaboration with experts of
various related fields of study, with the aim to analyze cases from the
perspective of science in order to minimize misinterpretation, and to give
learning to the community. If it is successfully established and its continuity is
*) Presented in the conference of #NotTheCost Stopping Violence Against
Women in Politics.

New York, on March 17, 2016

guaranteed, it will positively affect the social atmosphere that can prevent and
reduce the number of incidents of violence against women. And at the same
time, women will also become more intelligent and know what to do in order not
to become victims of violence and how to behave and act when already become
victims of violence. The women will be more mature and courageous to fight
against violence, whether occurring in the private sphere, especially in the public
sphere, and they also understand effective ways to access justice.
Such situation and condition are now taking place and developing in
Indonesia, although it still needs strengthening in many aspects and the
continuity still needs to be encouraged. This condition may also explain why, in
statistics, the cases of violence against women and children in Indonesia
increases from year to year. This is likely to occur because the decreased in
community tolerance for violence, meanwhile there is an increased in the
community thrust against violence.
Nevertheless, matters related to how to effectively access the law still
requires continuous advocacy, given the subsystems in the Indonesian legal
system is not yet fully established, it still needs improvement in many aspects.
However, the increasing public control through expressed by the media provides
optimism that the space of the creation of justice becomes more widespread and
can be accessed by the public.
In addition to the matters described above, it is also necessary to illustrate
that the effect of the publication also affects the pattern of the relationship
between women and men, which now continues to move towards to a more
equivalent position, in line with the inclusive policies of the government in favor
of women, especially those directly related to poor and low-educated women
that goes along with the more opening of women's insight which has implications
for the increased women's awareness to continue to improve the individual
quality and to continue to grab any opportunity in every line. Another implication
that also gives contribution is the increased mens awareness to provide more
space for women and even to encourage them to take part in the public space.
Previous legal products were gender-neutral, but now they slowly start to
continue to transform towards substantive gender-responsive, though there
remains a homework that there are still quite a lot of regional regulations which
are not care about gender and even discriminatory against women which
now continue to be expressed by the public led by activists, female politicians to
cancel the entry into force, either through political channels in an urgent form so
*) Presented in the conference of #NotTheCost Stopping Violence Against
Women in Politics.

New York, on March 17, 2016

that the central government does not ratify these regulations or by the
legislative body, or through judicial review in the Constitutional Court or other
legal means, in accordance with the available mechanisms.
More or less, this is the description of the situation in Indonesia today
which has a direct implication of the efforts to stop violence against women.
Democracy Indonesia continues to grow and transform. The gender responsive
development policies also continue to be expressed and realized.
Finally, this is a brief review of the circumstances and conditions that
describes the strategy to stop violence against women in Indonesia.
That is all and thank you.

Hotel : Hotel Indigo - Chelsea (127 W 28th St, New York, NY 10001). Manhattan New York
Departure : Tuesday, 15 Mar16, 06.45am, 7.20
Arrival: Narita

*) Presented in the conference of #NotTheCost Stopping Violence Against

Women in Politics.