Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta – Both the Helsinki Accord and the BRR (Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency) are failing to include women, says Samsidar, Nobel Prize candidate, special rapporteur on Violence against Women, and chair of the Aceh Women Volunteers for Humanity (RPuK).
"Women should have been given a major role in the making of the rehabilitation and reconstruction blueprint, but although BRR chief Pak Kuntoro has repeatedly stated women have a key role in making the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts a success, he has yet to establish concrete strategies to allow women to act upon his word," she says.
"Neither has the Helsinki Accord accorded adequate space to women. Women took the brunt during Aceh's long struggle, were harassed, violated and raped, while taking responsibility for the survival of their families when their menfolk left home to fight, or were killed or simply disappeared without trace.
"Setting up shelters and barracks without giving a thought to women's specific concerns may have been inevitable in the first moments of urgency, but today such negligence is giving rise to rampant violence; women in the barracks are left in fear, anguish and inconceivable insecurity." The post-tsunami situation and peace accord should have provided momentum to revitalize old traditions with modern understanding, explains Samsidar.
When internally displaced people (IDPs) from Meunasah Lhok wished to leave their shelters, she and her RPuK Team facilitated the rebuilding of their village based on democratic values rooted in community traditions of mutual respect that were on the verge of extinction.
"Women are a major source to tap if a peaceful, prosperous, and just society is a genuine desire of power holders," says Samsidar.
Her commitment to the establishment of a society where peace and security reign as basic elements of people's well-being does not come out of the blue. One of the early leaders of the Aceh women's movement, her efforts started when she found women were sidelined and marginalized in ways that defied logic. That was some twenty years ago.
Activist and action
Following her activism during her student days at the Department of Agriculture of Syah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, as a researcher into sustainable food crops and plant protection, she blended lecturing at the Agriculture Department of Gajah Putih University in Takengon with consultancy for the PPW/LTA-77 Project for Coffee Smallholders, which included empowerment of women farmers (a joint project between the Indonesian and Dutch governments). She became the founder of the Foundation for Women's Development in Takengon (YPW), which was among the first women's organization in the province.
With a membership of 1,000 women (now reduced to 500), YPW includes a credit union (economic empowerment), and organizes community participation, studies on women in Islam, and provides advocacy for women victims of violence as well as assisting women IDPs. She and her team defied threats to help coffee smallholders retain their human dignity.
A mover and shaker, she was also a founder of the Aceh Transformation and Gender Working group (1986), as well as a founder of Flower Aceh NGO in 1987 which aimed at women's empowerment, heading the board until recently. She was also behind the founding (in 1999) of RPuK, a group she still heads, focusing on assistance and rehabilitation of women and children IDPs, which has earned a unique reputation for credibility in post-tsunami assistance.
In 1998 she became a member of the newly established National Commission on Violence against Women, also serving as adjunct secretary-general.
Since 2005 she has served as the special rapporteur on Violence against Women in Aceh, who seeks out and receives information on violence against women in Aceh, and recommends ways and means of dealing with these issues at local, regional and national levels.
Samsidar was also a major player in the holding of Duek Pakat Inong Aceh (All-Aceh Women's Conference) 2000, bringing together over 500 women who came up with a a comprehensive blueprint for establishing peace in their troubled land.
Similarly, she helped hold the second Duek Pakat Inong Aceh in June 2005, the recommendations from which were welcomed warmly by BRR chief, but have yet to be realized.
Known for her firm commitment and belief in women as prime movers of transformation, she is also among the most credible women whose personal integrity makes her among the strong pillars of the women's movement in Aceh.
Family ties
As she travels throughout the province and back-and-forth between Lhokseumawe, Banda Aceh and Jakarta, the 39-year-old Acehnese is a familiar face in the world of activists.
Not many know, however, that her roots were in the aristocracy that ruled Aceh Besar and Pidie. Her father, a policeman by profession, and a member of the DPRD (local legislature), never made use of his rightful title of Teuku Meurah, and neither does Samsidar or any of her kin.
Her mother, a native from Takengon, was a housewife and teacher of koranic verses who was actively involved in antipoligamy activitism.
Born in Banda Aceh, Samsidar's nomadic life is nothing new to her. As a child she was on the move all the time, along with her father, who served in the police force with assignments that changed from place to place.
While it is taking its toll on her physical condition, it has given her a chance to widen her horizons, and put an even stronger accent on the virtues of humanity that she got from home.
Asked what would be her personal wish for the future, she says she would dearly love to be allowed the time and means to take transformative studies, which would enable her better to assist communities in her native Aceh that are coping with the change from tradition to modernity.
For now, however, she is too busy investigating and reporting on cases that urgently need the immediate attention of those in influential, decision-making positions.