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by. Sri Rumiati
Introduction
“I am a wife and a mother of two children. Since the beginning of our marriage, my husband has been abusing me physically. I have ever tried running to my parent’s house, but they suggested me to be patient and they can’t do anything, because in our culture, wife belongs to her husband and parents cannot involve at all. I have also tried to talk to the tribe leader and he gave me the same answer as above. I then feel calmly when the priest asked me to pray and giving me a relief words.But when I go back to my home, the suffering comes again. I cannot stand on anymore, and decided to seek protection from the police officer because my husband has threatened me and want to kill me. I really feel disappointed when the police’s respond wasn’t like I hope. They suggested me to go back to my husband. I really don’t know what should I do?”
In general, the main job of the police officer is to serve and to protect community, so it can be understood when that woman feel disappointed with police’s respond of her case. In the Government Regulation on National Police number 2 of 2002 mentioned that the basic function of police officer are as follows:
1. To maintain safety and regularity of the community.
2. To do a law enforcement.
3. To protect and to serve community.
In the explanation of the regulation above, it is mentioned that the order of the basic function is not reflecting a priority order. It can be done simultaneously and contextual, depend on the case and community condition at that time. In term of law enforcement, every action of the police should be based on the evidence and the witness. In that woman’s case, the police officer has a difficulty to make an action because he has no authority to separate that women from her husband, whereas family, the tribe leader and the priest unwilling to be a witness of her case.
In their action, police officer should put a law norms and human rights issues in the first priority (Mabes Polri, 2002). In fact, with more than 17.000 islands and 250 tribes, Indonesia as a country has a wide range differences in norms and values related to that differences cultural background. Unfortunately, there is no subject in the police’ training curriculum that can address all of the cultural issues that might be needed in their tour of duty. Every police officer should learn by him self, mostly by trial and error approach when they have to serve in the ‘strange’ area or region all over Indonesia.
Due to the high demand of the community to the police unit in providing services related to violence against women and children, in 1998 the senior women’s police officer (called Derap Warapsari) proposed an establishment of Ruang Pelayanan Khusus (RPK/Police Women Desk) to the Chief of Police (Kapolri). In this new unit, there are women’s police officer that have already been trained handling all of the issues related to women and children.
Women‘ s Reproductive Health
Naturally, every woman has a reproductive function, since pregnancy, delivering the baby and also breast-feeding their babies (Mas’udi, 1997). Beside that reproductive function, they also have rights that should be fulfilled:
1. The rights of safety and healthy in menstruation, sexual intercourse, pregnancy, delivering the baby and breast-feeding.
2. The rights of prosperity in all process of life: when they are in reproductive function, when they are as a wife and also as a mother of their children.
3. The rights to get an appreciation from their husband and to be treated as a partner in the family.
The three things above are a reproductive rights in general that could be breached down as follows:
1. The right to choose a partner.
2. The right to have a comfortable sexual relationship.
3. The right to have children.
4. The right to make decision when will they want to have a baby, including the right to decide a kind of contraception, the right to have a mental health protection when pregnancy, and the right to have a protection from violence and rape.
5. The right of child rearing. Breast-feeding is the only obligation for women in their reproductive function, while child rearing is the obligation of both parents. Thus, women have a right to develop themselves in every aspects of social life.
6. The right of reproductive leaves such as menstruation leave and delivering leave.
7. The right to divorce their spouse and get a fairness.
Datas and Facts
1. Police’s action must be based on official law and norms. In fact, an official law and norms in Indonesia doesn’t address gender sensitivity (Kompas, 19 August 2002)
2. The proportion of the police officer population and Indonesia’s population is imbalance. Ideally, 1 police officer serves 400 people. In fact, the proportion is 1 police officer serves more or less 1200 people.
3. In terms of women’s police officer compared to Indonesia’s women population, the proportion is more imbalance: about 1 women police officer serves 1240 women
4. The placement of women police officer especially those who are already married, are not based on the community demand, but based on their husband’s workplace. So, not all of the area in Indonesia (Kepolisian Sektor) have a women police officer.
5. Because of the very limited budget for handling every case (only Rp. 50.000,00 per case), police tend to prioritize cases which have larger social impact.
6. Many of the violence and rape cases haven’t been reported because of the weaknesses of law awareness in women.
7. Government of Indonesia doesn’t responsible of the visum request fee (including for the rape cases). If the victim couldn’t handle it because their financial problem, police can’t do anything due to their limited budget.
Action that Has Been Done by the Police
1. Since April 16th, 1999, RPK Polda Metro Jaya (the Police Women Desk) has already been treating 230 cases related to women’s issues such as sexual violence, sexual harassment, rape etc.
2. For the cases which are not fulfilling the requirement to be brought to the court (e.g. an adultery cases which is having a baby), women police officer in the Police Women Desk has tried to raise the moral awareness of the men to be responsible for children’s life cost/expenses.
3. Established a network system with the Crisis Center of Navy’s Hospital Mintoharjo, in terms of cases which are needed medical visum. The reason of choosing this center is because they can serve visum request for free.
4. With the limited budget, the Chief of Police (Kapolri) now is trying to establish networking with related institution in setting up crisis center for women and children.
The Future Goals
1. In the protection of women’s reproductive rights, the police organization should involve and empower the entire community in order to make a better treatment.
2. The regulation regarding to the gender sensitivity must be established by the government of Indonesia as a legal basic for the police to take action related to women and children issues.
3. Inviting the entire community to be proactive in dealing with all violence against women and children cases.
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