Kartini

Mother Kartini was the first pioneer of the Indonesian women. The second daughter of R.M. Adipati Arjo Sosorinigrat, regent of Japara, Middle Java, she was born on 21st April, 1879, and passed away in 1904, giving birth to her only child.

Her short life was filled with great ideals, dedicated to the progress of women and to the happiness of the whole of mankind.

Indonesia, at that time, was dominated by the Dutch. Having become a head of the Japara region in Middle Java, Kartini's father held high rank in the feudal society, almost like a little king. Although they loved and dearly her father, brothers and sisters did not follow her ideals.

According to feudal tradition, after they reached the age of twelve, girls had to remain inside their homes. After their fifteenth birthday they were married to a man chosen by their fathers. Their mothers had no rights in settling the affairs of their daughters. Child-marriage was customary in Indonesia. Kartini attended the match school at Japara until she was 12 years old and then she had to stay at home. Her father, though he wanted his daughters to go to school, obeyed the old feudal tradition. During this period Kartini read books, wrote many letters to her friends in Holland and Germany and struggled against her family for her liberation. Her European friends helped her to become free. When she was 16 years old, Kartini got permission to go out. She was liberated but her father's friends still disapproved.

Being painfully aware of the unfavourable status of Indonesian women, Kartini rebelled against conventions which allowed polygamy. She wrote: "Our girls have only one ideal — marriage, marriage with a man unknown to them. Why should this be so? Why must I marry? Must I become a Raden Aji (the wife of a high ranking official)? One of many wives. No! No! I know how bitter the life of a Raden Aji is. A high ranking official is like King Solomon who had more than 40 wives. I must be independent. I must be self-supporting. I do not want to marry a strange man. I want to study. I want to help my girls and my people. I will have to face difficulties but I must do it. I will struggle, for without struggle it is impossible to win. My friends believe me, I will do it..." This she wrote in many letters to her friends, particularly in her letters to Mrs Estelle H. Zeehandelaar who was her closest friend.

Conscious of her people's right to independence and the necessity for women's emancipation but not knowing how to make her ideas reach others, Kartini expressed them in her correspondence, which is amazingly rich and progressive for her time.

Among the problems Kartini wrote about was the education of women and children: "We wish to see our daughters become educated women and good mothers who are first of all responsible for the education of their children".

Kartini and her sister started to teach a small class of girls at home. In 1903 she married the Regent of Rembang, who was one of the best men at that time prepared to support the courageous efforts of Kartini. She opened another new class in the neighbourhood of her husband's house.

Having a profound sympathy for the oppressed, she strongly resented the brutalities of colonial rule. In an article published in "De Hollandsche Lelie" Kartini wrote: "...I have great sympathy for the ideals of the socialists and I am quite convinced that the biggest criminals are to be found not in the Kasrumpoghs but in the Heeren en Keizergracht..." (the centre of the headquarters of the Dutch colonialists in Amsterdam).

At the time of the Boer War she wrote, "...my thoughts fly across the blue seas to the Coast of South Africa, to the bloody battlefield; my thoughts fly to that vale of appalling misery and bitter grief, of boundless suffering, the dead, the wounded, the widows, the orphans, the victims of incomparable British cruelty."

She read the progressive books of her time, such as August Bebel's "Women and Socialism", the books of Multatuli and Justus V. Maurik. She also liked to read the Bible and the Koran. She was a literary woman and an artist. One of her pieces, written for wood-carving, was found in Surabaya, East Java, and her wood-carving may still be seen in her former home, the regent house of Rembang in Middle Java.

The well-known Indonesian writer, Pramudja Anantatur, said that Kartini was not only the pioneer of women's struggle for emancipation, but she was a great philosopher, poetess and writer.

The Indonesian women commemorate Mother Kartini as a fighter for national liberation and emancipation. The Indonesian Women's Congress, having its headquarters in Djakarta, has twice presented the Kartini cup to women for meritorious service in the movement for the progress of Indonesian women.

In the course of his lecture given to more than 3,000 women in his palace, on 15th April, 1959, President Sukarno said that: "Kartini was a fighter, not only for the emancipation of women but also for the happiness of people". He said women should not be satisfied with emancipation and equal rights between men and women, but they must struggle together with men to obtain a just and prosperous society.

Even though Kartini died more than 50 years ago, her aspirations continue to live in the hearts of the women of Indonesia.