Meidi Kasmidi has been awarded with Women and Conservation Recognition
Award from the World Wildlife Fund. Kasmidi's work in North Sulawesi,
Indonesia has made an outstanding and nationally significant contribution
to the field of marine conservation. In the early 1990s, Kasmidi
worked to establish the Bunaken Marine Park, now a World Heritage
site, and helped to develop innovative and sustainable community-based
village enterprises within the park.
She worked closely with
a range of women's groups and gained widespread respect for her
capacity to bring the concepts of marine conservation to fishers
and other resource-dependent communities living outside the park.
Kasmidi also founded Kelola, a leading environmental non-governmental
organization in North Sulawesi responsible for a broad range of
advocacy and community empowerment programs. Through her work with
the Indonesian coastal resources management program, Proyek Pesisir,
Kasmidi has recently begun to assist other communities in initiating
community-based marine sanctuary programs similar to the initial
effort in Bunaken, and is working with government and non-governmental
organizations to upgrade school curriculums dealing with marine
resource conservation.
Source:
Ms. Katjasungkana is the coordinator of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice, Bogor, Indonesia. She is also a member of the Steering Committee for Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD). She also co-founded the Indonesian Women Association for Justice. Nur, as she is called by peers, is the best-known advocate of legal justice and human rights protections for women in Indonesia.
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Srie
Lestari Rahayu, councilor, local house of representatives,
Bantul County
Elected in 1999, Ms. Srie Lestari
Rahayu holds the position of Councilor of the Local House of Representatives,
Bantul County in Yogyakarta. She is affiliated with the PDI Perjuangan
Party (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle). Her areas of responsibility
include managing issues of education, employment, arts and culture,
religion, public welfare etc. for Bantul County residents. Ms. Rahayu
thinks women’s concerns and priorities about urban local government
and urban issues generally differ from those of men, in that women
involve people in problem solving. In her view increasing the number
of women representatives and officials in urban local government
would have a direct effect on the status of women, as society becomes
more aware that women can compete with men.
She is the recipient of
the UNESCAP Awards for Outstanding Service and Breaking Barriers
Against Participation in Local Government in 2001.
Dita
Sari
Having been detained, harassed, beaten and sexually
abused by the military on numerous occasions, she was
sentenced to 5 years in prison in 1996 for 'sedition,'
after leading 20000 striking workers in a non-violent
march on the Tandes industrial area to protest labour
conditions.
From prison she continued to lead her movement, and
on her release in 1999 was unanimously elected Chairperson
by the Congress of the National Front for Indonesian
Workers Struggle (FNPBI). She continues to hold that
post, and earlier this year refused to accept a $50000
human rights award from Reebok, in light of their poor
treatment of workers in Indonesia and Mexico.
Sources and related links:
Megawati
Sukarnoputri, President of Indonesia
Megawati became a prominent political figure in Indonesia
when she won control of the Christian-nationalist Indonesian
Democratic Party (the PDI) in 1995. In June 1996, a
government backed faction ousted her from leadership
of the PDI, sparking bloody riots in Jakarta.
After Suharto was forced out of power, Megawati emerged as the leader of the newly formed faction, the PDI-P – the Indonesia Struggle for Democracy Party. The party won the most seats in the June 1999 election, but did not achieve an outright majority. Although she was the popular choice to become Indonesia’s fourth president, Megawati was defeated in a parliamentary vote for the president by Abdurrahman Wahid. She was later appointed as Wahid’s Vice President.
Megawati Sukarnoputri
was sworn in as Indonesian head of state on July 23, 2001
minutes after the national assembly (DPR) dismissed President
Abdurrahman Wahid and elected her in a unanimous vote.
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