DITA SARI, chairperson of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles and a leader of the People's Democratic Party in Indonesia, was arrested by the Suharto dictatorship in the wave of repression that began last July. She was arrested on July 8 while leading a peaceful demonstration of 20,000 women workers demanding wage rises and other improvements.
Dita Sari has been an outspoken defender of women's rights in Indonesia and a courageous supporter of freedom in East Timor. She was a guest speaker at the 1995 International Women's Day rally in Perth and sent the following message from Surabaya prison on the occasion of this year's IWD.
I write this letter in a narrow and miserable cell in a jail in Surabaya. This regime has chosen me as the lone woman among 15 people on trial for subversion. The People's Democratic Party has many women activists, especially from among the workers. We think that one of the measures of the progress of the movement here is the participation of women activists, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
As a president of a trade union, I cannot separate myself from a special solidarity with the women worker activists, even though I am aware too that every activist is tested in the end via their commitment and loyalty.
The regime has struck out at us with full force so that our party and its mass organisations are covered with bleeding wounds. Everywhere, the regime spreads the word that we are the same as the old Indonesian Communist Party; the regime is trying to create mass hysteria and to legitimise its repressive action against us. It needed an appropriate scapegoat and it chose the PRD. This is not a government that stands firm to defend the sovereignty of the people and their economic and political rights. It is a government built on authoritarian foundations in order to defend special economic interests and capital.
We have survived well the early period of big disruption to our organisation. Our women cadre from the students and workers have stepped forward to take leading positions in consolidating our organisation. The terrorised workers have freed themselves from fear. And the peasants, swallowed up by the repression, have began to rise up again.
And in the prison, the flames still burn bright among the cadre. Belief in the justice of our struggle and our deep love for the mass of workers are the two things which keep me going. Of course, there are moments when I experienced the bitter pain of losing everything, of a sense of failure, of loneliness. There are times that I must struggle with myself and accept that I will lose the productive years of my youth. And I think: can I handle all this?
Yet, the next morning, I always awake warmed by sweet memories of struggling together with the workers, the people. There are women in the prison here who were workers too, and each time I look at them, I feel their hands reach out to me to make sure I do not fall.
The emergence of Megawati Sukarnoputri, a woman, as a figure supported by tens of millions of people is a sign of the progress and qualitative advance made by the pro-democracy movement and of the movement to end capitalism's use of patriarchy to manipulate us.
Now we wait for the right moment, and prepare our forces, so that we will have an era of democracy where all will have the same rights, where women will have the opportunity to emerge as leaders in all fields.
I truly hope one day to be able to be with you again, as I was two years ago, and to discuss with you the economic and political issues affecting women. Your solidarity and international support, from countries where workers are also treated unfairly and women continue to be exploited, is something which strengthens our resolve here.