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Have Indonesian Women Today Been Successfully Realizing or Hurting R.A.

Kartinis
Dreams?

Women nowdays receive their rights fully. They can get well-education, work in
the office, be the head of something, etc. This freedom of right can not be seperated
from Kartinis struggle to give Indonesian children and women better education in her
time. At that time, she was one of the Indonesian women who received injustice from
her surroundings. She could see it from her mom. Her mom was treated like a servant
and had an obligation to take care of her own children and the other children from the
other wives. It hurt Kartinis feeling until she wanted to end her life. She was envied by
the way Dutch women life that was free from such a tradition and they could choose
what kind of future they wanted and they could get the highest education they wanted.
However, that inspired Kartini a lot to make well-educated Indonesian women so that
one day they could set them free from that unfair old tradition that forced Indonesian
women to get married with someone who was chosen by their parents. As a result,
Kartini was a woman who was in thirst for getting the highest education she could
achieve. She was in school only until in the age of 12 for she was prepared to get
married, in Indonesian we call it dipingit. Actually she didnt give up, she still found
1001 ways to obtain more education. She planned to get an education to Dutch with her
sister, Roekmini, but it was cancelled after Mrs Abendanons visit to her house. Mrs
Abendanon, who was Kartinis bestfriend, adviced her not to study abroad for it would
only ruin her dream of getting indonesian women well-educated for they might think
she would only make them have the way dutch people think. As a result, she changed
her way to study in Betawi, but it was all vanished when a proposed from the Governor
of Rembang came into her house. She was forced to get married with him, the man who
had 3 wives and 7 children in total. Could you imagine how she felt at that time as a
woman? She thought it was a real-life nightmare that death was the best way to solve it,
but she didnt want to end her life for she loved his father so much. In the end, she got
married with him sadly. However, Kartini still didnt give up on her dream. Fortunately,
her husband agreed with her dream and facilitated her with a building to teach
Indonesian women and children. Unfortunately, she was died in the age of 25, 3 days
after delivering a baby. Although she was died, but her spirit keeps burning millions of
Indonesian women to get their right of well-education.

As you can see, Kartinis women emancipation work impacts in many ways.
First, you can see nowdays many Indonesian women can go to school and continue their
study as high as they want. You will obviously see many girls go to the same school as
the boys go. Besides that, you can also see many women work in the office. They can
have the same position as the man can also get. Moreover, many women are also the
leader in her position. Women can be a manager, a principal, or everything they want.
You can see Sri Mulyani the previous minister of finance in Indonesia. She is a smart
woman that can manage Indonesian finance quite well. In fact, now shes working for
the world bank in the United States. You can imagine how clever she is. Besides that,
we have ever had a woman president, Megawati Soekarno Putri who is also the
daughter of Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia. If you live in Surabaya, you will
also know our Mayor, Tri Risma Harini. She is a succesful mayor in Surabaya that
makes it look green and well-cared. She rapidly solves some problems in Surabaya
including flood, slums, etc. The 3 names that I have already told you has given you a
good prove that Kartinis dream has been realized that women have the same rights as
men. However, not all Indonesian women have already realized Kartinis dream.

There are many Indonesian women who also misuse Kartinis struggle into
something inappropriate. The well-education that is offered sometimes is not used for
good. As you can see, some Indonesian women were accussed of some criminals they
did. They used their intelligence to manipulate some data to corrupt some money from
the government, departments, etc. You can see Angelina Sondakh, a clever Indonesian
woman who corrupted some money that was supposed for the construction of Wisma
Atlet. She used to be a Miss Indonesia, but in the end she embarassed the presence of
Indonesian women. There is also Malinda Dee, she softly stole some money from her
clients in Citibank Bank. She was an intelligent woman that she can steal a great
amount of money without being noticed for a long time. However, it doesnt reflect how
Indonesian women should be. Indonesian women are well-educated, smart, and
independent, not thieves who try to do crimminals using their intelligence. These kinds
of things hurt Kartinis heart a lot. I know Kartini didnt think her struggle would be
misused by these people, yet she just thought to fight for the welfare of Indonesian
women.

From those 2 points of view, we can conclude actually Indonesian women have
been realizing Kartinis dreams, but the realizations are different. They can be realized
as either a good one or a bad one. If Kartini were still alive today, she would always
smile watching these women reaching their success. Unfortunately, the bad one is also
considered as the gift from Kartini to get such education, but it was used to do the
things Kartini didnt want too. If she looked at those women, she would probably cry
and regret what she were fighting for and let Indonesian women be in the same status
quo like in the past. This kind of condition may look hopeless, but there are many ways
to make Kartini smile again.

First, as Indonesian women, we have to be kind. We have been already offered a


good quality of education, its just a matter of mentality we have. We have to think our
education is to help others who need it. We have to make others needs as the most
important thing. Actually, the reason we live in this world is to help others to survive
their life. We have to be meaningful to others. If you look your surroundings, you may
see a lot of people need our cares as a woman like homeless people, singing beggars,
etc. Through our education, we can earn some money and give it a bit to them. From
that kind of mentality, if we have opportunity to become one of the legislation member,
we will think for many times to do the corruption.

Second, we have to be sincere, we can see it from Kartini. She loved his father
sincerely that she managed to do her marriage although she didnt want to do it. We
have to be like that. Although theres no force like that, but we have to love other
sincerely, especially our parents. As a result, Kartinis husband helped her facilitating
the place for her small school and she could reach their dreams. The same with us, if we
do what our parents ask us to do, the result will be good. You shouldnt worry about
your future, your future is in your hand, and you have to decide your best. Parents will
not always correct, but parents do want the best for their children.
At last, Indonesian women have to love their own country, Indonesia. We have
to help developing our nation by doing things we can, as an example doing humanity
for Lumpur Lapindo refugees, teaching people who still cant read, etc. As an
Indonesian, we shouldnt let our nation get worse by corruption, crimminalities, and
others, we have to make a difference in our nation.

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