[MATARAM] International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG) Indonesia is committed to establishing good cooperation with the Non-Governmental Organization Network (NGO) of West Nusa Tenggara (WNT) Province, in order to achieve world peace. Therefore, IWPG held an event “IWPG Socialization and Network Consolidation in the Context of the Action Peace Campaign FingerPeace” in Mataram City on Wednesday, 22 February 2023, together with 40 WNT NGO activists at UIN Mataram Campus, West Nusa Tenggara Province.
“Even though every NGO focuses on different types of causes, but at the core of it is how to dissolve conflict starting with the smallest things , so that world peace can be achieved,” IWPG Indonesia’s Branch manager, Ana Milana said, on the meeting with 40 activists from the WNT NGO in the UIN Mataram Campus, WNT Province, Wednesday (22/2/2023).
The meeting that was driven by the Woman’s Solidarity NGO of WNT felt like a reunion for the activists of WNT that have been working together to this date. There were activists that came from at least 25 of WNT’s active NGOs that came to the occasion. They came from various different places aside from Mataram. There were those that purposefully made their trip from Ketapang, West Lombok, East Lombok, and more.
To the activists, Ana Milana explained that IWPG is a non-profit organization that has been registered in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in the Republic of Korea, and in the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UN DGC), as well as obtained the title of ‘Special Consultative Status’ from the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
IWPG is headquartered in Seoul, Korea, and has 102 branches in 130 countries, including South Korea, and 400 organizations that have signed a Memorandum of Association (MOA) worldwide. Women that want to work for peace across nations, religions, and ethnicity, can become a part of IWPG.
IWPG focuses on women and children in their peace efforts. “Women are the heart of families and communities. A woman, whether they be a mother, a child, or a wife, plays such an important role. During a war, the biggest victims are women as they have to be able to willingly let their husbands, children, and relatives, fight in a war,” said Ana.
Most importantly, women have such tender hearts. “Their hearts are tender towards the smallest things, and so, they are the ones that are most affected when members of their families are hurt. Women are the ones that are most angered and pained,” she said.
Because of that, women need comfort and peace, so that their hearts will not suffer. “All women deserve the right to peace because of their important role in their families, namely as a role model, a parent, a teacher to their children, and more,” said Ana.
At this opportunity, Ana Milana invited all the activists to join the Peace Lecturer Training Education (PLTE) held by IWPG. “We invite women to join PLTE classes that adopt a home-schooling method. Each lesson’s material is conveyed through a video with the purpose of establishing common ground and the same understanding of the definition of peace between everyone,” Ana explained.
This education is given freely and voluntarily, but one must be committed to complete the lesson so that the same understanding can be achieved. “Many people can say “peace, peace”, but their definitions might be different. Once common ground is achieved, a committee will be formed,” she said.
Peace is achievable once there is concept unity, then the same project can be resolved together to be realized immediately. With peace, many things are to be achieved in the world, namely the welfare of all people.
“When we work together hand-in-hand, the dream will feel beautiful. But that dream should not only be felt when we are asleep. We want to wake up to that beauty too. We have to work hard in the real world so that this dream can turn into reality. Peace is an inheritance we give to our future generations. A peaceful world with welfare, and peace. The most basic thing people want is peace and well-being in their lives. This is the culture we share here,” Ana explained.
As is well known, IWPG holds training programs for teachers, PLTE, to help millions of women stand united in the name of peace, and for women all over the world to learn about peace and execute the spirit of peace.
Learning can be done flexibly by training participants two days a week, for a total of five weeks. 10 training curriculums have been prepared, along with tasks, and task submissions. Training is done in a home-school method, by watching educational topics through prepared Youtube videos that are easily accessed.
To discuss each lesson module, an online meeting is held with other participants. There, we discuss what we learned, what we felt, and what we thought while watching the lesson videos.
Participants are limited to five students in each class. Discussions are also limited to an hour each, as we keep the schedule of each participant in mind. One instructor would guide each student to speak for 10 minutes each, to express their opinions after watching each video, and the discussion ended by coming to a shared conclusion together.
Homework is also given in order to gauge how well each participant have understood the lesson. After graduating and completing all the assignments given, participants will get certificates and facilities to become an educator. It is our hope that each graduate would at least teach their own family what they learned about peace. “The source of peace starts from ourselves. It then develops into a culture, and we share that to those around us,” concluded Ana.
Activists’ Comments
On this occasion, Ms. Nurul, an activist from the Solidarity of Mataram expressed her gratitude for the arrival of IWPG to Mataram in order to introduce and share the goal that peace hopes to achieve, that can be attained by working together.
“This cannot be done alone. We need the support of NGOs to achieve peace together, starting from the nearest places, from our home cities,” said the alumni of PLTE program. The most important thing is to first establish a common understanding of the definition of peace. For an NGO, the topic of peace is not an unfamiliar one. Every NGO focuses on a different issue in regards to peace. Therefore, every NGO, whether they be private or an institution, need to mutually share and have discussions,” she said.
Saleh, an activist from the Mitra Labor Legal Aid Centre, said, “Speaking about peace is something very enjoyable. How beautiful is life in the future without any contention. I am so glad to be here,” he expressed.
For him, WNT is far from peaceful. “For us, we don’t think every religion is the same, but all religions have a common belief that peace can be achieved. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has been in WNT for 16 years, but has not yet to achieve peace. “We were cast out, our homes burnt, and until today, this case is not yet over.”
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community admitted that they have been living 16 years in a place they can’t yet call peaceful. “We don’t have to look too far to countries like Russia or Ukraine when life here between villages is still so far from peaceful. Even among activists we are far from peace, with various schemes still taking place. We ourselves dream of peace, but even among us, there is no peace. That is why we are here today, we want to be able to achieve true and lasting peace,” he said.
He explained that there are still currently frequent inter-religious and inter-group conflicts in WNT. Even between villages, residents kill and burn one another. “Hopefully there will be peace in the future,” he commented.
Badarudin from LSBH WNT said, conflict needs to be resolved in order to achieve peace. “It’s like only when a tree is cut, new shoots can grow,” he said.
“What is peace? How to achieve that peace, there’s a lot of knowledge. There are motives and goals to achieve peace through war. Countries declare war in the name of peace. But there is a way to achieve peace by speaking in a manner of kinship, agreements, and in a way that favors both parties to be able to achieve justice,” he said.
Badarudin expressed that there is a difference in gossiping and judging. “There is a sharp difference, judging is only to the extent of knowing a person. But gossip is done through the heart of hatred for another,” he stated.
“How can we achieve peace when we can’t even accept differences? I want to ask this forum if peace can be achieved in the midst of injustice and lies?” asked Badarudin.
There are a few cases of religion that are widely used in WNT. The majority oppresses the minority. Even the act of worship is prohibited. That means that the issue of peace in WNT is not yet resolved. “Are we comfortable with this discomfort? There is not a single person that does not desire peace,” he said.
Dwi Suciana, from Mitra Samya NGO spoke about the philosophy of FingerPeace, which originated from the idea of two fingers with different shapes and different functions. Likewise, in the forestry environment, which is the main focus of the NGO.
Conflicts happen as a result of the different regulations. There is a difference in regulations between central, provincial, regencial, and village areas, that triggers insecurity and discomfort,” she said.
“Our assisted territory can be well controlled because of local wisdom. It can thankfully be controlled,” she said.
She is interested in joining the PLTE program. “How good would it be to commit to the home-schooling program wholly,” she said.
During the case of the pandemic, we are all tested from the highest level to the lowest. Responsibilities as a networker can help straighten the problems that are spreading in the community. “Those I met in Dompu, Bima, are doing fine. The conflict within the level of society is still under control, the war that is happening is a war of regulations. We are still continuing learn about peace at site level,” she said.
Selly Sembiring from the Coalition of Women in Indonesia within WNT said, “Peace has always been something that is difficult to achieve. Our clients, from the community of women and children, suffer without peace due to conflicts within their households, neighbors, and the public that is far from peaceful. There are many cases that don’t make sense, like husbands selling their wives. That is real. Wives sell gasoline and cigarettes by the roadside, but the results of their sales are taken by their husbands. It doesn’t stop there, wives are sold to other men for money, and then the money is taken to gamble. There are a few cases like this.” NGOs that specialize in accompanying children and women can face the same cases within one year.
“Even in the last 8 years, we spend our entire time handling cases of women experiencing discomfort in their own households,” she said.
“Oftentimes, religion cannot act as a mediator of peace, because religion within institutions, still prioritize themselves. That’s the issue within the NGO community. When in actuality, we can work together to solve problems with the extraordinary network that we have established, which is now better than ever before,” Selly explained.(****
