In Women’s March on March 10, hundreds of people from women to men jointly demanded equality and rejected various forms of discrimination and sexual violence. This action is dominated by students from various universities, one of them Fisipol UGM with the call “Fisipol Goes to March” became one of the participants who participated in the action.
Not stopping at the action, Youth Studies Center (Yousure) together with Institute of International Studies (IIS) Fisipol UGM held a series of events titled “Why We Protest?” As a follow-up event after Women’s March.
The event, which took place on March 28-29, featured a few posters and documentation of the Women’s March action. The exhibition opens on March 28 with a screening of the Hunting Ground film as its opening. On March 29 and at the same time, there was a talk show that presented Poppy Sulistyaning Winanti as Lecturer of International Relations (HI) and Vice Dean of Fisipol and Priscilla Mariana as Coordinator of Women’s March Yogyakarta as a speaker.
In his presentation, Priscilla told how the process and continuation of the action Women’s March yesterday. Priscilla revealed, there are 11 major demands brought in yesterday’s action. Where the demands come from various communities and individuals who participated. “The 11 issues raised are not just proposals from one community or one individual, but they are rounded off on consolidation,” he said.
Of the 11 demands, sexual violence is one of the highlights of the action. This is because sexual violence is still a crucial issue in Indonesia. Not only will occur in public places, even the university environment is also not spared from the threat of sexual violence.
Poppy confirmed that. Even in his presentation, Poppy was emotionally read testimony-testimony from the survivors of sexual violence on campus.
Poppy reveals that the handling of violence is out of mind unfair. “A lot of people are doubting, ‘it’s really not sex violence’, that’s just a question that does not empathize with survival or who experiences it,” he explained.
According to him, we should all formulate a wise and tactile way how the procedure handles the issue of sexual violence at all levels not only students, but also lecturers or all residents who are on campus. So the campus really becomes a “zero sexual violence” environment can be realized.
At UGM itself since 2016 and has formulated guidelines or regulations on abuse and violence in the campus area. Where the guidelines are stated in the Rector Decision of Universitas Gadjah Mada. 1699 UM1.P SK 2016 on Guidelines for Sexual Harassment in UGM. Contents distinguish or categorize various kinds of abuse such as academic, sexual abuse, to abuse of power. In this case, Poppy asserted that the peraturaan is a small form of campus efforts in response to the issue. Poppy also added that the Department of HI in 2016 also issued guidelines on sexual violence. The guidelines are issued on the basis of the results of the study of both students S1 and S2 students.
Therefore, Poppy suggested to anyone to dare to report to the right parties. “Do not be embarrassed if friends experience it all and have to dare to speak up. Find help to your closest friends and let us know as your parents on campus. Surely friends need support from all of us, “he said.
On this occasion, one survivor or survival of sexual violence in 2002 was also present in the middle of the discussion participants. He reveals how the struggle to survive the event. “It was a very lonely, painful experience, even decades after that it was still very painful,” he said. He also strongly affirmed that the word survivor is a form of appreciation for those who experience it. For him, the survivor was not only a person who received ill-treatment, but also survived what happened. (/ ran)