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Empowerment or privilege? Minister Bintang's challenge
Known as Bintang Puspayoga in Bali, her name is tied to her husband’s social stature and family. In this privileged position, she may not have experienced the difficulties of an ordinary Balinese working-class woman.
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Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati, better known as Bintang Puspayoga, greets the press during the announcement of the Indonesia Onward Cabinet in Jakarta on Wednesday. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati has joined President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s new Cabinet. Known primarily as the wife of a former cooperatives minister, she will face many challenges as the new women’s empowerment and child protection minister. Her Balinese background illustrates, in part, the challenges many Indonesian women face in custom-bound communities.
Balinese society is deeply influenced by patriarchy, marginalizing women in family and community affairs. Traditionally, women are not involved in decision-making nor entitled to an inheritance, and they are vulnerable in cases of marriage and divorce.
Contemporary Balinese women have a threefold burden. First, they bear the responsibility for reproduction. Second, as tourism has forced up living costs, many women must seek extra income for their families. Finally, Balinese women must maintain cosmic harmony through complex ritual offerings during daily, half-yearly and annual religious cycles.
The weight of these burdens may differ among women depending on their social class and position within the Balinese caste system. Bintang was born into a noble family within the ksatrya caste and is married to Anak Agung Puspayoga, a noble from Puri Satrya (Satrya Palace) in Denpasar, Bali’s capital. He was the cooperatives minister during President Jokowi’s first term.
In this privileged position, she may not have experienced the difficulties of an ordinary Balinese working-class woman. It is, therefore, vital for her to cultivate a sensibility to the problems of women at the bottom of society — mainly marginalization.
Known as Bintang Puspayoga in Bali, her name is tied to her husband’s social stature and family. Her father-in-law was a prominent figure in the provincial branch of the ruling party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), with close ties since the 1980s to its chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri. This is the political connection that situates the Satrya Palace at the center of local party power.
Therefore palace members have access to political positions on the island. Puspayoga, Bintang’s husband, for instance, was Denpasar’s mayor and Bali’s deputy governor before becoming minister. Bintang’s brother, I Gusti Ngurah Jaya Negara, also from the PDI-P, was recently Denpasar’s deputy mayor.
