The sound of high heels clopped across the floor of the coffee shop.
Long, thick hair frames her face. “I come here often,” she says. “I went to a college near here.”
JP/Adélie Chevée
She used to be known by her pen name, Noriyu, under which she published fiction novels and was a regular contributor to lifestyle magazines such as Djakarta! magazine.
Nova Riyanti Yusuf had just left a session at the House of Representatives. In April 2009, the 32-year-old novelist was elected to the House as a member of the Democratic Party, the largest political party in the House.
Nova’s public life started when she appeared on the literary scene as part of the new wave of young female writers who thrived in the early noughties. “We celebrated our freedom after [the fall of] the New Order”, says Nova.
Back then, her father told her that being journalist or writer is not a promising career path for a young woman.
Bowing to her father’s pressure, Nova enrolled in medical school, earning a degree in psychiatry from the University of Indonesia. Soon after, she was a general practitioner.
But she never gave up her passion and decided that she still could pursue her dreams of becoming a writer. Focusing on the lives of urban youth, psychology and female empowerment, her first novel, Mahadewa Mahadewi (God and Goddess), published in 2003, was a hit.
Critics associated her with the rise of sastra-wangi (the fragrant literature), the breed of new female writers who explored the taboo of sex, love and ambition amongst woman.
In 2005, Muslim activist Anas Urbaningrum, currently chairman of the Democratic Party, persuaded her to join the party’s ranks. Anas said the party needed Nova for her expertise in psychiatry. Party leaders promised to nominate her for a legislative position.
She was surprised when she won the seat. “I was unable to explain my feelings then,” she said.
But she also has her own mission. As a psychiatrist, she learned first hand that not enough attention was being given to mental health issues, such as depression. Regulations on the issue have been lacking and she expects that her political position could help address those shortcomings. She was appointed to House Commission IX, which addresses demography, health, manpower and transmigration affairs.
Her first campaign is to raise awareness on the issue. She said that fighting for the rights of patients suffering from mental health diseases is a new idea.
“We have to make people aware of their rights,” she says.
Being among the small number of women in the House is also a challenge for her. “There should be more qualified women,” she says. “We have to prove who we are before we enter the House.”
It has been a steep learning curve for Nova. She has had to learn
to adapt to a new world that is fundamentally different from the intellectual world she was previously familiar with. Given the possibility that she can make impact on the society, she now carefully watches her every step as if treading on thin ice.
It is never easy to be part of an institution deemed to be one of the most corrupt in the country.
“Your conscience is always being tested as there is the chance that you might not get caught. But power comes with responsibility,” she said.
She has refused several journalists who have offered her media coverage in return for money. “I want to do something first to capture the public interest,” she said.
Nova is also aware that she has to answer to her constituents.
She bends over to check her BlackBerry. It is her link to the voters she represents in South and Central Jakarta.
To keep in touch with them she uses social networking sites like Facebook, Friendster and Twitter. “I log on to Twitter to get their feedback,” she says. Todays “tweets” accuse her of being ill-informed and wasting taxpayers’ money.
“Some people are skeptical,” she says with a frown.
As a novelist she was a free-spirit, one who had the freedom to express anything without having to worry about other people’s reaction. “I do not write as freely as I used to,” she admits. “I am more in control of this freedom,” she added.
“You have to repress the person in you who wants to be more carefree, to be more in line with what other people wants you to be,” Nova says.
When asked if she would run for a second term, Nova said she was unsure. She wants to see how her first term works out. “I am just glad that I have another skill,” she says, referring to her medical training. Politics is uncertain, she said.
What is certain, however, is that she is not giving up writing. Nova is working on a new book, in collaboration with a friend living in New York. Besides that project, she keeps on writing opinion pieces and the minutes from the House session, not to mention her private diary.
For a memoir? “Maybe,” she grins, “who knows?”
As a novelist she was a free spirit, one who had the freedom to express anything without having to worry about other people’s reaction.
