TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Capt. Michiko Moningkey female soldier
Capt
Change Size
Capt. Michiko Moningkey. Courtesy of Capt. Michiko Moningke
Capt. Sanra Michiko Moningkey is a very determined person. When she sets her sights on something, she works hard to get it, and get it done well.
She was among the first enlisted women ' and the only female officer ' in the Indonesian Battalion (Indobatt) of the Garuda Contingent that was deployed to take part in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 2009.
She recalled her time of being the only woman among 1,000 Indonesian peacekeepers in the post-conflict area, saying it was not easy. She had to work hard to convince her troopers that she could be trusted to complete the tasks in difficult terrain, just like the men.
'I always wanted to show that I could do the difficult tasks just like them, and maybe even better,' the 38-year-old says.
Before going to Lebanon, Michiko said she first had to pass a series of tests. Five public information officers from each of the country's armed forces took the tests, which included physical endurance, driving on the left side of the road and psychology and ideology tests. Michiko finished first.
'I was anxious about what it would be like in a post-conflict country. I was also nervous about meeting soldiers from other countries because of the language and many things,' she said. 'But I shrugged it off and just went.'
As a public information officer, her job was to make reports about the contingent's work and send them to Army headquarters in Jakarta. And usually, the officer sent two to three releases per week, but Michiko forced herself to make two to three reports daily.
'I did that because I also wanted to let the soldiers' families in Indonesia who missed their loved ones know about their activities in Lebanon through my releases,' Michiko said.
Michiko said her deployment in Lebanon also taught her to be tough and not let her emotions get in the way of her doing her job even under the worst circumstances.
She chose, for instance, not to show how dreadful she felt during her painful monthly period but continued to work and went with the troops into the field even though the conditions were hard.
At night, when the job was done, she massaged herself to ease her abdominal cramps and wash away tiredness, while in the back of her mind she wished that her mother was there to massage her.
When she missed her family and her son, she could only hope that the network functioned properly so that she could call them or make a video call through Skype. 'If that didn't work, I just turned to my diary and listened to religious music and prayed,' the 38-year-old says.
But above all, she said the biggest challenge she and the troops faced during their deployment in Lebanon was the weather.
When the Garuda Contingent arrived in Lebanon, Michiko said they were immediately greeting by cold weather. 'It was snowing and very cold the night when we got there. We were starving and had to eat cold muffins that were hard to swallow,' she says.
But after three months, the troops finally found the rhythm to work despite the cold weather, she added. They spent a year in Lebanon.
'Every day I marked the calendar, and when it got close to the day I was to come home, I got very excited,' she says. 'I learned a lot about professionalism from my tour of duty in Lebanon, and I did my best there so feel like I have accomplished one of my goals ' serving this country.'
Born and raised in Manado, North Sulawesi, Michiko was inspired to enlist because her father was a veteran in the Army.
When she studied at Sam Ratulangi University in Manado, she found out that those with undergraduate degrees could join the Indonesian Military. 'I realized that it wasn't too late to pursue my dream,' she says.
She applied but was initially rejected because she only had a regular diploma. She then continued her studies at Hasanuddin University (Unhas) in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to complete her undergraduate degree so she could apply for the military again.
At Unhas, she joined the student regiment in order to better understand about being a soldier and to physically prepare before joining the military.
'I have always liked sports and in college I joined a shooting club, a swimming club and also learned to dive, so when I took the recruitment test I had been prepared,' Michiko says.
'And thank God, I was accepted after my first attempt. Some people I know had to try more than once to get accepted into the military.'
She was then assigned to the Air Force after undergoing a psychological test. 'My first choice was to be in the Army like my father, and my second was the Navy because of my diving skills. But apparently, the test result showed that I should be in the Air Force,' Michiko says.
She said it did not matter where she was posted as long as she could give her best to the country.
Since joining the Air Force, she has been posted in several cities, including in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara; Manado; and she is now working at the public information division at the Air Force headquarters in Jakarta.
'I still have another goal: to be able to speak about women and their roles in front of an international audience. I have prepared myself, so when the opportunity comes, I am ready to grab it,' Michiko says
