an alternate trajectory
in this motherland, i dream up the founding mothers
Text by Heidira Hadayaniwhy do we call it motherland, when Ibu Pertiwi1 is just a term we give to a nameless metaphor of the green, green land, and the blue, blue sea? why do we call it motherland, when we only ever hear about the founding fathers, and not a mention of a founding mother?
maybe we are conditioned to think of mothers are figures to be protected and shielded. the past is not always right, but it can never be changed, so we take it upon ourselves to imagine a trajectory where the motherland also means a land forged by the mothers and the women, where they are given the chance to take a centre stage and write themselves into the narrative.
[scene i.]
if the first person to ever lead this young, trembling country was a woman: maybe some details of history would be different going forward.
she would not wage a war on her neighbour2, as she knows how wars always, always, despair those who are the weakest, hurt the most to those left behind when their husbands go off to battle and do not return. she would not wage war, as wars are costly, and a woman knows how hard it is to keep your kitchen stove burning, and every penny that buys a bullet also buys rice and given the choice between dominating another land and feeding your own people, the answer would have been slightly more obvious for her.
they say women hold grudges, maybe it is true or maybe it is not, but one thing is for sure: she does not forget. she would have a memory sharp enough to remember what it feels like to be subjugated, colonised, and squeezed dry. she will not forget the unfairness of the more powerful to determine our path, and this memory will serve her well enough not to perpetuate the same sins upon her own people on the periphery3 just because it displays power to do so.
and while a male president in a virile young country would have brandished the fame and glory that comes with his newfound power, what is a woman to do? when being the mister president grants him the right to have on his arm the first lady, the missus, and the mistresses, what is a woman to do? for she might be the most powerful woman in the nation, but a woman after all, and i would like to think that she would have enough poise to not make being a Casanova her legacy4.
[scene ii.]
i am a woman and i carry the weight and expectations as the first foreign minister of the newly independent country. it is a country brave enough to break the shackles of the white men, so it is a country brave enough to redefine who can stand on a podium and address the world: and in this brave new country, a woman is allowed to do so.
i fight to draw the map and the borders of this nation fairly for my people, for the vastness of the ocean to be rightfully ours the way our ancestors have sailed its waves and fed from its fish. i fight for a seat at the table with the other world leaders, for a chance to speak our own voice, vote our own choice, wave our own flag. and i fight harder than any man ever will, to hear the apology from those who have kidnapped my sisters and my mother’s sisters to be the comfort women for a foreign army when they are nothing more than their slaves5.
and despite the country being brave and trailblazing, i am a woman and despite everything else i am still a woman so everything i do will always reflect the entirety of us — so i watch my words, the way i smile and nod and let the men speak first, the way it always is. maybe the next generation of women will be braver than we already are, maybe then they will be afforded the same grace and understanding that male leaders have.
and maybe, just maybe, in the next round of decades there will be more women sitting on big chairs in a big room with flags, level-headed women who call the shots so that maybe there will be less violence all around6.
[scene iii.]
no one understands the importance of education than a woman. education is our key to escape the fate of a young bride, married off to someone twice our age. it is a key to prove to our parents that birthing us instead of a boy will not cost them a source of income.
and so the woman appointed as the first minister of education would put her heart and soul into her work. she would continue what kartini set out to do7, ensuring girls are granted the same opportunity as boys8. maybe then the young nation will have more engineers to build better infrastructures, more doctors and scientists and agriculturalists to make sure no child goes to bed hungry, more poets and artists to leave the mark of a great nation.
she would make sure history is not his story: that the children hear as much of Keumalahayati and Cut Nyak Dien the way they do about Pattimura and Soedirman. she would give names to the women who have been fighting, and creating, and nurturing, those to whom we owe our freedom. she would fight so that no hero would be omitted from the records because they were not men9.
and i could have created dozens more of these imaginary scenes, but in truth: brave and forward-thinking women is a difficult concept to grasp.
because,
[scene iv.]
this is the reality.
the year is 1965 and the young country is rife with distrust. different thoughts are deviations, different identities are antagonists, and among all that women have always been the second sex.
and suddenly we are communist sirens trying to lure good men into godlessness. we are hypersexual, demonic zealots. at least that’s what they want you to believe. and so with that, they kill us10. they brand our bodies with cigarette stubs, our lineage with stigma.
for they only want us docile, and the motherland was not a land for the women who stand up for themselves. how do we dream of leading11, when being political means being vilified?
[end].
but what is a motherland, if it were not for women?
for we have always been there: on the forefront of the battle, among the freedom fighters and proclamators, behind the wounded soldiers nursed back to health, sewing the first flag, everywhere but in the narrative.
this particular motherland was not fair to women, and we can only wonder what would have changed today if it weren’t the way it was. as the past was not always right and it can never be changed, these paragraphs are nothing more than wishful thinking. may these wishes be kept alive, breathed into the prayers of the motherland, even if just for the hope of it all.
—
1 Ibu: Mother, Pertiwi: Land (Indonesian)
2 President Soekarno announced a “Crush Malaysia” campaign in 1963, opposing the creation of Malaysia. The intermittent confrontations continued into 1966.
3 Indonesia occupied East Timor prior to the referendum leading to the independence of Timor Leste.
4 The first actual President of the Republic was known to be a ladies man, married to and divorced from 8 wives throughout his lifetime.
5 During Japanese occupation of Indonesia, thousands of women were forced to ‘serve’ the Japanese soldiers. They were classified based on beauty.
6 In the scenario without maybes, Indonesia will wait another 69 years until a female Minister of Foreign Affairs is appointed. Sadly, the world of foreign policy remains highly male-dominated, and this is sad because men were responsible for 86 wars compared to just one by a female leader, and over 90% of all historically documented wars were initiated by men.
7 R.A. Kartini is an Indonesian woman, the author of Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang, credited for advocating education for women during Dutch colonisation.
8 Indonesia only achieved gender parity in primary education in 2019.
9 Many figures, including women, were omitted from the records of Indonesian struggle of independence. One among many is K’tut Tantri.
10 During the anti-communist purge in 1965, members of Gerwani – a women organisation affiliated with the communist party and various labour unions – were systematically targeted in mass murders and sexual violence.
11 In 2026, Indonesia still failed to achieve the 30% gender quota in the Parliament.
Artist Statement looking back, the history of our nation is dominated by male figures. this writing prompts readers to imagine an alternative trajectory that would have unfolded if women had held key positions in the newly-independent state. As a disclaimer, it is true that there is no proof that women leaders are inherently peaceful or automatically make better decisions than their male counterparts, however it is true that the current global structure, militarised violence, and oppressions are often entangled with hypermasculinity. we have a long, long way to go -- for this brief moment, let us dream.