Nurmala Kartini Sjahrir (born as Kartini Boru Pandjaitan, February 1, 1950) is an Indonesian anthropologist and former diplomat who served as the Indonesian ambassador to

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, accredited to

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

from August 10, 2010, to 2014. She also served as the Indonesian representative to the advisory board of ASEAN-IPR as well as a former chairwoman of ''Asosiasi Antropologi Indonesia'' (Association of Indonesian Anthropology), abbreviated as AAI.

Personal life

Early life

Kartini was born in a small hamlet of the Simargala Huta Namora, Silaen District of

Toba Regency Toba Regency is a landlocked regency in North Sumatra. Its seat is Balige. The regency covers an area of 2,021.8 square kilometres; it had a population of 173,129 at the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 206,199 at the 2020 Cen ...

North Sumatra North Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan on the east coast of the island. It borders Aceh to the northwest, Riau to the sou ...

, not far from

Lake Toba Lake Toba (, Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of the Toba supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the island of ...

. Her parents, Bonar Panjaitan and Farida Naiborhu were a conservative Toba Batak. They had five children, including Kartini the eldest amongst three daughters, the eldest son Luhut Binsar Panjaitan (the Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs of Indonesia), as well as three other siblings. In 1950s, Panjaitan and Naiborhu moved to

Pekanbaru Pekanbaru is the capital city of the Indonesian province of Riau, and a major economic center on the eastern side of Sumatra, Sumatra Island with its name derived from the Malay language, Malay (Indonesian language, Indonesian) word for 'new mar ...

, a capital of neighboring province of

Riau Riau (Jawi script, Jawi: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of the island of Sumatra, and extends from the eastern slopes of the Barisan Mountains to the Malacca Strait, including s ...

because Panjaitan was given a job to work for PT. Caltex Pacific Indonesia now

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...

. They resided in Padang Bulan, Senapelan District. There Kartini was sent to study at the SMP 1 Pekanbaru, before admitted to St. Ursula Catholic School in Jakarta. While at university, she was one of the love interests of activist

Soe Hok Gie Soe Hok Gie (17 December 1942 – 16 December 1969) was a Chinese Indonesian activist who opposed the successive dictatorships of Presidents Sukarno and Suharto. Overview Soe was an ethnic Chinese Roman Catholic, the fourth of five childr ...

. Gie referred to her with the alias Sunarti in his book ''Catatan Harian Seorang Demonstran.''

Marriage

On December 8, 1979, Kartini was married to Dr Sjahrir, one of central figures behind

Malari incident The Malari incident (; , short for ''Malapetaka Lima Belas Januari'', ) was a student demonstration and riot that happened on 15 and 16 January 1974 in Jakarta. In reaction to a state visit by the Japanese Prime Minister, Kakuei Tanaka, students ...

. As Kartini is a Christian and her husband was a Muslim, they performed their marriage in front of ''pendeta'' (Christian priest) as well as a ''penghulu'' (Muslim chieftain). They have two children,

Pandu Patria Sjahrir Pandu Patria Sjahrir (born in Boston, Massachusetts, 17 May 1979) is one of Indonesia's leading coal mining entrepreneurs. He is Chief Investment Officer of Danantara and a majority shareholder oPT Toba Bara Sejahtera a company engaged in coal m ...

and Gita Rusminda Sjahrir.

Education

She is an alumnus of famous Catholic boarding school (

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

: ''sekolah asrama'') in

Central Jakarta Central Jakarta (, ), abbreviated as Jakpus, is one of the five Cities of Indonesia, administrative cities () and ''de facto'' Capital City of the Jakarta, Special Capital Region of Jakarta. It had 902,973 inhabitants according to the 2010 census ...

, St. Ursula Catholic School. In 1976 she was graduated from

University of Indonesia The University of Indonesia (UI; ) is a public university in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest tertiary-level educational institutions in Indonesia (known as the Dutch East Indies when UI was established) ...

in 1976. During her study, Kartini joined and became a member of Mapala UI (her name is listed as Kartini Panjaitan Syahrir), one of

's most popular student organization that focused on adventure, mountaineering, and expedition. In 1975, a year before she graduated, Kartini was chosen as the organization's chairwoman. She received a master's and doctoral degree from the graduate school of

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, respectively in 1981 and 1990.

Career

Graduated from one of the most prestigious university in Indonesia, majoring anthropology, Kartini started her professional career as an assistant for Dr Melly Tan, one of senior researcher at LEKNAS (''Lembaga Ekonomi dan Kemasyarakatan Nasional''; ''National Institute of Economics and Society''). Now LEKNAS was merged with LRKN (''Lembaga Riset Kebudayaan Nasional'': National Institute of Cultural Research) into PMB (''Puslitbang Kemasyarakatan dan Kebudayaan'') OF

Indonesian Institute of Sciences The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (, or LIPI) was the governmental authority for science and research in Indonesia. It consisted of 47 research centers in the fields ranging from social to natural sciences. With the enactment of Presidential D ...

. Kartini was among the distinguished speakers of UN Human Rights Council Session 23 – Panel in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, June 3, 2013, delivering talk about supporting gender politics in harmony on the prevention of domestic violence. On 22 September 2016, Indonesia participated in the International Conference on Sustainable Development (IC-SD) at Columbia University in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Kartini chaired the Indonesia Panel, held at the Faculty House of Columbia University. Since 2019 Kartini is an independent commissioner, board member of PT Siloam Intl Hospita Tbk. She also works as a senior advisor on climate change to the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and participated as one of Indonesian delegations to the Conference of the Parties (Twenty-fifth session) which was held in Madrid, 2–13 December 2019.

Awards

*: **

Grand Cross of the

Order of May Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * ...

- September 15, 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kartini Sjahrir, Nurmala 1950 births Living people Ambassadors of Indonesia to Argentina Ambassadors of Indonesia to Uruguay Ambassadors of Indonesia to Paraguay University of Indonesia alumni Boston University alumni People from North Sumatra People of Batak descent Indonesian women anthropologists