Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua,Thu, December 05 2013, 12:26 PM
Berlinda Ursula Mayor made history when she became the first Papuan woman to serve as chairperson of a district court in Papua since the region was officially integrated into the Republic of Indonesia 50 years ago.
Linda Mayor, as she is commonly called, was installed as chairperson of the Wamena District Court by Papua High Court chairman Arwan Byrin on Nov. 18, replacing outgoing chairman Timotius Djemy. Linda has now become the pride of the Papuans.
“Since the integration of Papua, this region has had only 25 judges. The number is disproportionate to the vast area and difficult geography of Papua. But I’m proud of the achievement of Berlinda Mayor, hopefully she will execute her duty very well and I trust in her capability,” said Papua Governor
Lukas Enembe in his message on the
occasion.
“I’m very proud of her because after Papua’s 50-year integration into the republic, only this time has a Papuan woman been given the opportunity to assume district court chairmanship, and the first to occupy the position is Linda,” said Djimmy, deputy speaker of the West Papua Regional Council.
“Opportunities should be allowed for natives of Papua to become leaders, otherwise we wouldn’t witness the inauguration of Linda as head of the Wamena District Court. In spite of the great potential available, nothing will happen without proper opportunity, and this has been the case in Papua so far,” said regent of Pegunungan Bintang, Wellinton Wenda.
The Wamena District Court’s jurisdiction covers the regencies in Papua’s Central Highlands, which are Jayawijaya, Tolikara, Pegunungan Bintang, Nduga, Lanny Jaya, Memberamo Tengah, Yahukimo and Yalimo. Before her present assignment in Wamena, Linda Mayor built her career as a judicial candidate in the Sorong District Court in 1992 and was installed as the first female judge in the Timika District Court in 2002.
Linda’s career further rose when in 2011 she was named deputy chairperson of the Wamena District Court. “As deputy of the Wamena district court in 2011, I was already thinking of my likely leadership in this court because normally a judge has to be a deputy in the relevant court before assuming the chairmanship,” said Linda, who had also served as a judge in Jayapura, Probolinggo (East Java) and Sukoharjo (Central Java) during the period 2004-2011.
When installed as head of the Wamena District Court, Linda claimed to have been reminded of her late father, Efraim Mayor, who was the first Papuan to become a judge. “I imagined that my father was smiling at me at the time, which made me deeply moved. My heart said that my dad’s struggle had come to fruition as I fulfilled his expectation,” she said.
Linda never aspired to become a judge. In fact, the young Linda wanted to be a nurse. The anxiety shown by her father, who saw no other Papuans serving as judges, however, finally changed Linda’s dream. “As I was a child, father was already the one and only Papuan judge.
He kept striving to persuade Papuan youngsters to follow in his footsteps. From that moment, I was determined to make his wish come true and forget my own dream,” she recalled.
Efraim Mayor was one-time chairman of the district courts of Jayapura and Sorong, before his last appointment as chairman of the Papua High Court. In order to enter the judiciary, after graduating from senior high school in Malang, East Java, Linda joined the School of Law at Merdeka University, also in Malang.
As Linda acknowledged, the toughest experience in her career was when she had to pass a verdict on a divorce case. “Maybe because I’m a woman, I found it very tricky to make a decision.
“I thought the woman to be divorced would face a hard life as she was jobless and had to support seven children. I could imagine how she would suffer. After pronouncing the sentence I entered my room and cried,” she said.
Senior judges warned her against being emotionally carried away in handling such cases and advised her to adopt a firm attitude without displaying any sadness. “Since then I’ve become strong enough and quite
capable of making such decisions.
“As a judge I continue to uphold the rules in force but my conscience also considers all relevant aspects in providing legal service. In the end, the law is above all,” Linda said.
Linda sees her position as first woman leader of the district court in Papua as a challenge to give her best judicial performance. Instead of being only satisfied with her present office or even aiming just for the highest position ever occupied by her late father as Papua’s high court chairman, Linda aspires to be a Supreme Court justice. “I wish to be even better still, as the first Papuan Supreme Court justice.”
Berlinda was born in Jayapura on Dec. 4, 1974, as the fourth of seven children. She is married to Rulando EH Rumainum, a Mimika regency civil servant, with two 6-year-old twins.