RIVER, RESISTANCE, AND WOMEN’S RESILIENCE IN INDONESIAN, MALAYSIAN, AND VIETNAMESE FICTIONS

This study looks at how rivers, resistance, and women’s struggle intertwine with each other in three fictions, i.e., Jamangilak Tak Pernah Menangis, “Ibu dan Ceper," and "A River's Mystery," set in, respectively, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Not only has a river become life-giving forces, but it is also a locus of diverse social conflicts where women are often the most victimized yet survived. Making use of ecofeminism and related theoretical concepts such as Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato si’ on the environment and human ecology, this study examines the female characters and their ordeals. Using content analysis methods, this study reveals that first, the ecological economy depends on water sustainability, where women try very hard to protect nature against degradation. Second, the abuse of women is seen in parallel with the abuse of nature. This study concludes that the women's resistance against patriarchy and their resilience in dealing with nature in the three stories confirms the theoretical relevance of ecofeminism for the reading of Southeast Asian fiction.


INTRODUCTION
For most people in Southeast Asian countries, farming is a way of life. Flowing rivers and sprawling rice fields are symbols of energy and life-giving force for people in Southeast Asia with which they often become the backdrop of literary works from the region (Dobbs, 1994;Esterik, 2008;Kroef, 1952). Fables, folklore, myths, and various cultural expressions in Vietnam are inseparable from the familiarity of the nation with rivers and rice fields (Hiên et al., 2004;Sy, 1996;Thiep, 1996). Harmony in the rice planting rite fits with the lifestyle and uniqueness of Asian culture that upholds cooperation, mutual cooperation, and family spirit. Nawigamune (in Berno, Dentice & Wisansing, 2019) says that Thai farmers carry out various folk entertainments with lively dances and songs along the Chao-Praya River when the harvest times arrive. Rivers are almost always present in different agrarian landscapes in this part of the continent. It is, therefore, safe to say that Southeast Asian people typically live near the river banks. Rivers not only provide people with clean, fresh water, but they also offer food sources like fish and shrimp, to say nothing of such building materials like sand and stones plus their function as reasonably priced transportation lines.
However, for nearly all nations in Southeast Asia, rivers are also the seed of disputes when they are disturbed (Boomgard, 2007;Chiba, 2010). For example, in the name of development, natural resources along the Mahakam River and East Kalimantan become severely polluted (Nooteboom & de Jong, 2010). The Balok River's metal pollution level in Pahang, Malaysia, continually increases because of the manufacturing activities in the nearby Gebang Industrial area (Abdullah, Louis & Abas, 2015). Pollution crisis in Mekong Delta, Vietnam has threatened people and other living creatures, not to mention its corollary impacts on land degradation (Olson & Morton, 2018). Indeed, other examples of ecological risks to the water body are too many to mention. Irresponsible industrial waste discharges have severely damaged the surrounding areas. Although playing a central role in the lives of Southeast Asian people, rivers are under threat of ecological degradation due to various disaster-prone development projects carried out carelessly.
To move to the world of literature, much research on Indonesian novels with rivers as the story's setting has been conducted (Bandel, 2008;Septiningsih, 2015;Hardiningtyas, 2016;Dewi, 2017). However, judging from the theories and methods used, most of the previous studies applied structuralist, stylistic, postcolonial, gender, and other critical theories. Ecofeminism reading has not been used much for Southeast Asian literary works that carry related themes. Women are almost always present in the vortex of problems surrounding the river, and women are often the victims in real disputes. The literary representation of rivers in Southeast Asian context that the current study aims to reveal is essential to contribute to the wealth of ecofeminist reading so far dominated by Western literary works with diverse themes (e.g., Ralph, 2020;Alkhattabi, 2019;Wu, 2019;Bo, 2018;Rowland, 2015).
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to see precisely the representation of rivers and conflicts in a variety of short stories and novels that feature women as the main characters. It examines how each story depicts the river as either a friend or foe while portraying the women in the narratives. Additionally, it will also observe why the oppression of women and nature has continued from colonial times. The ongoing imbalanced power relations need to be addressed, given the little attention paid to this issue in literary studies. Among the rarity is Indriyanto's (2019) study that points out the perpetuating oppression toward the marginalized groups in American, Caribbean, and Asian countries as a result of environmental destruction. Examining Kiana Davenport's Shark Dialogues, he claims that a few studies delve into environmental imperialism in the Pacific region (Indriyanto, 2019, p. 3). By limiting itself to discussing women and environmental themes in the three Southeast Asian countries, this current study may shed some light on how literary works can transform the entire world into a better place (Bennett, 2005).

READING WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT
It was the French feminist Françoise d'Eaubonne who coined the term "ecofeminism" in her book Feminism or Death, published in 1974 describing the critical role of feminism in dealing with environmental and gender issues (Krishna & Jha, 2014). By the end of the twentieth-century, ecofeminism has been recognized as a movement that is pro-women, environment, and all marginalized groups. Ecofeminism claims that the oppression of women is related to the oppression of nature as an ideology and movement. Such as the behavior and practice with a masculine orientation that commonly occurs in societies that glorify patriarchy. Even though the Indian religion, for example, worships nature as Mother Earth or Mother Goddess, patriarchal culture remains strong and oppressive (Vijayaragavan, 2020). The Ecofeminist movement aims at liberating women and nature from the oppression of all kinds.
The basic principles of ecofeminism are to examine three main concerns as follows: (1) relations between nature and women, (2) dominance over nature and women, and (3) patriarchal discourse (Ling, 2014). Modern capitalism, which relies on technology and economic expansion, gives birth to competitiveness and desire that is never satisfied in terms of accumulating assets, including natural resources. The patriarchal ideology that underlies this desire always to master and conquer is not only detrimental to the marginalized groups affected, such as women, children, and the poor people in developing countries, but it also threatens the long-term sustainability of the universe. Ecofeminism theory is thus a counternarrative against the capitalist and patriarchal discourse in defense of ecology and gender justice. It seeks to challenge all types of domination over people and the environment as they are interdependent. Puleo (2017, p. 30) defines ecofeminism as an attempt to expose a new utopian horizon that handles environmental problems without using patriarchal categories, androcentric ideology, and sexism. In this sense, ecofeminism includes becoming a mother, seeking food sovereignty, and organizing environmental education as early as possible to guide the community towards sustainable development. In this present research, ecofeminism approach will be used to read literary works from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Ecofeminist reading used here is to interpret environmental issues depicted in the selected fiction using the anti-patriarchy stance. The purpose is to liberate both women and the environment from oppression.

River as a Friend and a Foe
Set against the toxic waste disaster in the Asahan River, the Indonesian fiction Jamangilak Tak Pernah Menangis [Jamangilak Never Cries]

by Martin Aleida tells about
Molek's struggle to solve the pollution problem in the river that was caused by the unused industrial materials discharged from a multinational rayon manufacturer in Sumatra. She requested that the authorities suspend the company's business permits because its waste polluted the river where the residents caught fish, bathed, and used the water for their daily needs. However, Molek's attempt failed. This novel carries the message that the weak caring about the environment and the suffering of people around them are, ironically, ignored by the power holders. As the story unfolds, we see that the brutality continues in post-conflict times where economic and political interests collide. Molek was tortured and harassed as soon as the local government found out that her son was a political fugitive in Indonesia's 1965 coup.
In the Malaysian short story, "Ibu dan Ceper" [Mother and Ceper] by Shahnon Ahmad, the Ceper River was initially clean and clear, but it soon became polluted due to unexpected flooding. Muddy rivers failed the rice plants; even the narrator's mother fell into the river until she became crippled. No one except Ibu paid attention to and cared for the river. In the dry season, the fish died, and people suffered because of the shortages of water. In the end, Ibu left this world forever accompanied by the gradually dying of the formerly bubbly Ceper River.
The last story from Vietnam is written by Bao Ninh, depicting the river as an enemy. The female characters do not play many roles because "A River's Mystery" tells about the secret of the narrator, who lived with his only daughter, the beautiful one. When his wife gave birth, a big flood came and swept away the houses in their village. He helped his wife and the newly-born baby by holding on to the branches of a banyan tree, the only thing that did not collapse. As the water continued to rise, the residents fought over each other to hang on the tree. Upon hearing a woman crying in a weak voice asking for help to save her baby, the narrator came to help the baby before the woman was swept away by the water. It was at the very moment that the narrator's wife lost her grip. She ran after the baby that fell into the rapidly rotating whirlpool. After being soaked for hours in the river and failed to look for his wife and the baby, the narrator fainted from exhaustion. When he regained consciousness, a baby girl was presented to him accompanied by prayers and advice from the helpers so that he would stay alive and healthy to care for the surviving baby that later grown into a beautiful girl. No one knew that the narrator's very own newborn gone missing with its mother was a baby boy, and this secret was kept carefully despite his heartbreak every time he gazed at the river.
Having gone through each story, the rest of this article will examine (1) Relations between women and nature, (2) Domination of women and nature, and (3) Resistance toward patriarchy. It seeks to measure the extent to which these three ecofeminist tenets appear in the fiction under investigation.

Relation of Women and Nature
In Martin Aleida's Jamangilak Tak Pernah Menangis, the female characters are described as very familiar with the environment; the river of Asahan had given support and sustenance for the women in their daily activities. Among the women, Molek was the one who was concerned about the mounting sand layers on the Asahan River. She loved and respected the river that gave her life. Because of this, she became furious when the river turned increasingly shallow, buried by the waste from the nearby rayon factory in Porsea, Sumatra. Molek made the following comments: We remind the government. It is never too late to save the river. Do not let the government only collect taxes from the people. Where is the tax money spent by the government if not for maintaining the river? If the river becomes dry, it gets dry, where does it get the money? Does the government also want to let itself die? What kind of government is that...? (Aleida, 2004, p. 19) [Translation added] From the above quotes, it is clear that the local government was unaware of the need to care for the environment. Thus, it would be hard to fulfill Molek's demand. Conglomerates, local authorities, and whoever took advantage of the multinational factory would likely repudiate her actions. There is a powerrelation that is not simple here, and the natural environment becomes the cause. To quote Laudato si', "technological and economic developments that do not leave a better world and a better quality of life as a whole cannot be considered progress" (Francis, 2015, p. 144). Here, sustainable development is absent in the society depicted in the novel.
Given her intimacy to the river, Molek condemned those who ruined her environment and source of livelihood. Among them are the factory owners who did not appreciate nature's existence except for its usefulness for people and profit. Ecofeminism and the Papal Encyclical Letter defy this anthropocentric view of the corporate and business world. Everything is interconnected; nature cannot be seen as something separated from humans or even of lower status than humans. Today's natural destruction is a debt that must be paid by tomorrow's generation, as illustrated well in the closing of Aleida's novel: For two years, a maltreated river had to postpone the change of fate it had given to a woman who vowed to do something to save the river. [...] Negligence has made thousands of people living on the banks of the river have to wait for the presence of someone who can convince that its own environmentally conscious residents will secure the port city threatened with sinking. Otherwise, the Asahan River will remain a mere stopover, where people make a fortune and gather wealth, as promised by every port city (Aleida, 2004, p. 239).
The novel clearly illustrates that human beings are always craving for mastering nature without end. The presence of the rayon company was a clear indication. Its existence was worsened by the conspiracy with the local government officials who hardly showed any concerns about water pollution. Worse still, in addition to this anthropocentric attitude, there was also a dominating stance shown by the male characters toward women. The men in the novel disregarded the ability of a woman to solve pollution problems. In this novel, the cry of the suffering women represented by Molek had passed unnoticed in the man-controlled society.
As for the short story from Malaysia, the portrayal of women caring for nature is also evident in the narrator's mother, Ibu. Like the Ceper River that moved with the fish, slammed the sloping cliffs into the deep groves, Ibu was a person full of life bouncing like a waterfall and cannot stay quiet all day. The narrator tells the reader about his mother as follows.
If in the morning, it is [my] mother who plows and combs the whites. She is the one who has the seeds' cornerstone and plants the seeds with the bones of the four limbs of a helpless mother-the mother who chases birds when they are yellow. Furthermore, the same mother who harvests the rice until it is filled with fondness goes into the granary (Ahmad, 2011). Therefore, Ibu looked upset with the Ceper River, which was increasingly contaminated because people dumped garbage of all kinds into the river to become progressively low and filthy due to the magnitude of waste piles. Transported together with the trash were carcasses that polluted the formerly clear water. Below is the description of the river before it was polluted.
It shook its water so rapidly as an arrow that just came out of the bow. Moreover, the fountain bursts into the cliffs to create deep grooves, along the ground with its luminous fish, with the shrimps and their young, soft greenish moss and glittering like beads shaded by the light (Ahmad, 2011).
The pastoral image of the Ceper River disappears by the end of the story. This story illustrates that irresponsible human behaviors exacerbate pollution, industrial waste, and household trashes.
Fresh drinking water that Ibu in Ahmad's fiction worried about is an issue highlighted by Laudato si' about global injustice. Access to water in several parts of the world is weak, while the developed countries have an abundant supply of water but used carelessly. Pope Francis calls for "ecological conversion"; The Holy Sea has implored people to change their compulsive habit of littering, waste, and consumerism into a modest lifestyle and equity to all creations (Francis, 2015, p. 161). Environmental damage affects human's dignity because the ecological crisis has its human roots. The lavish lifestyle and consumeristic practices of people nowadays are insults to the environment. The rights of the future generations are at stake if consumerism and greed should continue. The Pope talks about the throwaway culture that severely affects the entire planet. It requires a radical determination to break the habit by transforming ourselves ecologically as well as spiritually. It is a sin to hurt nature as the cocreation of God -brother sun, sister moon, brother river, and mother earth. This concept is nothing new and found in all religions, including Hinduism, as mentioned earlier. Today, the zero-waste lifestyle will determine the planet earth's future, unlike the polluted Ceper River illustrated in Ahmad's story that took the life of Ibu. Here, the call is thus urgent to save this ailing world. It is the world that has been so wounded that the poor, especially women and children, suffer terribly.
Compared to the other two stories, "A River's Mystery" depicts nature most unfavorably, taking it for granted that the nature that turns fierce is not human-made. It is depicted in Bao Ninh's story that the force of nature is controlling (like the flooding river) and unserviceable (like the banyan tree). The author writes: "More people landed in our tree, which began to look like an overloaded boat running aground" (Ninh, 1996, pp. 108).
Next, the branch of the tree shook violently when he bent down to reach someone, causing his wife panic and the newly-born baby in her arms sliding down into the river.
Since the main character in this Vietnamese fiction is male, not much is to say about the intimate relationship between women and nature. The wife of the protagonist hardly has a role in it. Women were weak in this story as they became victims of such ferocious nature like heavy rain and flood. Read between the ecofeminist lines, the fact that at least two women died in the story shows that the natural environment is fierce. The other implied message is that women are weak, and men, nonetheless, are strong. Set approximately during the Vietnam War with "a wave of American warplanes," "roaring of the jet engines," and "horrendous exploding of bombs" (Ninh, 1996, p. 107), it is not surprising that the depiction of a masculine character prevails. However, this strong man was defeated by nature as "the river thundered through the leave and crashed down onto the rice fields" (Ninh, 1996, p. 107). The description of nature here confirms the anthropocentric tone of the short story.

Domination of Women and Nature
Human beings seem to have all the rights to rule over the universe and everything in it. People should have been in partnership with nature. As it is, natural disasters are but human-made, ecological problems. Such problems are triggered by uncontrollable human activities with which nature rebels and turns, inevitably, against people. The river from where the residents in Jamangilak Tak Pernah Menangis caught fish, took a bath, and procured water for the household use had become contaminated. The local government turned a blind eye to this disaster. Braving herself to meet the Regent, Molek questioned him about the people's taxes, at least to remove the heap of sand in the river. The heroine's efforts thwarted. Once the authorities had known that Molek's son was a runaway political detainee, they abused her like they abused the Asahan River.
The pollution of the Asahan River is evidence of the avarice of the day's power to ignore the ordinary people's sufferings. Big multinational companies have succeeded in buying off the officials to misuse their power for private gains at environmental deterioration. Here again, the Papal encyclical rings true: Environmental damage is inseparable from human and ethical degradation. Therefore, this finding is comparable to the study done by Hardiningtyas (2016) that unveils the land and water damages in Bali because of tourism, as seen in ten poems written by Made Adnyana Ole. The Balinese poet calls for environmental awareness since people have exploited and profited from nature in the name of the tourism industry. In this way, literary works like this Indonesian novel discussed can mourn and warn about people's ill-treatment towards nature. Therefore, literature is a reminder for people to protect and care for the environment as fellow living beings whose presence is to support each other.
To some extent, "Ibu dan Ceper" displays anthropocentrism. Indeed, the human conviction that natural resources, including plants and animals, matter only if they are beneficial for people is often portrayed in the literature (e.g., Cadman, 2016;Rajendra & Taib, 2017;Xiaohan, 2019). Some classic literature implies that it is right and just for people to make use of natural resources at will. Here, Ahmad's story is not immune either to this anthropocentric tendency. It can be inferred in the story that human supremacy over nature is, nevertheless, normal. The depiction of nature that is subordinate and later turns against human beings is evident in the following quotes: One day, the Ceper River flooded in the upstream area. The water turned cloudy, and the overflow damaged the fields. That year, all the villagers ate cassava as the rice disappeared. After the flood stopped, the dry season arrived. The Ceper River lost its water. It became dry and badly smelled. The fields got dry and died. As a result, my mother had to go to the well to get water. (Ahmad, 2011) To compare with Ahmad's "Manakala Sungai" (Ahmad, 1995), this more extensive work tells of the revenge of a river for having been mistreated by people driven by their greed and obsession with technology. Here the river makes friends with rain, wind, thunder, and lightning to avenge people. Consequently, the rivers are no longer friends, but instead, they are considered opponents. Such is the proclivity of human beings to dominate. People quickly blame nature instead of blaming themselves for the damage.
Similarly, "A River's Mystery" also depicts the river as an enemy. The character is a soldier on duty who was unable to leave his post, although it was the day when his firstborn baby arrived in this world. However, when "the storm raged for several more hours" and "the river stopped rising, but its current remained strong," the soldier rushed home only to see that his village had been nearly sunk (Ninh, 1996, p. 107). The incessant rain washed the village, and many people lost their lives. The heavy rain severely damaged the villagers' houses and other properties. In that particular time of the year, the rain was no longer a friend for people in the story set against Vietnam's agrarian culture during the civil war. Here is the description of the angry river: The village is wholly submerged in water. I had just managed to get my family up to the roof when a second tide swept in. In an instant, the thatched roof was spirited away into the night. Luckily, it got caught up in the banyan tree branches where it sat precariously suspended as the tide threatened to rip it to shreds. (Ninh, 1996, p. 107) When observed through the theory of ecofeminism, the depiction of the river in Bao Ninh's short story is that of a foe. It claimed the lives of two women and a baby. In this case, the story shows partiality to human beings, represented by the narrator, the husband of one of the women. Here nature is described as an enemy of humankind, and women are considered as the troublesome parties. Amid the natural disaster, the women in this short story cannot help themselves and their new-borns, but the man, to say the least, can save one of the babies. The male voice is the mode that predominates, still, in this Vietnamese story.

Resistance to Patriarchy
In Jamangilak Tak Pernah Menangis, the author presents a female figure who dares to fight the power of men and their patriarchal ideology. In this case, the holders of patriarchal ideology are represented by the entrepreneurs; most of them are community leaders and supporters who do not care about environmental preservation. According to Bandel (2008), the main character of this novel is extraordinarily an independent woman, unlike stereotyped women in Indonesian literature in general, such as wives, mothers, the husband's companion, and housekeepers. Molek's independence and resilience are seen through her determination to fight for the public interests by protesting against the polluted river in her village. Molek comes across as a shrewd, strong-willed, and steadfast person. The novelist describes Molek as follows.
The departure of her husband did not burden her. Only sand, mud, and whatever make the river shallow, which stifled her mind, which continually comes to blow her mind. (Aleida, 2004, p. 29) Here, Molek single-mindedly made an effort to overcome the pollution problem without the help of her husband, who had left the village earlier on to try his luck in other places. Unlike her husband, Molek chose to stay at home instead of following him to seek better fortune in town. Molek endured both the economic and socio-environmental problems all alone. Thus, viewed from the perspective of ecofeminism, Molek resisted men's power, including the local officials, who ruined Molek's good intentions in saving the water from further contamination.
Right from the beginning, Molek was a strong, tough woman. She was a wife and mother who was "extraordinary by a measure of average woman," thus appearing more audacious than her husband (Aleida, 2004, p. 39). Molek was the one to challenge the army men who sometimes came to their house asking for money by force. When the roof tile broke, we were told that she was the one who had it fixed, not her husband. Given her strength, bravery, and determination, Molek was capable of mobilizing public protest about the poisoned river; and Molek's action was more appealing to the women than the men in her village. No men joined the demonstration led by Molek. It was a woman protest march, and it was her persistence that infuriated the authorities who were mostly male. Regardless of her failure, resistance to patriarchy is evident here.
Similarly, a strong-woman-resistingman image is also present in Shahnon Ahmad's story. The figure of the mother in "Ibu dan Ceper" shows her frustration with the husband, who was absorbed in the hobby of bird shooting and hardly cared about the environmental damage. This woman did not hesitate to scold her irresponsible husband, saying this: "A man who is not aware of himself. Does not know his responsibility. The flood has killed our rice; he is still playing with the petition the bird. What kind of husband he is!" (Ahmad, 2011).
In comparison to the husband in Aleida's fiction, here, the husband is cast as being even more indolent. The depiction of the lazy male character is compelling by showing his habit of tending his pet birds, while Ibu had to struggle alone to fight with the polluted river. It was her lone environmental battle that later caused her sickness and, eventually, death.
In contrast, resistance to patriarchal culture is not seen in "A River's Mystery." Written by Bao Ninh who was born in 1952 in Hanoi, this story tells the sadness of a man who is left alone by the death of his beloved wife and biological child, and he cares for other people's child whom he has to keep secret as if she were his flesh and blood. Like his famous novel, The Sorrow of War, published in 1993, this short story is full of sadness. The mysterious river used as the background of the story highlights the depiction of a character who is sadly left forever by the persons dearest and closest to him. Bao Ninh's own experience in the Vietnam War likely influenced this kind of characterization and storyline. As a member of the 500 Youth Brigade, Bao Ninh was one of ten young men who survived the ferocious war. It would seem here that the author's real experience of grief resonates with the character when viewing the river. "The river and history have changed," Bao Ninh writes: "But I have never recovered from my pain." (Ninh, 1996, pp. 110) Based on the description above, it can be concluded that the river is an inseparable part of the three literary works set in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The river is a source of life and a site of resistance to the main character under discussion. The women in the stories, in one way or another, show their resilience in coping with the dreadful conditions of the place in which they live. Ecofeminism, therefore, helps unearth the anthropocentric biases shown in different levels in the works studied. Unveiling human chauvinism, the reading of the three fictions thus proves that humans are not separate from nature. Endowed with unique dignity, human beings should care for the earth as a shared home and live in harmony with other creatures (Francis, 2015). Therefore, abuse to nature is but human beings' self-degradation as shown invariably in the three stories.

CONCLUSION
This study has shown that environmental degradation is central in Jamangilak Tak Pernah Menangis, "Ibu dan Ceper," and "A River's Mystery." All of them utilize the river as the backdrop of the story, each in its distinctiveness. The river is characteristic of the three countries where the story is set, i.e., Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The river is depicted very well by each author as either a friend or a foe.
This study has also shown that ecofeminism and some related concepts on ecological conversion and natural conservation help to uncover the bond between women and nature -a liaison proven by the engagement and concerns of the female characters in taking care of the rivers. Allfemale characters in the three fictions are environmental strugglers. Whether they like it or not, these women have to farewell and safely in coping with environmental problems caused by ruthless exploiters. They are resilient and willing to fight to protect the environment not only for their safety but also for that of other people or their families. Conversely, the portrayal of the male figures is that of men who hardly care about nature; even the river is considered a source of disaster for one of the characters. In difficult times such as wars and social conflicts, men's involvement in the issue of sustainability or food security is almost non-existent. Unlike women who have ethical relationships with nature, men tend to run away from the environmental problem. Women are the ones who struggle to solve the problem even though it is not supported or, all the more so, obstructed by men. It is where the oppression of women intertwined with the dominance of patriarchal culture in treating women and nature. In the three literary pieces from Southeast Asia discussed in this study, women and nature are close friends who have to deal with their common enemy named patriarchy.