Activists want more woman representatives
Activists want more woman representatives
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Women activists demanded the executive board of political parties
on Tuesday arrange legislative candidates alternately between men
and women to give women a greater chance to meet the 30 percent
quota for representation in legislative bodies.
They said an alternate lineup of men and women candidates was
needed in anticipation of voters who only vote for parties, not
individual candidates.
The existing Election Law stipulates that ballots are
considered valid if voters mark the picture of the candidate and
symbol of the political party or on the symbol of the political
party only.
Activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana of the Women's Association
for Legal Aid (LBH APIK) said the stipulation could revive the
past practice when the executive board of political parties had
ultimate power to determine legislators through the list of
candidates.
"We will approach political parties to request them to arrange
the sequence of candidates alternately between men and women,"
Nursyahbani told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a
discussion on women for government reform organized by the
Partnership for Governance Reform here on Tuesday.
She emphasized that women legislative candidates must not be
put on the bottom of the list.
Nursyahbani also said women activists would fight to ensure
one of four seats at the Regional Representative Council (DPD)
from each province was held by a woman.
Fellow activist Myra Diarsi of the National Commission on
Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) concurred, but added
that a national campaign to reform the predominate paternalistic
culture was also imperative.
Both Nursyahbani and Myra were commenting on the steps to be
taken by women activists to continue the inclusion of the 30
percent quota for women legislators in the Election Law.
The inclusion of the 30 percent quota, however, is not
mandatory for political parties.
Meanwhile, Lenny Rosalin, an official from the National
Development Planning Board (Bappenas) and Dati Fatimah of the
women's empowerment group Idea, noted that poor knowledge among
civil servants of gender issues was to blame for the lack of
attention from the government on the empowerment of women.
Lenny emphasized that the gender gap could be reduced through
the allocation of more funds to finance gender-related programs,
both at national and regional administrative levels.
Among the programs expected to improve gender equality are
programs to improve women's quality of life, women's development
and empowerment, and programs to improve the role of society in
women's empowerment.
Dati Fatimah, meanwhile, suggested that the budget for all
programs should be assessed, mainly to ascertain the impact of
specific programs on gender equality.
Furthermore, she added that there should be more room for
women to participate in decision making.