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.