Asian women face uphill struggle in coming elections

Asian women face uphill struggle in coming elections

Mark McCord, Agence France-Presse, Hong Kong

Female politicians in Asia will remain in the minority when it comes to wielding real power despite the important role of women in at least three presidential elections this year, analysts and observers say.

Presidents Megawati Soekarnoputri of Indonesia and Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines are both running for the top seats, and while Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga was not standing it was she who called Saturday's election following a row with the prime minister.

According to the United Nations-affiliated Asian Pacific Women's Information Network Center (APWINC), Asian countries have returned more female leaders to power in the past 30 years than any other region in the world.

An Asian-Pacific nation, New Zealand was the first to give women the vote when the then Legislative Council granted universal suffrage in September 1893.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a worldwide forum for parliamentary politics, lists New Zealand as having the highest proportion of female representatives in the region -- some 28.3 percent of seats in its lower chamber.

But observers say the statistics in Asia hide the fact that political and cultural prejudices mean women continue to play a comparatively small decision-making role.

Many female leaders are in power because they have the backing of big political families and in many cases are the latest generation of long political dynasties.

Megawati, like Sonia Gandhi, the leader of India's Congress opposition party, is among a group of leaders that could be termed the children -- and in Gandhi's case the wives -- of the revolution.

Megawati's father Sukarno was the first president of Indonesia following the end of Dutch colonial rule. Gandhi, the Italian- born wife of slain former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, is the latest in the line of succession from India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Kumaratunga was almost destined to become leader: her parents were former prime ministers Sirimavo and SWRD Bandaranaike.

Arroyo, also for instance, who contests national polls on May 10, is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal, who was president from 1961 to 1965.

She followed her late father into politics in 1995 as a senator. It is said that of all the presidents who occupied Malacanang Palace since the end of the Ferdinand Marcos regime, she is the only one who lives in the same room she occupied when she was a girl.

In summing up Arroyo's support base, the respected Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism underlines the problem facing much of Asia.

"Most (female politicians) are elected because of the mobilization of family resources and the support of their male kin," the center said in a discussion paper. "Once in office few take on women's causes."

India, which goes to the polls on April 20 and May 10, has comparatively few female leaders, despite high-profile politicians like outspoken former movie star Jayalalitha Jayaram hogging headlines.

Indian psephologist and political analyst Yashwant Deshmukh says female representation is hampered by fundamental prejudices.

"They (women) are not considered winnable candidates," said Deshmukh. "It's a taboo that goes on. But the things are changing rapidly."

For decades, Indian politicians have been struggling with promised legislation to reserve 33 percent of all seats in parliament and state legislatures for women. The bill has eluded consensus as many parties oppose it on various grounds.

In the 1999 parliamentary elections, a total of 277 female candidates contested polls and 47 of them were elected, compared with 3,977 male contestants of whom 490 were elected to the 544- member house. The remaining seats are reserved for minority groups.

After last December's assembly elections, two female politicians were made chief ministers and today at least four Indian states are ruled by women.

Deshmukh blamed male politicians for not letting women emerge from the shadows.

"In all our surveys we have found that the idea of men opposing women in politics is wrong. They don't have a problem with women. In fact they feel women are better administrators. It's the politicians who are not letting them come up," he said.

Although Indonesian women face similar prejudices, in 2003 the country passed a law opening the way for more female members of parliament, including a clause that at least 30 percent of candidates in general elections should be women.

Unfortunately, no party actually has yet met the quota. The Muslim-oriented Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) did best, meeting the quota in 94 percent of districts.

Worsening the situation is the opposition of President Megawati herself. Although she was initially barred from the presidency partly on the grounds that a woman should not lead the world's most populous Islamic nation, she criticized the quota law.

"I do not agree, because such a quota can give rise to the notion that women can only exist (in politics) because of charity," she said at the time.

Most of the women involved in Philippine politics come from the political ruling elite and many take over seats vacated by their husbands or fathers.

Corazon Aquino, the country's first woman president, was the wife of assassinated senator Ninoy Aquino.

And senator Loren Legarda, opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe's running mate, is a former television broadcaster who married into a prominent political family.

As a study by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism pointed out: "The glass ceiling for women in politics is obvious in the legislature, even if there are many more women in the Philippine Congress than there are in other Asian parliaments.

"Still, even if the Philippines had two women presidents, women in public office are still in the minority from the (village) level up. Few women politicians make it on their own."