Calls mount for quota for women legislators

Calls mount for quota for women legislators

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In an effort to more accurately represent the nation in political
decisions, Minister of Women's Empowerment Sri Redjeki Sumaryoto,
several female legislators and many more activists have all
demanded that between 20 to 30 percent of legislative seats be
allocated for women.

Speaking at a seminar on the improvement of women's
participation in politics through political bills here on Monday,
they said such a quota should be clearly stipulated in the draft
laws to be deliberated by the House of Representatives.

"To push for political parties' commitment to increase the
percentage of women in the Indonesian legislative bodies, there
should be a provision on the matter in the bill on political
parties," Sri said.

She proposed that political parties give women a 30 percent
quota when they submitted their respective lists of legislative
candidates during the 2004 General Election.

Her predecessor Khofifah Indar Parawansyah made a similar
suggestion that women should be allotted 30 percent of the seats
in the legislative and executive bodies.

However, the proposal was rejected by most political parties.

Also, President Megawati Soekarnoputri objected to the idea of
making a quota for women. She preferred a merit system that would
require women to compete fairly with men to get into political
positions.

Sri, nevertheless, argued that with a larger number of women
involved in the nation's decision-making process, it would change
the focus of many political discussions.

"The clearest impact would be the extension of the political
scope into (the debate on) problems which have not initially been
regarded as political issues, such as children's welfare and
other social affairs," she said.

"The political life will be more 'human' as women will
concentrate more on issues of education, housing, environment and
other social welfare issues," she added.

Article 6 of the bill on political parties stipulates that the
recruitment for political jobs must be conducted through a
"democratic mechanism by taking gender equality into account."

Irma Alamsyah, an expert staff member dealing with law and
women's empowerment affairs at Sri's office, said, during the
same seminar, that the bill should specify a minimum number of
political seats for women.

"The stipulation on legal guarantees for women's political
participation should clearly be included in the law to prevent a
repeat of false promises by political parties," she added.

Similarly, independent activists and experts who attended the
same seminar, organized by the 46-member Caucus of Women in the
Indonesian Legislature, also raised the issue of a quota of
legislative seats for women in the next elections.

They said the quota should not be less than 20 percent of the
number of legislative candidates nominated by each political
party.

Valina Singka Subekti, among the activists, supported demands
that women's participation in politics should clearly be
guaranteed in political laws.

Valina and Irma said the political bills should also ensure
that parties should be given penalties if they failed to allocate
a certain number of seats for women.

Valina dismissed widespread claims that women were not
prepared to fill positions in legislative and executive bodies
due to what many claimed was a lack of skill or professionalism.

She lamented the fact that many credible, independent female
activists were still reluctant to join political parties to
become legislators because of their distrust of the male-
dominated legislative bodies.

A similar opinion was shared by Sjamsiah Ahmad, a researcher
from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), who spoke at
the same seminar.

She said the political bills should clearly "guarantee equal
access and fair representation" for women in the decision-making
process within political parties.