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.