Female Cabinet ministers and women's perspective

Female Cabinet ministers and women's perspective

Santi W.E. Soekanto, Jakarta

If president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono keeps his word,
there could be as many as four women in his Cabinet; a ratio that
he claims to be "fair" in a planned lineup of more than 30
ministers.

Certainly it would be futile at this point to raise questions
about quotas or what constitutes a "fair" allotment. In fact,
maybe we (women) should take offense because Susilo is implying
that the four women will be there more because of his decision to
be generous to the female population, who actually, as the
Chinese saying goes, "Hold up half the sky."

Susilo may or may not select these women based on "merit".
After all, this is payback time for those who supported his
presidential bid. However, let us be generous and trust that
Susilo is keeping his promise to appoint four "hardworking women
with integrity and leadership qualities", and that this will be
the reason he chooses them.

But these women should also have the dignity to balk should
Susilo treat their appointments as merely another pat on the head
to keep the little women quiet and occupied -- that was what
Soeharto did repeatedly. Remember the series of forgettable women
occupying the office of the state minister for women's affairs
under previous regimes (except for, maybe, Khofifah Indar
Parawansa), whom many Indonesian women could not identify with?

The women in Susilo's Cabinet must stand strong because they
will be entrusted with fighting for the lives and welfare of 214
million Indonesians, both men and women. These women should also
refuse to be pigeonholed in caring only about so-called "women's
issues".

Take poverty, for instance. Various data centers tell us that
Indonesia currently has 27 million people living below the
poverty line, expounding on the matter by citing our (male)
unemployment rate. But some 60 percent of the poor people are
women, so of course poverty also has a woman's face.

Several years ago, the World Bank said Indonesia's economic
recovery and long-term sustainability ultimately hinged on its
ability to lift millions of people out of poverty. Studies have
also shown that helping a female head of household often means
lifting a whole family out of poverty. Therefore, the question of
poverty alleviation is very much the question of empowering women
so they can lift themselves and their families out of abject
poverty.

It was only in 1998 that UNICEF described the approximately 30
million children under the age of 17 here as facing a "long-term
emergency" because of malnutrition and a cessation of schooling.
So poverty, too, has a child's face.

Take violence against women as another example. Thousands of
women have been killed in various conflicts in Aceh, Poso, Ambon,
Papua and other places. Sponsors of peace talks, however, have
never bothered to ask women for their opinions and conflicts
continue to flare up.

When it comes to the rights of girls, violence is not a
woman's issue; it is an issue of the whole of humanity.

Reports abound, for instance, about parents being paid for the
bonded services of their children, whether for domestic work,
work in the commercial sex industry, or other hazardous work. NGO
activists say there is an increased demand for ever-younger
Indonesian sex and entertainment workers in Riau, Bali, nearby
Singapore and Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Koalisi
Perempuan, a woman's group, has estimated that as many as 150,000
Indonesian women and children are trafficked internationally each
year.

Our new female ministers can probably take some inspiration
from the upcoming United Nations General Assembly on the Status
of the World's Women, in New York in March 2005. This "Beijing
Plus Ten" meeting will assess countries' commitment to what were
labeled 10 years ago at the Fourth World Conference on Women as
the 12 critical areas of concern, which include the protection of
women from violence, the advancement of women's power and
decision-making capacities, and their economic well-being.

Susilo has vowed to revive the economy, retaining three teams
of economists as well as a horde of freelance economic advisers
who are raring to go and test their theories on how to alleviate
some of the most severe economic problems -- including debt
rescheduling, the low level of investment, the battered
agricultural sector, as well as the need to fortify small and
medium enterprises.

It is also important for our women ministers to hover on
Susilo's shoulders. It is a "womanly thing" to do because our
mothers, too, hovered when we were working on our sums. Never
stand on the sidelines when your male counterparts are doing
their work, such as establishing economic and fiscal policies,
because there is simply nothing in the running of this country
that will not affect the welfare of our female population.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Depok. She can
be reached at santi_soekanto2001@yahoo.com.