Greater political role for women a must

By Chusnul Mar'iyah

JAKARTA: Economic development has contributed to the change of the sex role stereotype, with women no longer confined to the home. However, the power relationship, which can be described as patriarchy, still operates very strongly in an organized and structured way to the disadvantage of women.

What happens in formal political organizations when women voice concerns over issues of state violence, child health, equalizing policies, and political and legal rules of the game?

Too often, very little happens because women are barely visible in formal political institutions. Political systems, with whatever ideology and form, rest on the virtual exclusion or the marginalization of women from formal politics.

Traditional theories of women's exclusion from formal politics focus on women's socially shaped "choices" and social norms regarding women. The theories only say women are absent from formal political institutions due to their own fault or because of nobody's fault.

It is very important to emphasize how political institutions, ranging from the central government to local administrations, mold the expectations, careers and activities of those, including women, who aspire to participate in them.

Meanwhile, a study on women and politics in 43 countries by experts Barbara J. Nelson and Najma Chowdhury in their 1994 book suggests that "in no country do women have political status, access or influence equal to men's". Despite the increasing interest in the gender implications of democracy, the relevance of gender is still not appreciated, including that among many political scientists.

Why do women, who account for more than half of Indonesian's population and 57 percent of eligible voters, routinely hold only less than 10 percent of the formal position of political leadership? There has never been a woman governor.

The fact that women are almost invisible in formal politics does not mean that they are not affected by the state and its policies.

In the direction of greater democratic freedom during this era of political reform, much interest revolves around the shift from a military-dominated regime to one controlled by civilians, which must in itself have important consequences for gender interests.

A political professor in Australia, Susan Blackburn, uses the definition of "democracy" to test the implication of the absence of the form of democracy for gender interest.

Since the late president Sukarno introduced "guided democracy" in 1959, Indonesia has been governed according to the 1945 Constitution which confers enormous power on the president, with the House of Representatives as a rubber-stamp legislative body. By any definition, it is not democratic.

Blackburn writes that democracy "denotes a system of government that meets three essential conditions".

* Meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and organized groups (especially political parties) for all effective positions of political power at regular intervals and excluding the use of force.

* A highly inclusive level of political participation in the selection of leaders and policies, at least through regular and fair elections. No major social group is excluded.

* A level of civil and political liberties -- freedom of expression, freedom of press, freedom to form and join organizations -- sufficient to ensure the integrity of political competition and participation.

In Indonesia, the rules of the game affect the selection of regional political leaders because only military officers and bureaucrats -- two groups which are virtually preserved for men -- may serve as regional executives.

The main issue here is about leadership or power at the local levels, especially provinces, regencies, districts and subdistricts/villages.

Linguistically, the words power and leadership do not favor women. A thesaurus, for example, provides at least two groups of meanings for power.

The first group includes force, might, potency, energy, stamina, vigor, authority, command, control, domination and omnipotence. Most of these words are associated with masculine attributes.

The second group comprises ability, capacity, faculty, potential and skill. These are more likely to be attractive to women as they are about having the power to do or to act. This crudely illustrates one of the major barriers that face women attempting to adopt aspects of power and influence.

This transitional period for state leadership is very important for the women's movement in determining gender interests because democracy without women is not democracy.

An editor of a book on the shift away from military dictatorship in Latin America, J.S. Jaquette, wrote that "transitions are political openings ... a general willingness to rethink the bases of social consensus and revise the rules of the game". This "gives social movements an extraordinary opportunity to raise new issues and influence popular expectation".

With democratization, Indonesian women can hope to organize themselves. Women's organizations are essential for building women's public confidence and leadership skills, increasing their access to information about public life and creating "empowerment" which is basic to marginal groups in the society.

In conclusion, the heavy handed security approach in the military dominated center-regional relations here narrow the option for women to participate in politics.

The culture and process of formal political institutions, especially political parties, are a major barrier to women's equal participation in institutional politics.

Therefore, it is necessary to demand that political parties and public institutions examine their practices, structures, ethics and culture to set goals for greater women's participation; to develop an internal mechanism to ensure that they are more democratic and representative of the people they serve and to ensure that more women are selected as candidates and/or appointees in decision-making bodies.

The writer is the coordinator of the Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and a professor of political sciences at the University of Indonesia. This article is based on a paper prepared for a conference on Toward Structural Reforms for Democratization in Indonesia on Aug. 14. It was jointly held by the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Ford Foundation.