Indonesian women in politics

Indonesian women in politics

By Johannes Nugroho

SURABAYA (JP): The inception of the Indonesian Women's Party
(PPI) by novelist La Rose recently brought forth the issue of
women's role in the governance of this country. La Rose
sardonically remarked that existing women's organizations had not
empowered women except in making them adept at arranging dried
flowers.

In the supposed era of equal opportunity between the two
sexes, are gender politics still a pertinent issue? In what the
world's historians refer to as the "post-feminism" age, have
women all over the world, who outnumber men demographically,
asserted their richly deserved political rights? More
importantly, how have women fared in Indonesian politics?

In a predominantly patriarchal world, women in Western
democracies first experienced their political rights when the
contentious suffragette movement in the 1900s induced the
granting of voting rights to women. Contemporaneously, the
empowerment of women was further enhanced through more accessible
education and their evolving social status.

Yet in the world of politics, female representatives are
scarce, submerged by the overwhelming presence of male
counterparts. The United States, which has been hailed as the
greatest democracy on earth, has never elected a female
president, its best record being the first female candidate for
vice president, Geraldine Ferraro. In France, only 10 percent of
the members of the National Assembly legislature are women.

Britain, despite having retained Margaret Thatcher for 11
years as prime minister, possesses no better record in the slight
number of female politicians in their House of Commons. To add
insult to injury, Baroness Thatcher has been criticized by world
feminists and women activists as "the worst example of a woman in
power".

The Indonesian political demimonde holds comparatively worse
records as far as female political empowerment is concerned. The
political invisibility of women is evident in the early,
historically significant pictures of Old Order. In the 1955
election, Sukarno's government allocated ethnic minorities'
quotas of respectively 18 Chinese, 12 European and 6 Arabic
members of the Konstituante, it was almost paradoxical that a
majority group such as women was sidelined.

The unraveling of the Old Order and the rise of Soeharto's New
Order coincided with the early years of feminism. While Indonesia
initially remained untouched by these waves of changes, the new
regime perhaps realized the importance of at least equipping the
largest section of the nation with skills which could be
beneficial for the country's development.

Hence the commencement of the nebulous recognition of women
through organizations such as "Home Economics Education" (PKK).
Later, a nominal number of female figures was benevolently
admitted into male-dominated politics, only to be relegated to
secondary positions and treated as "accessory sidekicks".

Soeharto's numerous lip-service praise of the ameliorating
position of women in Indonesia did not do much to disguise his
semi-misogynistic tendencies. Throughout his prolonged rule,
never did he initiate anything concrete to empower women, espe
cially politically. Notwithstanding the increasing number of
women in politics during the New Order, women have still been
shunned from the key decision-making process.

The admission of female ministers into Cabinets added insult
to injury. The creation of the patronizing Ministry of Women's
Roles was the anticlimax to all the great hopes of women's
empowerment. The ministry practically became an agent for cheap
women laborers who were "exported" overseas. The ministry's
maladroit management of scandalous exploitation cases and sexual
abuse of female workers overseas, chiefly due to the lack of
government support for the ministry, did much to further tarnish
its own image.

The triviality of the portfolio of women's roles was evidently
on parade when Alya Rohali, then Miss Indonesia, was embroiled in
a conflict with the then minister, Mien Sugandhi, over her
involvement in an international beauty pageant. While a beauty
pageant is seen as an anathema to the furtherance of women's
rights and to the breaking down of female stereotypes, the
ministry's overly vehement protest and its subsequent ban on
Indonesian women's participation in the pageants were an
unnecessarily patronizing act against the intellectual capacity
of our women.

Speaking of triviality, women in the New Order Cabinets never
advanced further than the ministries of women's roles, social
affairs and the ministry of agriculture, the latter abrupt as it
was in the foregone Seventh Development Cabinet. These portfolios
did only more harm in stereotyping the traditional "nurturing"
role of women. Inten Suweno, the minister of social affairs in
the Sixth Development Cabinet, toward the end of her term dryly
reminisced about her position as "Minister of WTS" (Women without
Morals, i.e. prostitutes).

It is also worth noting that most politically eminent female
figures in Indonesia have emerged from the shadows of influential
male figures, usually related. Megawati Soekarnoputri, for
example, the female political phenomenon of the 1990s, has been
dismissed by critics as generating much of her political stature
from her patronymic legacy as a "Soekarnoputri". The disputable
insinuation is that Megawati could never be so popular if she
were not the daughter of the first president. The fact that
Megawati's supporters often yell out "Long live Sukarno" goes
nowhere to prove otherwise.

The bombastic Mien Sugandhi, now party leader of the newly
proclaimed MKGR, arguably owes her political strength to the fact
that MKGR was founded by her own husband. Consequently, it may
seem that she inherited her political "legitimacy", being a
woman, from a man, as Megawati did from Sukarno.

Furthermore, the quasi-feudal psyche is also prevalent in
other Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Myanmar and the
Philippines. The emergence of Indira Gandhi, now followed by
Sonya Gandhi, is indicative of the dynastic traits in Asian
politics. Benazir Bhutto's political glories have also been
attributed to her father Ali Bhutto. Myanmar Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi also has a political claim through her father General
Aung San. Even the "Cory Phenomenon" in toppling Marcos owed much
to the assassination of her husband, Benigno.

Whether or not the mentality is an exclusively Asian
derivative from the so-called "family over individual"
philosophy, it has regrettably obscured the political
achievements of women as individuals. Bearing in mind that Asian
families are essentially patriarchal groupings, if Soekarnoputri
and Bhutto are of more importance than Megawati and Benazir, then
their success stories are partly the success stories of the
patriarchy.

Irrespective of the debatable underlying patriarchal psyche in
today's female political figures, one thing remains indubitable:
there are not enough women in politics. The question that arises
is that why, after decades of feminism, have women not
established their own political sphere? Skeptics have argued that
women have been given the chance to run for political offices but
most are simply not interested or the electorate is quite
nonchalant when it comes to female politicians.

What they are forgetting is that many women have not been
fortunate enough to devote time to their own advancement and
career. Women have continually been confronted with the dilematic
choice of family or career. In our society, it is conventional
for men to pursue political careers with the support of his
domesticated wife plus picture-perfect, adoring children whose
rearing is mainly left to the wife. Yet it would amount to
blasphemy for a woman to "abandon" her family in pursuit of a
political career.

What is more, socially speaking, Indonesia is presumably
unprepared for independent, empowered women who are endowed with
decision-making prerogatives. Extreme interpretations of the
dictates of religions in relation to the status of women in the
society have also proved a hindrance in eradicating society's
prejudices against women. Less enlightened interpretations of
women's kodrat (destiny) could be positively injurious to sexual
equality.

Considering the existing odds against overnight political
equality between women and men, what would then be the viable
solution to the conundrum? Ultimately, equality could be attained
when the obliteration of sexual prejudices finally took place.
Thus, steps towards the utopian state must be worked upon with
vigor and persistence.

The Australian Labor Party in 1995 pledged to implement a
quota of women as the party's representatives in parliament. The
party vowed to allocate a total of 20 percent of all the Labor
seats in parliament by 2000. Meanwhile in France, Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin has been talking about the place of women in
politics, proposing to legislate a radical 50 percent quota of
female political candidates.

A quota system is undoubtedly a worthy stratagem in educating
voters to elect more women to public offices. Indeed, the
understated political role of women ought to be on the agenda of
every political party. In consequence, a party-based quota system
or a legislative quota-system for women could be enacted prior to
the next general elections.

It is a historical imperative that women be accorded their
legitimate political rights. A quota system is by far the most
potentially efficacious. The gesture must not be seen as a
condescension upon women, nor is it a "gift" from the dominant
males. Rather, it should be heeded as overdue political
recognition and a belated addressing of the power balance.

The writer works at the International Language Program,
Surabaya.

Window: The question that arises is that why, after decades of
feminism, have women not established their own political sphere?
Skeptics have argued that women have been given the chance to run
for political offices but...