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...