Merit vs action

In her speech marking Kartini Day on Sunday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri upset the feminist movement in Indonesia by berating those who call for a quota for women in government positions. Megawati, the first Indonesian woman to reach the country's highest political position, said the proposal for an affirmative action policy to redress gender inequality would only lead to "pseudo-advancement" for Indonesian women.

Never considered a leading figure in the women's emancipation movement, Megawati in her speech nevertheless couched the debate about advancing the cause of women in Indonesia in terms of meritocracy versus an affirmative action policy. Her pro- meritocracy approach effectively puts herself further at odds with many women's groups who are advocating an affirmative action approach.

Megawati said women had to prove themselves, pointing out that the 1945 Constitution guaranteed equal rights for men and women. She said that since women accounted for 50.4 percent of the population (according to the 2000 census), they had the potential to make a difference to the life of this nation.

Megawati is not alone on this issue. Many successful woman in this still predominantly male-dominated world, like playwright Ratna Sarumpaet, for example, says the low level of female participation in the political process is partly because many women with university degrees opt to stay at home rather than pursue a political career.

Yet, to dismiss gender inequality as a non-issue is tantamount to denying that Indonesia has a problem, and a serious one at that, that needs addressing.

The number of women participating in politics speaks for itself.

In the national legislature, women make up a mere nine percent of the members. The few women representatives are even considered as failing to represent or fight for women's causes, according to many feminist groups. In regional politics, they fare even worse, averaging a mere 5.9 percent of the membership of local legislatures. The fact that there are only two women in President Megawati's Cabinet has further eroded her credentials among some women's groups in this country.

The rate of female participation in the corporate world and other sectors, including the media, is not all that much better.

Going by these statistics alone, there would seem to be good grounds for an affirmative action policy. Those who advocate such a policy are not asking for pity as Megawati alleged. Being underrepresented in politics is "akin to playing football with only five members instead of 11," one activist says.

Granted there are concerns that an affirmative action policy could lead to unforeseen problems. As Megawati said in her speech, the effort to increase women's capabilities and roles "should be done in ways that will not create new forms of discrimination."

Those who are advocating an affirmative action policy are thus challenged to come up with a clear proposition, one that explicitly spells out its specific goals and objectives, and how long they expect this policy, which by its nature is discriminative, to remain until it is replaced by a full-blown meritocracy.

One group advocating an affirmative action policy is the Center for Electoral Reform, which says that political parties should have at least 30 percent of the membership of their executive boards made up of women before nominating them for elected office. Lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, another advocate, says that an affirmative action policy should be temporary, "until the number of women and men are balanced."

While acknowledging that some women have shattered the glass ceiling and made it in this male-dominated society, these advocates say that an affirmative action policy still offers the best way to overcome gender discrimination.

Megawati may be professing meritocracy in public, but she has a standing order within her own Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle requiring at least one women for every five men serving on every local executive board.

Irrespective of where one stands on the meritocracy versus affirmative action debate, no one can deny that the existing gender imbalance in Indonesia occurs largely because of continued discriminatory practices against women, at almost all levels of society in Indonesia.

Many families, for example, still give preference to boys than girls in giving education. Discriminatory practices at work are also still rampant.

Our constitution may guarantee equal rights for men and women, but there are no laws against people who practice discrimination, whether based upon gender, ethnic affiliation or other criteria. As a signatory to the Convention against all Forms of Discrimination against Women, Indonesia would do well to quickly come up with legislation that would make all kinds of discrimination a crime.