Minister seeks more access for women into politics

Minister seeks more access for women into politics

JAKARTA (JP): The government wants to see more women in
policy-making institutions, claiming their presence is a
prerequisite for desirable development in the country.

State Minister for Women's Empowerment Khofifah Indar
Parawansa, stressing the importance of developing gender
perspectives among policy-makers in the legislature, has proposed
that a minimum quota for woman legislators be enshrined in
electoral law.

She pointed out that Indonesia's growth development index
ranking in the United Nation's Development Program (UNDP) list
had dropped due to slow progress in education, health and income
distribution as there was still a large number of uneducated
women and a high mortality rate among the female population.

"Therefore women should be given more access to politics. We
would suggest both to the House of Representatives and the
Ministry of Home Affairs that the desired number of women in the
legislature be stipulated in electoral law," she said at a
seminar here earlier this week.

The minister argued that without such a move, there would be
very few women entering the legislative institutions. The
political mobility of women was quite limited, while the leaders
of political parties were reluctant to afford women the chance of
standing for election in strategic districts.

"If such a quota isn't enshrined into law, the voices of women
will not be represented. Even now, many (regional) councils have
no women members," she said.

Currently, only 44 of the 500 members of the House of
Representatives are women.

In the 1999 general election, 51 percent of the voters were
women.

The issue of discrimination against woman in politics and
policy-making was one of the 12 critical issues raised during the
1994 women's international conference in China, which has become
known as the Beijing Platform for Action.

Indonesia has adopted the platform and the protocols of the
United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the office of the State
Ministry for Women's Empowerment is now drafting targets and
strategies, together with other ministries, non-governmental
organizations and activists so as to put the convention into
effect.

The seminar itself was aimed at ascertaining the current
political condition of women in the country and to discuss
opinions and policies.

The office's secretary Abdullah Cholil said they were
proposing that a quota of 30 percent of the seats in the
legislature be reserved for women. This is considered to be a
reasonable figure having regard to women's participation in
legislatures abroad.

He admitted that many people rejected the quota system based
upon the argument that it would allow someone to be elected
because of their sex rather than their abilities.

"I understand that this quota system could turn into a new
form of gender discrimination, but we have to do it to encourage
more women into politics. The real philosophy behind it is to
give them their political rights after having been neglected for
so many centuries. It is only a dream if we expect a balance
between male and female representatives to come about naturally,"
he told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar.

"As a matter of fact, gender equality is a precondition for
humane, just, and harmonious development," he added. (bby)