New model of women leaders in Asia

By Alex Perry

HONG KONG (AFP): From Indira Gandhi to Madame Mao, Benazir Bhutto to Corazon Aquino, Asia has produced some of the world's most formidable women leaders.

Four more singular leaders are now waiting in the wings -- vice presidents Megawati Soekarnoputri in Indonesia, Gloria Arroyo in the Philippines, Annette Lu in Taiwan and Tung Chee- hwa's deputy Anson Chan in Hong Kong.

But while women leaders have always been something of an anachronism in a region where traditional male dominance finds its fullest expression in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, in the new century Asia is experiencing a new kind of gender politics.

While Megawati and Arroyo conform to the mould of their forbearers -- thrust into the spotlight by political dynasties that found themselves without princes -- Chan and Lu represent an egalitarian and consciously Western style of politics where a politician's sex is losing relevance.

South Asia, which gave the world its first Asian woman leader in Indira Gandhi, boasts the world's highest concentration of women in the upper levels of politics.

Between four countries, the region has one president -- Chandrika Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka -- two prime ministers -- Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sirima Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka -- and four opposition leaders -- Sonia Gandhi in India, Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh, and in Pakistan former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of ex-premier Nawaz Sharif.

But enlightened sex equality this is not.

Without exception all South Asia's women leaders -- past or present, government or opposition -- rose to prominence, often after pressure by supporters, after fathers or husbands were assassinated, or in Kulsoom's case, imprisoned for life.

"If you take a dynasty and you wait long enough, sooner or later you are going to find there's not a man available," said Bob Broadfoot, of the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.

Dynasties are also common across the rest of Asia.

Megawati and Arroyo both follow in the presidential footsteps of their fathers, Sukarno in Indonesia and Diosdado Macapagal in the Philippines.

Myanmar's pro-democracy icon, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is the daughter of Aung San, who led Burma to independence from Britain, and has often spoken of her inherited responsibilities.

The Philippines' Corazon Aquino, who replaced Ferdinand Marcos, assumed her husband Benigno's pro-democracy mantle after he was shot dead.

In Malaysia, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is emerging as a key opposition voice after the jailing of her husband Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister.

Jiang Qing -- Madame Mao -- arguably the most powerful woman in Asian history, owed her influence entirely to her husband.

The latest instance of such political inheritance is the announcement by 26-year-old Yuko Obuchi a month after the death of her father, former Japanese prime minister Keizo, to run for his seat in parliament.

But in Anson Chan and the election of lifelong dissident Annette Lu, a new model for women in Asian politics is emerging.

Chan is a career civil servant respected for her independence from Hong Kong's ultimate rulers, both Britain and China, the model of a government professional.

But it is Lu, a pro-democracy activist sentenced to 15 years in jail in 1980 for organizing a protest against the ruling Kuomintang, who broke the most new ground with her inauguration on May 20.

Her pro-independence leanings have made her Beijing's figure of hate.

But the more titles -- "scum of the nation," "sinner for 1,000 years," "lunatic" -- she collects, the stronger she appears.

In an admitted emulation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has chosen 10 women for his cabinet.

Broadfoot said their accession is a natural consequence of the election of former dissidents, who tend to group all opposition interests, including women's right organizations, into one movement.

"It's not so much that women have risen, it's that the establishment has fallen," he said.

But despite such successes, Sonny Lo, sociology professor at Hong Kong University, said no Asian political system can yet lay claim to gender equality.

The rise of Chan and her female colleagues merely reflects civil service equal opportunity rules, he said.

And the appointment of the greatest ever number of women to an Asian government in Taiwan reflects Chen's wish to project an image, rather than the country's true feelings, he added.

"Asian females are still discriminated against, even though they have made some recent gains," he said. "The value system is still very much against them."