Political parties still ignore women's rights: Activists

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Surabaya

International Women's Day was commemorated across the country with a public call not to vote for any political party which does not promote women's rights during the next general election.

At least 200 students staged a rally in front of the East Java gubernatorial office in Surabaya under the National Students Front, urging people not to vote for those parties.

"So far, the government has never given serious attention to women's rights," student spokesperson Sakir shouted during the rally.

Sakir said the government had failed to reduce the number of maternal deaths, which still stands at 45 per 1,000 births with 15,700 women dying during labor each year.

He also quoted International Labor Organization (ILO) data which reveals that 30 percent of Indonesia's 650,000 sex workers are minors.

"Violence against women is also rampant. About 85 percent of victims of sexual harassment are underage women," Sakir said.

Separately, more than 150 workers, mostly women, from various labor unions, expressed distrust for political parties that made promises to workers.

"The parties just make promises and don't fulfill them. It would be better that we don't vote for them at all," Nita Purba, a labor activist, said in a seminar which was organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung to commemorate International Women's Day.

Nita said that all political parties had campaigned in favor of workers and women in the 1999 general elections but they had not met their commitments.

She said parties that tried to secure votes from workers and women would fail as they were already distrusted.

"The majority of the people nominated by the parties are "old faces". So they would do nothing in favor of women and workers," she said.

The legislative election will be held on April 5 while the first-ever presidential election will be held on July 5. But if there is a no simple majority, which is very likely, a runoff be held on Sept. 20.

Women activist Salma Safitri Rahayaan of the Women's Solidarity for Human Rights said that women running for top posts should "nurture their heads", especially with perspectives and points of view about the condition of women in Indonesia, in order to know how to fight for women's rights.

She said that there was a distinction between those who were women biologically and women who had bright ideas and perspectives about women issues.

"What matters is their actions. If we see Megawati and Rini Soewandi, they're only women in the biological sense because they don't have see the needs and the interests of women when designing a concept of development," said Safitri, referring to the President and the minister of industry and trade respectively.

"By imposing martial law in Aceh, Megawati has jeopardized the wellbeing of women and increased the level of abuse against them."