Women demand recognition in politics
Women demand recognition in politics
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Gender-biased politics in Indonesia could be substantially
changed if political parties were required to let women make up
30 percent of legislative candidates, analysts said on Saturday.
They demanded that the proposal be accommodated in the general
elections bill now being deliberated in the House of
Representatives.
Chusnul Mar'iyah, Smita Notosusanto and Andi Mallarangeng were
of the opinion that such a quota was the minimum requirement if
Indonesia was to promote the role of women in politics and the
high-level decision-making processes.
"The quota is a must for women. We want the government and
legislators to adopt it as part of an affirmative action
approach," Chusnul told reporters after a seminar held in
conjunction with the celebration of noted activist Saparinah
Sadli's 75th birthday.
Given such a move, women could contribute their ideas to the
deliberation process and avoid discriminative articles being
inserted into bills.
Deliberation of the electoral bill began on Thursday but the
debate with the government will only start on Monday.
The bill, expected to be passed into law later this year, does
not provide for a quota for women candidates in elections.
Chusnul said that at present women legislators in regency and
provincial councils accounted for around 2 percent to 3 percent
of the total number of legislators.
"The highest percentage is about 12.5 percent in a place in
Sumatra. Bali has no women legislators in the provincial
legislative council," Chusnul said.
At the national level, women only accounted for 9 percent of
the total legislators in spite of the fact that they made up more
than 50 percent of the total voters.
Women's activists have repeatedly criticized the small number
of woman involved in the political parties and the high level
decision-making processes. This was due to various reasons, they
said, including lack of access, networking, education and
cultural support.
In the past, women were usually encouraged to involve
themselves in social activities such as through the Organization
for Family Welfare (PKK), which activists claimed to be part of
the systematic marginalization of women in politics.
Supporting women's long-standing demands, Andi said women
deserved a greater role to make amends for their marginalization
in the past.
"We agree that we must help the weak, the marginalized.
Therefore, women deserve affirmative action, and that's the job
of the state," he said.
Andi is also one of the founders of the Unity, Democracy and
Nationhood Party which was established last month, along with
Ryaas Rasyid.
But Andi criticized women for their reluctance to become
deeply involved in politics.
"We really need more women in politics," he said.
Meanwhile, Smita said women activists would step up their
campaign across the country to push legislators to pass an
electoral law that required 30 percent of legislative candidates
to be women.
Without such a quota, she said, many policies would only
disadvantage women.
"At present, we see that many regencies fail to involve women
in politics. This has resulted in policies that are harmful to
women," she said.
Citing an example, she said West Sumatra, South Sulawesi and
West Nusa Tenggara had implemented discriminatory policies by
banning women from going out after 9 p.m.
She also suggested transparent criteria for the selection of
legislative candidates in the 2004 elections, thus creating fair
competition between men and women.