Women 'ready for VP' in five years

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi said yesterday Indonesian women will be ready for the vice presidency in the next five years.

"Now, there's no chance for women. But in the next four or five years, Insya Allah (God willing), we can have a female vice president. There's no need to be hasty now," she told journalists during a briefing at the Ministry of Information on the 69th Women's Day scheduled for Dec. 22.

She blamed gender stereotypes, which portrayed women as simple-minded, incapable and weak, for hampering women from assuming high ranking official posts such as mayors, governors and vice president.

She did not elaborate on why Indonesian women have to wait five years for the vice presidency. She also did not comment on recent calls for a female president.

She recalled how once she had backed a woman for mayor. The governor of the province, however, rejected her effort simply by saying: "'Mam, the men in our province refuse to be led by a woman'."

"We have always had to nrimo (accept) what men say. We have to fight this," she said, adding that women make up the majority in the country.

Women constitute 50.3 percent of the total population of 200 million people.

Mien said women should be empowered and their potential developed or else they would be a burden to national development.

She praised Abdurrahman Wahid, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), for his remark about the possibility of Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, President Soeharto's eldest daughter, becoming a state leader. Better known as Tutut, Hardiyanti is a Golkar leader and an influential business tycoon.

Abdurrahman had also mentioned Megawati Soekarnoputri, the toppled leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), as a potential future state leader.

"We are proud of them, Mbak Tutut and Megawati (only the latter should not be seen in her capacity as) the former leader of PDI ... but as a woman. We appreciate their struggle," she said. (09)