Women unaware of their political power

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Kustinah knows the incumbent President is B.J. Habibie, who replaced Soeharto. But she doesn't know how he came to power.

Neither has she ever used her right to vote in a general election, although she has spent 22 years of her life in Jakarta, the heart of Indonesia's political system.

"I am just a scavenger... I am sort of useless," the 38-year- old woman said.

She moved to Jakarta from her hometown in Malang, East Java, with her husband. The couple was seeking a better future but the harsh reality of life in the capital tossed them in the trash bin. They live in a shack by the railway tracks in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

The elementary school graduate has no Jakarta identification card. Like other poor families in this neighborhood, she does not have the luxury of watching TV or reading the newspaper. And she doesn't realize it is easy to register to vote in next month's elections.

"I don't know how to vote... besides, I don't have any documents like a marriage certificate or a school diploma. I lost them...," Kustinah said.

When asked how she learned the names of the presidents, Kustinah said: "I was told by my friends." Her friends are fellow scavengers.

What matters to her is feeding her three children. Her youngest child is nine-years-old. Her husband died five years ago.

"What's the use of nyoblos (voting) for people like me," she asked. As of May 4, the deadline for voter registration, she had not registered.

It is estimated that 140 million people will participate in the June 7 elections -- touted as the country's first democratic poll in over three decades. Around 52 percent of these 140 million voters will be women.

Like Kustinah, a great number of women do not realize that as the majority of voters, they have considerable power in the country's political system. Nor do they have sound basic knowledge about the political parties contesting the elections.

A housewife, Haryani, said she would vote for the same party her husband voted for.

"My husband told me to vote for the party he is a member of," she said. She said the party's symbol was a bull's head, an apparent reference to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

She said she felt it was correct to vote according to how her husband voted. "My husband said that it's a good party," the mother of two said.

Does she know about the party's programs?

"No... but I know that it put up banners all over my neighborhood," the resident of Kebon Kacang, Central Jakarta, who has registered for the upcoming elections, said.

In past elections, Haryani and her husband always voted for Golkar, whose symbol is banyan tree.

"I don't know much (about politics)... I just do what my husband wants me to do," Haryani said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Women activists and scholars have been aggressively campaigning for women to take part in the general election. They have urged women to vote for parties which promote women's causes.

The activists also have demand a greater say in politics for women. They have proposed women be allotted at least 30 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives.

In November 1997, 108 out of the 1,000 seats in the People's Consultative Assembly were held by women. In the so-called Reform and Development Cabinet, there are only two women ministers out of a total of 36 ministers: State Minister for Women's Affairs Tutty Alawiyah and Minister of Social Services Justika Baharsyah.

Noted psychologist and chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women Saparinah Sadli has urged women to be critical and vote for parties of their own choosing.

She said women were marginalized in the male-dominated political system, making them unaware of their rights.

"Over the past 32 years (during the Soeharto regime), most women voted for the parties their husbands' chose," Saparinah told The Jakarta Post.

"Now, since women make up the majority of voters, they should use their power to ensure that political parties fight for their interests. They can do this by being critical in choosing which parties to vote for," she said.

She also believes women are not taken seriously in the political arena, as evidenced by the absence of specific programs targeting women.

"But things have changed now," the activist from the Women for Election Awareness Movement said.

She said there were a number of women who could play an important role in politics and she refuted assumptions that women were "less qualified" than men.

"Who can say that the quality of all the men sitting in the House of Representatives is good," Saparinah asked.

When asked whether there was any party really fighting for women's causes, she pointed at the results of a recent gathering of representatives from 11 political parties, during which the parties presented their respective platforms.

Among the parties represented at the gathering were PDI Perjuangan, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Golkar Party.

"From their presentations, it turned out that there are hardly any specific programs aimed at women voters," Saparinah said.

She added that some parties did have programs which addressed women's causes, although they were not specific. "I wish they could have been serious...," Saparinah said.

She was particularly surprised by the PDI Perjuangan representative, who said the party saw "no need" to have specific programs for women.

"They said that there are no problems faced by women... we were stunned by their statement," Saparinah said.

PDI Perjuangan chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno, is the first woman to lead a major political party in Indonesia.

Saparinah urged women activists and scholars to be proactive in promoting the role of women in politics, including identifying potential women candidates.

"We need women, who are not only have the potential, but also willing to be appointed (as candidates)..."