Women unaware of their political power

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)..."