Women's Caucus blasted for self-interests

Women's Caucus blasted for self-interests

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group of female legislators fighting for equal political
opportunities in the House of Representatives has been criticized
for failing to carrying out its mission due to its own political
interests.

Political observer Andi Mallarangeng said on Saturday that the
Women Caucus, which was set up in July by 44 female legislators,
was still unable to rid its members of their party's political
interests.

According to him, the political parties still adopted the
patriarchal culture, making it difficult to accept wider roles
for women in politics.

"Consequently, they cannot fight for a common platform,
namely, putting women's interests in the power structure," Andi
told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar, entitled Male
Feminist: A Solution or Problem, at the National Library.

The seminar was sponsored by the Women's Journal Foundation
(YJP) to celebrate the Anti-Violence Against Women Day that falls
on Nov. 25.

The caucus, whose members are made up of legislators from all
factions in the House of Representatives, has demanded between 20
percent and 30 percent of all House seats be reserved for women.

Andi said legislators were yet to move to address the issue of
women's political roles as they had not understood the function
of their organization.

"Through the Caucus they could have had a cross-party
mechanism to fight for their common platform," said Andy, who is
a member of the National Election Commission (KPU).

"However, they are divided on each other and finally ignore
their fight for the common platform," he added.

Andi urged the caucus to be independent and stay away from the
interests of their respective political parties.

However, Caucus member Nurdiati Akma denied Andi's criticism,
saying that although her colleagues brought their respective
party's interests, they tried to work the issues through.

"It's true we bring our party's interests. But if our party's
interests conflict with the Caucus, we always try to work them
out with our respective parties," Nurdiati told The Jakarta Post.

Nurdiati said female legislators currently only made up nine
percent of the total number of 500 legislators in the House. The
Caucus, she added, would consistently fight hard to address the
issue of gender imbalance in politics.

Nurdiati, who is a deputy secretary of the Reform Faction in
the House, said the Caucus had started to work on its agenda,
such as providing political education to the grass roots.

The members have also held discussions with their respective
parties to formulate strategies to increase the number of women's
seats in the Legislature.