Women's political role still 'marginal'
Women's political role still 'marginal'
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
After 10 years of implementing the declaration of the United
Nations conference of women in Beijing, most Asian countries
including Indonesia have yet to meet the mandates, particularly
in increasing the numbers of women in positions of power.
A discussion on the Beijing platform for action revealed that
in most Asian countries, women's representation in government and
parliament was still less than the 30 percent quota.
In Indonesia, there have been some improvements, including the
implementation of affirmative action and regulations mandating
women's participation.
Yet, women continue to be the silent majority, marginalized
from power structures and decision-making processes.
Women activists said that aside from entrenched social and
cultural issues, reluctant political parties remain major
stumbling blocks in increasing women's political participation.
Activist Ani Widyani Soetjipto referred to politician Eros
Djarot, leader of the Bull Nationalist Freedom Party (PNBK), who
once asserted that politics was naturally a man's domain. Thus,
according to such thinking, women entering politics went against
nature.
"It's still tough to change the internal mechanism of a
party," said Ani, who launched her book Politik Perempuan Bukan
Gerhana (Women Politics is not Eclipse) at the discussion.
Legislator Aisyah Hamid Baidlowi from the Golkar Party said
that women are always placed in less strategic positions, such as
treasurers or deputies of social welfare issues.
"They think affirmative action is just a women's way of
getting a position without fighting for it. They don't understand
that it hasn't been a level playing field," said Aisyah, also an
advisor on the House of Representatives' Women Caucus.
She added that the House Speaker was reluctant to issue a
decree officiating the caucus, saying that the latter was not
part of the House.
"There are also very few women placed in the House's special
and working committees. There should be a legally binding
sanction so that the quota can be pursued," Aisyah said.
Activist and sociologist Francisia S.S.E. Seda, or Ery Seda,
said that the level of political familiarization for women is
still low and few women are active as party cadres.
Political leaders are mostly men, and in turn they tend to
nominate male candidates whom they believe have a greater
potential to win. Female candidates are only selected if they
have a close connection with men in power.
"Political parties rarely assist women candidates to raise
funds, while general elections require high outlays and funds,
and few women have independent resources to commit to this," Ery
said.
Lack of mobilization and an unwillingness or inability to
support each other, have also put women in a vulnerable position
and disadvantaged women in taking active stands in asserting and
aiming to strengthen women's rights and needs.
Thus, Ery said, it is necessary to provide training for women
candidates in terms of organizational development, lobbying, and
campaigning.
"It is also important to secure broad changes in the political
system, which can be done if the political parties are more
democratic," she said.
She recommended more assistance be given to political parties
to be more gender sensitive. There is also a need to develop a
critical mass of civil society organizations committed to improve
the status of women.
Other recommendations are to use existing cultural and
religious institutions to increase awareness among people in
rural areas, as well as training women cadres at the grassroots
level.
"Political participation should not be assessed only in terms
of the number of representatives in the House or the
administration, and political parties. The quality of women's
political engagement must also be strengthened.
"It's a long term challenge whose efforts depend on a multi-
strategy approach that involves ministries, legislators,
political parties and civil society organizations," Ery said.