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.