Jakarta, March 19 (Antara) - Woman candidates still need to work hard
to win more votes and to meet their quota accounting for 30 percent of
the 560 seats in Parliament during the upcoming April 9 legislative
elections.
The movement for gender equality has given birth to a law, which
provides a quota of 30 percent of the parliamentary seats to women
legislators. But, in the past three general elections organized since
the reforms era, the quota of 30 percent seats for women has never been met.
Women were only able to secure 9 percent of the seats in the 1999
elections, 10 percent in 2004 and 18 percent in the 2009 legislative
elections.
With these figures, gender equality still remains far from reality.
After all, the number of women in Indonesia is larger than that of men.
Based on the country's population census in 2000, women account for 51
percent of the population.
"In the current legislative election campaigns, women legislative
candidates must take up strategic issues in the society to win voters'
support. Woman legislative candidates must be able to take advantage of
this momentum so that they can secure the 30 percent quota in the House
of Representatives (DPR)," Political observer Junaidi Abdullah of Bangka
Belitung's Pertiba High School of Law, pointed out.
Therefore,
woman legislative candidates must be proactive in conducting campaigns.
So far, Junaidi argued, men candidates have been more dominant and more
active in approaching voters to win their support.
Besides raising strategic issues during campaigns, woman legislative
candidates must also enhance their ability so that they are able to
voice out and fight for the interest of women.
According to Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu,
the representation of women in the House at present, which has reached
18 percent is far better than in 1999 when women politicians only
accounted for nine percent of the legislators in the House.
However,
she added that woman politicians should not merely increase the
representation of women in Parliament but should also improve their
efficiency in order to be able to represent and fight for women's
interest in the parliament.
"We should fill in the quota with quality woman candidates based on
their good qualifications and performances," the minister stated on
Tuesday.
During her interactions as a minister with politicians in the
parliament in the past ten years, Mari added that woman legislators have
been able to improve their qualifications and performance.
"I
found many brilliant ideas voiced by women during the hearings with the
House's Commission X on tourism affairs," the minister pointed out.
She
explained that there were a lot of things that could be done to prepare
woman colleagues who were nominating themselves to be part of the
House. Thus, there would be more women legislators who will fight for
the interest of women.
Mari Elka Pangestu hoped that women candidates will meet their quota of 30 percent in the DPR in the 2014 elections.
Former
commissioner of the National Commission on Violence against Women
(Komnas Perempuan) Lies Marantika meanwhile stated that women
legislators should be able to map out problems and social issues among
society.
Lies added that it was vitally important for woman voters to know the
track records of woman legislator candidates so that they could vote for
the right person to represent them and fight on behalf of their
interest in the House.
"It is important for voters to support woman candidates so that they
can fight for their interests and other women's issues that are being
discussed in the parliament," Lies Marantika who was one of the speakers
at a discussion: "No Democracy Without Women", stated in Ambon, Maluku,
on Tuesday.
Sharing
the opinion of Lies Marantika, Vivi Marantika of the Maluku Forum for
Humanity (Humanum), who was also a speaker at the discussion, elaborated
that most political parties picked up candidates just for the sake of
meeting the 30 percent quota. So, some were selected but were not able
to work maximally in voicing out women's interest.
"Talking
about women's matters, it is not merely a problem of taking part in
politics but also a matter of women's democracy. It is a matter of how
to involve women who have potential in politics. It is not a matter of
placing women in grey areas," Vivi Marantika pointed out.
Virtually, according to political observer DS Putra of Bali's Jembrana
Forum, women are not just being placed in grey areas. They are also
being locked up in a primitive democracy where they are selected just
for the sake of meeting a quota.
"I think, the quota given to women in the parliament is not a good way
of giving a chance to women in politics. Moreover, men who control
political parties are still half-hearted in providing room for them,"
noted DS Putra.
Putra did not deny that there were women who were successful enough to
become politicians in the House of Representatives but when they were
there, they were not able to lend color to the Parliament.
"This
can be observed from all strategic policies where players are men. It
is ironical that women are the majority voters in the country," remarked
Putra.
Therefore,
he is of the view that the election system in Indonesia is still
primitive. The system is modern in its package but primitive in content;
a system, which put shackles on women both when they are nominated as a
candidate and when they are already in the House.
"They
are unaware that they put shackles on women. I hope woman legislators
will be able to draft, propose and fight for legal products in the
interest of women," he asserted.
Woman activist Nurmala Dewi of Bangka Belitung province suggested that
women must have political education to increase their participation in
politics.
"In Bangka Belitung, for example, the lack of knowledge in the
political field has caused led to low participation of women in
politics," she stated on Tuesday.
She
stressed that political parties should realize that women had equal
rights and capacity as compared to men. "Political parties should be
aware that women have the same rights as men have. But men have so far
dominated executive positions in the party," she stated.***1***
(T.A014/INE/H-YH)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 19-03-2014 18:05 |
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