Ridwan Max Sijabat and Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Female lawmakers repeated Friday their demand for a 30 percent quota for women representatives in legislative bodies nationwide.
Speaking at a national gathering of female lawmakers held in Jakarta, activists argued the quota would strengthen women's political bargaining positions in regional and national parliaments.
The quota was just one of a list of proposals made in the two-day Caucus of Women Legislators meeting, which was closed Friday by Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
During the forum, Golkar Party legislator Eka Komariah criticized the nation's major political parties, which she said had shown little commitment to encouraging more women to participate as lawmakers.
"The implementation of the current laws on political parties and general elections gave no significant political gains to the women's movement," Eka said.
Despite many parties mentioning affirmative action in their campaigns, the recent laws on elections and on political parties failed to make quotas mandatory for women, she said. After the 2004 general elections, women held only 64 seats, or 11.6 percent of the 550 seats in the current House of Representatives, compared to 65 seats, or 13 percent, in the 1987-1992 period, the largest percentage of women in the history of the House.
"It was easier in those days," Kalla told the women. "Once the leadership of the party agreed, the party would just appoint (female) candidates." Now, he said, women had to be prepared to face open competition and political campaigning.
As Golkar president, Kalla said he had proposed a system enabling candidates to qualify by winning a smaller number of votes, which he said would have made it "easier" for women to win.
He said the quota issue was "just a technical matter", because most people already realized the importance of women in politics.
However, Kalla said there was "no way" a 30 percent quota for women could be reached under the current system, he said.
Earlier, meeting organizer Eka had said political parties' reluctance to improve the position of women had a lot to do with the country's patriarchal culture and the poor positions of most women in the country.
Caucus chairwoman Maimanah Umar said the organization would only campaign for parties that gave women more positions in their organizations, and those which provided real opportunities for women to contend the upcoming legislative elections.
With more women among eligible voters, they had stronger bargaining power, said Maimanah who is from the Riau Regional Representatives Council.
"We do not have any intention of overpowering men. Just give us equal treatment and an equal chance."
Golkar legislator Mariani Baramuli said the next elections should use an "open proportional and open list" system to ensure better representation.
Without the interference of political parties, "it is proven that women have a large chance of winning," said Mooryati Soedibyo, a deputy leader of the People's Consultative Assembly.
Introducing a book of short profiles of women lawmakers, Mooryati noted that women made up 34 percent of the directly elected Regional Representatives Council, taking 27 of the 128 seats.