Camelia Pasandaran – Though the number of women elected to the House of Representatives looks set to increase, the quality of the candidates remains suspect, election observers said on Thursday.
Projections from election watchdogs state that the number of women securing seats in the House will increase from 11 percent of the total number of legislators in 2004 to between 14 percent and 17 percent when the new batch are seated in September.
Sri Budhi Eko, director of the Center for Political Research (Puskapol) at the University of Indonesia, said that rather than search for candidates with proven integrity and competence, political parties had more often than not selected female relations of party members to meet the requirement that at least 30 percent of the candidates be female.
"Forty percent of the candidates were recruited based on their relations to political elites," Sri said. "Political parties did not really consider the quality of the candidates, but only recruited persons close to the political elites to fill in the 30 percent quota. This has given birth to a new wave of political dynasties."
The concern was, she said, that rather than pushing for legislation to improve the lot of women and the people in general, the new legislators would become silent lawmakers, beholden to the same old interests.
In the 2004 to 2009 political term, there were a total of 65 female legislators, or 11.6 percent of the total. The unequal percentages between men and women highlights what observers and activists say is the domination of male lawmakers who produce legislation that marginalizes women.
They say female legislators, on the other hand, have helped bring about several key laws, such as those on child protection and human trafficking.
Based on the latest information from the General Elections Commission (KPU), Puskapol data says 73 female candidates, or 14 percent of total lawmakers, are likely to be elected. The Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) puts the figure at 17.41 percent, or more than 90 candidates.
Cetro said that among the new female legislators were the wife of Democratic Party chairman Syarifuddin Hasan, Ingrid Maria Palupi; the wife of United Development Party (PPP) chairman Suryadharma Ali, Wardatul Asriah; the daughter of South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Indira Chunda Tita Syafrul; and the daughter of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Puan Maharani.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Ganjar Pranowo said that gender was not significant in politics. "It is a free competition where the winner is the strongest," Ganjar said.
Jojo Rohi of the Election Observer Independent Committee said that it was hard to be optimistic about the results, and parties should educate their new lawmakers. "Political parties recruited female candidates based on popularity and political dynasty, but they ignored the candidates' quality," he said.