Jakarta – An upcoming amendment of the 2008 Political Party Law must require political parties to fill a 30 percent female quota for their top legislator positions so that women can effectively advocate related issues, a woman legislator said.
A lawmaker from the National Awakening Party (PKB), Ida Fauziah, said Thursday at the Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta that most political parties did not encourage female empowerment because they failed to provide women with opportunities to become top legislators.
"The process to pass the plan is very difficult because the number of seats is very limited, but we keep trying," she said. She said the House of Representatives had many qualified female legislators, but that only a few occupied senior positions.
The current Political Party Law stipulates that political parties have to meet a 30 percent quota for women on their national and regional boards to be eligible to compete in elections.
According to data from the Women's Research Institute, in the latest general elections some parties, including the United Development Party (PPP) – which had a 28 percent female quota, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), both with 29 percent, fell short of the requirement.
There are 101 female legislators at the House of Representatives, or 18 percent, which is higher than 11 percent during the last House period.
Masruchah of the National Commission on Violence Against Women said the legislature should expand the 30 percent female quota from political party boards to subdistrict and village levels before it applied the quota to the legislature's top ranking posts.
"This expansion aims to empower and improve the political capability of women so they will not be underestimated once they occupy seats at regional or national legislatures," she told The Jakarta Post.
The expansion of the quota would encourage political parties to make a point of producing well-trained female legislators, she added. "So the female members will no longer just be political party accessories," she said.
She said the biggest challenge for female legislators was overthrowing the stereotype that women are incapable and inexperienced. "Beyond the competition between genders there is also money politics at play to get the top leadership positions at the legislature," she said, adding that female legislators typically rejected involvement in money politics. (rdf)