Yustinus Paat & Adelia Anjani Putri, Jakarta – The Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) together with several women's rights organizations has filed a judicial review request in an attempt to revise a controversial law that it says threatens to diminish women's participation in politics.
The organizations, which include the Coalition for Women's Leadership, the Movement for the Empowerment of the Women's Voice (GPSP) and the Gender Partnership Association, filed the request to review the revised 2009 Legislative Institutions Law, or MD3 Law, at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.
The Coalition for Women's Leadership is led by politicians Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Rieke Diah Pitaloka, and activist Yuda Kusumaningsih. "Perludem's interest here is to see how the provision that empowered women was erased in the MD3 Law," Perludem executive director Titi Anggraini said on Tuesday.
The plaintiffs say the revised law diminishes women's chances to obtain key posts in supporting bodies of the House of Representatives.
The revisions to the law were endorsed on July 8, when the entire nation was focusing on the presidential election, which was held a day later. The law controversially contains an amendment that activists say is aiming to shield lawmakers from corruption probes.
But women's organizations are particularly concerned about the law's impact on their struggle for gender equality at the House.
"In the previous version of the law, there was the phrase pertaining to the mechanism of choosing leaders of supporting bodies of the House that said: 'in consideration of women's representation based on the number of women in each fraction,' " Titi said. "The phrase was deleted in the latest version."
"With this phrase being removed, it seems like the spirit to get women better represented in politics is also gone," she added. "It's not about how powerful the phrase is, it's about the commitment shown by the House to support women in politics."
The plaintiffs also say that the new MD3 Law was drafted behind closed doors, without consulting experts and interest groups.