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We’re
heading toward election time again! Well, we are closer than we were last
week anyway.
However much
we have been let down in the past, elections still offer hope that there
might be change for the better. Maybe we will see new faces in political
parties and in the House of Representatives and, who knows, maybe some
will even be women? Why, the pundits say we might even have three women
presidential candidates!
Besides
Megawati Soekarnoputri, who — groan! — simply refuses to fade away
gracefully, Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s name has also been bandied about, as
has that of Ani Yudhoyono, the wife of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Yup, she’s
the newest girl on the block, but if you type “capres perempuan 2014”
(female presidential candidate 2014) into Google, the images that come up
are all of Ani. That is not bad for someone who constantly denies she is
running for the presidency!
Perhaps
that’s why a female student recently asked me: “Is the nomination of Ibu
Ani [Yudhoyono] as presidential candidate a sign that women are being
more recognized as political leaders?” Heck no! The possible candidacy of
Ani is more a sign that Indonesia is an oligarchy, I replied, and that
our political leaders are still essentially feudalistic and nepotistic.
If a
meaningful political role for women was really acknowledged, there would
not be so much trouble with the implementation of the 30 percent quota
for women. As matters stand, it is simply a painful ritual that takes
place every five years as elections loom. That was the case in 2009, and
it looks like it’s happening again in 2014.
On the other
hand, the nomination of the other Ani — the diminutive of Sri Mulyani,
former finance minister in Yudhoyono’s cabinet between 2005-2010 and
currently managing director of the World Bank — would certainly indicate
that women do have a meaningful place in politics. But don’t hold your
breath: There are no signs of her running yet.
So, in the
meantime, what about that quota? Laws have been passed since 2003,
obliging political parties seeking to qualify to contest the elections to
satisfy a 30 percent quota for women (Law No. 31/2003 on political parties,
amended by Law No. 2/2008). But now, with the time limit for the
registration of legislative candidates approaching, many parties remain
reluctant to fulfill this obligation and they don’t want to be penalized
either! Sigit Pamungkas, General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner,
says that of the 12 parties participating in the elections, it’s unclear
how many fulfill the quota requirement.
According to
Eva Kusuma Sundari, a member of the House’s Commission III overseeing
legal affairs, the parties give the excuse that there are no women, while
the women say there is no political commitment from the parties. As she
points out: “It’s strange that out of almost 250 million people in
Indonesia they can’t find 15,000 women to become legislative candidates.”
After all, political parties have had almost 10 years since the 2003 law
to prepare female candidates.
And when the
parties do find women, they are usually lack a real, representative base.
Instead, they tend to go for figures like artists, businesswomen and
other well-known public figures, to cash in on their popularity. Or they
go for wives, like Ani.
So the
persistent patriarchal mentality of the New Order (indeed, of Indonesian
society) persists. For them, women are still konco wingking (“friend at the back”, an
appendage to men), and their duty is to fulfill their domestic
responsibilities at home. If they venture out into the public domain, it
should only be to support the husband.
This
persistent patriarchy has been well portrayed in a recently published
book Suara dari Desa: Menuju Revitalisasi PKK (Voices from the Village:
Toward the Revitalization of PKK), based on a study conducted by two
University of Indonesia (UI) lecturers Ani Soetjipto and Shelly Adelina.
Set up in the
1960s, the PKK is a state-sponsored organization intended to improve
family welfare, and eventually to be set up in all villages as part of
the state village apparatus to administer programs for women.
Over time,
the acronym PKK has changed to stand for Program Kesejahteraan Keluarga
(Family Welfare Program, in the Old Order era), Pembinaan Kesejahteraan
Keluarga (Family Welfare Guidance, in the New Order era), and
Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga (Family Welfare Empowerment, in the
reform era). The obvious question is: “What’s
in a name?”
In the New
Order era, the PKK was manipulated in electoral politics, and colored the
yellow of the ruling Golkar Party. It is still manipulated in much the
same way, but these days the PKK is a rainbow of red Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P), green for the National Awakening Party (PKB)
and United Development Party (PPP), blue for the National Mandate Party
(PAN) and of course, Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, or indeed the color of
any other party that may hold sway in a particular constituency.
The basic
modus operandi and 10 original programs of the PKK have also not changed
much since New Order times. Sure, they now also recognize issues like
domestic VAW (violence against women), sexual health, maternal mortality,
trafficking, poverty, health and the environment, but when push comes to
shove, it is still the interests of the village elite that dominate.
Women exist mainly to buttress the interests of the ruling elite. And
come election time, the parties cozy up to the PKK and, conveniently for
them, select their cadres from the crop of compliant officials’ wives who
still rule over the PKK.
Maybe the
theme song of political parties, the House and the PKK is the 1977 Billy
Joel hit, Just the way you are except that for them it’s “Just the way we are”. But if Joel
sings “don’t go changing to try to
please me”, then we, the female electorate, demand that the
persistent patriarchy of politics has to change, for the sake of gender
equality and democracy. ●
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