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Jakarta Post

People '€˜less apathetic'€™ to female leaders

Idle Hands: Workers sit around with nothing to do in a warehouse belonging to the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Monday

Ati Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, March 11, 2014

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People '€˜less apathetic'€™ to female leaders

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span class="inline inline-center">Idle Hands: Workers sit around with nothing to do in a warehouse belonging to the General Elections Commission (KPU) in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Monday. The KPU has ceased sorting ballot papers internally because the work was progressing too slowly. The commission plans to outsource the job to an independent third party to meet the deadline before the general election. Antara/Basri Marzuki

Attitudes toward female leadership have changed ahead of the 2014 legislative election, as people have begun to be less apathetic toward them, activists working across Indonesia have said.

Sutriyatmi of the Indonesian Womens'€™ Coalition (KPI) said on Friday that people in areas that lacked sufficient public services appreciated the work of local women, who helped residents access valuable resources and services. Compared to the 2009 election, when many were still indifferent toward women candidates, Sutriyatmi said she hardly ever heard: '€œWhat can she really do?'€

In a number of areas in East and West Nusa Tenggara, she said, it was the women who helped villagers source the scarcely available seeds ahead of the planting season, as well as helping them to apply for national health insurance (JKN).

'€œThe JKN has been announced at the national level but little information has reached the localities,'€ Sutriyatmi told The Jakarta Post.

Sutriyatmi was interviewed following the nationwide launch of the Women'€™s Movement for a Diverse Indonesia (Gerakan Perempuan Mewujudkan Indonesia Beragam) in Jakarta to coincide with International Women'€™s Day.

On Saturday, a similar launch was held by women'€™s groups, including local branches of the KPI, in places such as Bengkulu and Makassar, South Sulawesi. The women'€™s groups are holding a month-long series of events such as rallies, discussions and exhibitions to campaign their '€œ10-point political agenda'€, which seeks to ensure equality and the protection of marginal groups including women.

KPI secretary-general Dian Kartikasari told the Post on Saturday that '€œif we could consolidate the women'€™s movement in the next five years, we should be able to keep a close watch on the forming of policies at the national and local level'€.

She had earlier acknowledged that despite the House of Representatives having the highest percentage of women '€” 18 percent from 560 members from the 2009 general election '€” the House passed too few laws that '€œbenefited the grass roots'€.

The women'€™s movement now is trying to be more united to ensure legislators pass laws that ensure more '€œjustice'€, Dian said.

An activist and legislative candidate from the National Mandate Party (PAN) running for the West Java legislative council in the Garut regency said that according to her observation, women politicians at the provincial level had proved to be more committed to their work than those at regency and municipal levels.

The local-level councilors were in '€œshock'€, said Otang Qodarliyah, KPI West Java secretary, as they had not expected to be elected in 2009, and did not show improvement despite attempts to train them.

The KPI observed that 18 percent of women legislators across the 77 electoral districts were ranked in the top tiers by their parties, meaning their chances of winning seats were slightly higher than candidates placed by their parties
in lower tiers.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has said that of the 6,607 contesting the 560 seats in the House, 37 percent, or 2,467, are women.

The 10-point political agenda of the Women'€™s Movement for a Diverse Indonesia:

  1. Fulfillment of reproductive rights and sexuality
  2. Ensuring the right to education 
  3. Ending violence against women
  4. Ending poverty among women and the marginalized through social protection 
  5. Protection of women in situations of conflict, disaster, environmental exploitation
  6. Ensuring the right to decent jobs for women and providing protection for migrant workers and women in the informal sector
  7. Protection of freedom of faith and worship
  8. Ensuring women's political rights
  9. Revoking laws that discriminate marginal groups 
  10. Ending corruption

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