Date : 2021-02-04
Date: 19 Feb 2021 (Fri)
Time: 21:00 - 22:30 (HK Time)
Format: Online Zoom Seminar (Link will be provided to registered participants)
Language: English
Registration: http://bit.ly/3iCXEFp
Speaker: Ms. Siti Nurjanah (Director of the Women and Youth Development Institute of Indonesia, the Indonesia Chapter of Women’s Learning Partnership)
Moderator: Prof. Song Jing (Assistant Professor, Gender Studies Programme, CUHK)
Abstract:
The law on quotas for women in parliament was passed in 2003. More than a
decade later, in 2014, Indonesia’s Election Commission (KPU) has disqualified
from participation in parliamentary elections any party that does not include
at least one woman in every third position on the ballot. The law on quotas for
women in parliament has significantly quickened the process of women’s presence
in leadership roles in public office and has contributed to a political dynamic
that promotes a legally minded society in Indonesia, especially toward the need
for equal opportunities for women. There are, however, challenges to the
meaningful implementation of the quota law. For example, the absence of
primaries, inherent in an open list ballot, means that political party
leadership can choose unqualified female candidates merely to satisfy the quota
law. The electoral system is still mainly designed to accommodate the elite and
to control constituents. However, since the 2004 election, the number of
parties that rely on candidates’ capital and their elite connections is
declining.
I want to discuss what has worked during the 17 year since the adoption of the
quota law and the challenges that remain. The electoral system in Indonesia is
very costly, highly corrupt, and male dominated. Indonesian democracy, 20 years
after the social movement that brought down the military government, is still
fragile. The nonexistence of true opposition parties is dilemmatic. Direct
criticism of government policies is often absent, but almost all parties are
amenable to accommodation and reconciliation. At the same time, the push to
have political parties move beyond the ordinary male dominated culture and to
affirm women’s presence in politics is significant. Political parties
themselves are the ones most resistant to the adoption of the quota system. The
work of other democratic institutions, particularly the Election Commission and
the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), are therefore key to
ensuring meaningful implementation of the quota law. Women who aspire to be
politicians continue to struggle within a poor and uncertain political system,
but with increasing success.
Speaker's biography:
Siti Nurjanah is the Director of the Women and Youth Development Institute of
Indonesia, the Indonesia Chapter of Women’s Learning Partnership. Along with
other civil society activists and academic communities, she leads a campaign to
end child marriage, under implementation of Marriage Law Amendment in
Indonesia. She was a journalist for several print media in the mid-1990s in
Indonesia. She does research and develops training modules and programs
designed to enhance women’s leadership, increase women’s political
participation, include women in village governance, and support women human
rights defenders. In the past 10 years, Nurjanah has been working to improve
the capacity of female candidates for parliament through gender empowerment,
leadership training, election education, campaign strategy, public speaking,
and media outreach. She was a Reagan-Fascell Fellow at National Endowment for
Democracy and Project 2049 Institute, both in Washington DC. Currently, she is
a Resident Scholar at Women’s Studies Research Center of Brandeis University,
United States.
Tel: 3943-8775 | Email: grcentre@cuhk.edu.hk| Website: http://www.grc.cuhk.edu.hk/