ISLAMIC LAW AND ADMINISTRATION

Women and Political Representation: A Comparison Analysis Between Malaysia and Indonesia

A society that is without the voice and vision of women is not less feminine, it is less human” (Mary Robinson, Ex-President of Republic of Ireland)

Speaking about women’s political representation, the statement from Mary Robinson above implied that a society or a political system can only be said fully democratic if the system listens, considers, and reflects women’s voice and perspectives. Hence, there is no genuine democracy without women’s political representative. In accordance with that, Gesine Fuchs and Beate Hoecker define a political system in which the degree of women’s political representative remains low or under representation, or even without women as merely "a half democracy".

One of the most raised questions is what exactly the significance of having more women in formal politics –or formal institutions? What benefit can a society or political party gain, for instance, if there are more women involved in the decision making process? According to Gesine and Hoecker, there are three main reasons supporting this argument. First, based on the principle of equality and justice. Basically, women and men have equal rights to participate and involve in the decision making process. Therefore, it is unfair to have one sides dominance over others. But in reality, women are always be the one dominated by men, especially for those who lived in a patriarchal value system.

Second, based on the principle of women’s interests. Women’s issues and concerns are naturally different from men. Thus, in order to improve their life quality, they must be involved in the decision making process. Third, based on the principle of emancipation and the change of political process. The argument is that one of the main factors for women’s under representation in formal institutions is due to the strong feature of patriarchal society, that caused unequal position between men and women. Hence, having such values and cultures, the most strategic solution is by encouraging political actions to promote a gender-sensitive society based on equality and justice.

However, it is not that easy to overcome this situation. Many obstacles have been identified that impede women's political participation, including political, economic and socio-cultural barriers. In particular, these include the prevalence of the “masculine model of politics”, a patriarchal culture, the absence of well-developed education and training programmes to support women candidates, and a lack of coordination with public organizations, including women’s groups and organizations. The dual burden of balancing domestic tasks with professional obligations and lack of control over financial resources also impact women’s political participation.

In a country that follows a patriarchal value system, like Indonesia and Malaysia, the chances for women to become politicians or member parliaments, are relatively limited because of society’s perceptions regarding the division of roles between men and women, which tends to be biased towards thinking that a woman’s role should be limited to managing the household. Many feel that both Indonesian and Malaysian society are still male dominated, and men are threatened by the idea of women holding senior posts. In the political sphere, this is compounded by the high premium placed on political power. This makes some men even less willing to share power with women.

In Indonesia, women have always been poorly represented in Indonesian parliaments. Since the first Indonesian election in 1955 up to the 1999 election, the highest percentage of women in national parliament was only 13 percent (the 1987-1992 period). In the lead-up to the 2004 election the demand from women activists to increase women’s representation in parliament was very strong. In the next general election 2009, this demand was finally accommodated through the amandments of UU Partai Politik No.2/2008 and UU Pemilu No.10/2008 that urged the implementation of quota system within the party.

Arguably, women constituted more than half of the 260 million Indonesia’s population. Therefore, based on the principle of justice, the number of women in the parliament should not be lower than the number of men’s representation. But in practice, women’s representation in the parliaments –at various level- is still remain low, due to a range obstacles limiting their progress. The selection process within political parties which is still dominated by men candidates, for instance, become one of the most classical problems challenged by women. Nevertheless, a recent progress has been made through the affirmative action policy, whereby party ought to fulfill the 30 percent minimum quota for its women candidates. However, this policy still lacking implementation because there are no compliance system for the ignorance of the policy.

The following table here demonstrates the level of women’s representation in the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (National Parliament) from 1999-2004. The table below shows that the number of women’s representation is still low comparing to men’s representation. In general election 1999, women’s representation even reached its lowest level (only 9 percent) since the national election held in 1987. In 2004, this number have increased, but again, is still far from satisfactory.

Table 1: Women Members of National Parliament in Indonesia from 1955 to 2004

Election Year	1955	1959	1971	1977	1982	1987	1992	1997	1999	2004
Total Parliamentary Seat	289	513	496	489	499	565	565	554	545	550
Women MP’s	17	25	36	29	39	65	65	54	45	61
%	6.30	5.10	7.80	6.30	9.50	13.00	12.50	10.80	9.00	11.09

Source: Panduan Calon Legislatif Perempuan Untuk Pemilu 2009, Jakarta: Penerbit PUSKAPOL FISIP UI dan The Asia Foundation, 2008.

Comparing to Indonesia, the situation of women’s representation in Malaysia is not so different. Eventhough women constitute over 50 percent of Malaysia’s 23 million population, Malaysian women still find themselves under-representated in political institutions. According to Rashila and Saliha, there are at least five common factors which form obstacles to Malaysian women’s active participation in politics. They classify the factors as, social discrimination against women’s roles in the public domain, time constraints due to career and domestic demands, cultural and religious arguments that a woman’s place is in the home, structural constraints within each political party that do not allow women to advance beyond a certain level, and lack of adequate resources in terms of organizational support, personal influence and finance.

Based on UNESCAP report of Malaysian women’s political participation, the increase in the number of women standing for elections, both in the Federal and State, has been slow although women make up almost half of the population. It took 40 years for women’s representation at the Federal Legislative Assembly (the Lower House of Parliament) to increase from about 2.9 per cent (only 3 women) in 1957 to 10.9 per cent in the 1999 election. The appointment of women as ministers remained almost constant at 2 over the last 3 elections in the 1990s.

In 2002, Malaysia had three women in full ministerial positions: the Minister of Women and Family Development, the Minister of International Trade and Industry and the Minister of Welfare and National Unity. In addition, women occupy other significant governmental posts that include deputy ministers, political secretaries, diplomats, senior civil servants, elected members of various state assemblies, and senators in the Dewan Negara (The Senate). In the Dewan Rakyat (The House of Reprentatives), there are now 20 women members of parliament, out of 193 total members. If the number of elected women MPs is an indicator, there has been a slow improvement in the status and position of women in Malaysian politics.

Table 2: Women Members of Parliament in Malaysia from 1955 to 1999

Election Year	1955	1959	1964	1969	1974	1978	1982	1986	1990	1995	1999
Total Parliamentary Seat	52	104	104	144	154	154	154	177	180	192	193
Women MP’s	1	3	3	2	5	7	8	7	11	15	20
%	2.00	2.90	2.90	1.38	3.25	4.54	5.19	3.95	6.11	7.80	10.36

Source: Rashila Ramli. "Modernisasi Politik: Ke Arah Keseimbangan Gender dalam Penyertaan Politik?” In Abdul Rahman Embong (ed.), Negara, Pasaran dan Pemodenan Malaysia. Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2000.

However, if we look at the number of women’s member in political parties which increased today, it implies that women’s political participation in Malaysia is having slight progress. According to Hegemann, Malaysian women today have more opportunity and places within the parties. In UMNO party, for instance, there are now more than 50 percent women’s member. Similar progress can be seen in Justice Party, the opposition party, led by women’s leader named Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also the wife of Anwar Ibrahim –the former deputy prime minister of Malaysia. Unfortunately, different situation found in PAS party, where women still facing difficulties to obtain positions within the party due to strong traditional Islamic orientation. Thus, women in PAS are always discriminated and forbidded to have major positions. But overall, despite this increasing participation, only few of them can reach top positions within the parties, whereas the majority are still held by men.

Having shows the comparison between these countries, we can say that there are similarities between women in Indonesia and Malaysia, in terms of their struggle entering political arena. The main challenge is of course those related to socio-cultural barriers. It is not easy to change the existing values within the society. In this case, Indonesia and Malaysia’s society are strongly characterized by the patriarchal values, structures, and attitude, which then permeated political life. Thus, it led them gaining less support from their families and societies when they enter politics, because people still think of politics as a “domain of men, hard, dirty, full of intrigue, and simply wasting money. Despite this fundamental barrier, there are still numerous problems related to political barriers, which also not easy for women to overcome. Lacking party support, limited access to political and social networks, lack of education, and the nature of electoral system which not be favorable to women candidates, are only few lists to mentioned. There are still much more to list to identify the obstacles that women facing in empowering their political participation, and thus, their representation in political institutions.

The next question is, what can be done to improve this situation? Basically, there are at least two main strategies. First, through cultural approach by slowly reducing the existing patriarchal ideology in every aspects of traditional culture. Second, through structural approach by amending the rules and policies which are still discriminative towards women. In practice, we have to admit that it is not easy to exert these approachments at the same time. Hence, it would be more realistic to choose the prior approachment with a more significant impact and achievable in a short term.

One of the most effective structural approach is by implementing quota system (affirmative action) for bringing about change within the parliamentary system. The adoption of these affirmative action measures has opened doors for socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups that otherwise had limited access to decision-making bodies. However, it must be stressed that the quota system is not enough, because its implementation varies significantly from country to country. The effect of quotas to a large extent depends upon the adherence of political parties and to the firmness of the enforcement mechanisms. If the number of women nominated is small and dependent on the total number of “places” provided for them on party tickets, their numbers will continue to lag behind men. Besides that, affirmative action must be understood as a temporary action, and only implemented to improve the gender disparities in political institutions. Eventhough it may seems not democratic, but this affirmative action is also arguable.

The principle of equality in democracy is also requires a just situation in every aspect; equal opportunity, access, and resources. The problems faced by women when they enter politics, however, do not meet that criteria. Women and men are still positioned unequal, thus, there are several obstacles for women entering political arena. This is why affirmative action become a strategic and necessary action in order to fulfill the quantity of women’s representation as required by democratic system.

Further, in order to increase the quality of women’s representation, women candidates ought to improve their knowledge and political skill. They also have to provide themselves with strategic plans so that they can compete well for campaign. By having these criteria, the opportunity for women to become politicians, and thus, to increase women’s representation, will be more opened. In order to gain more support from society, women candidates must also strengthen links between women’s network and organizations. This link will helps women candidates to build-up strategic issues, organizing and determining strategic campaigns. In doing so, women’s organizations can provide them with a support base in the form of training and in developing skills, in building confidence and in developing a knowledge base that will enable them to create gender sensitive legislation. Women’s organizations may also provide advisory and financial support during campaigns, and increase the visibility and legitimacy of candidates by stressing gender issues and improving gender awareness.

In the end, eventhough the struggle to increase women’s representation is indeed a long journey toward the goal of achieving gender equality, steps forward must be taken continuously and consistently. Further works remain to be done, and only by doing so, women can overcome whatever the adversities and obstacles placed in their paths.

REFERENCES

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