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Safira Pusparani

November 18th, 2021

Veni, Vidi, Vici: Uncovering the role of Indonesian women parliamentarians’ substantive representation against a patriarchal policymaking process

0 comments | 4 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Safira Pusparani

November 18th, 2021

Veni, Vidi, Vici: Uncovering the role of Indonesian women parliamentarians’ substantive representation against a patriarchal policymaking process

0 comments | 4 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

The Sexual Violence Elimination bill proposed by women’s rights organisations and activists within the Indonesian parliament continues to be an epicentre of controversy. Despite having an increased number of women representatives and leadership, the bill is stuck in a continuous loop of political stagnation. Understanding the historical, political, and cultural contexts of Indonesia’s idiosyncratic situation reveals insights to the deep-rooted challenges to achieving substantive gender representation in parliament, writes Safira Pusparani

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Following the start of the 2021/2022 parliamentary year in early September, Indonesian women’s rights activists were blind-sided by the House of Representative’s decision to significantly modify a prominent bill aimed at formalizing and institutionalizing sexual violence reporting. The Legislative Agency, who leads the drafting and discussion process of the ‘Sexual Violence Elimination bill’, has decided to remove 85 clauses, some of which are crucial in defining the different types of sexual violence and stipulations on victim’s rights in public and private spheres. Furthermore, parliamentarians involved in this bill have agreed to change the bill’s terminology from ‘Elimination’ to ‘Criminal Act’. This vocabulary change suggests a significant paradigm shift towards corrective legal enforcement in lieu of pre-emptive measures highlighted in prior versions of the draft.

The backtracking of progress towards a gender-equal regime is ironically contradictory to the compulsory 30 percent gender quota put in place for parliamentarians since 2008 and the increasing proportion of women representatives, with a trailblazer woman Speaker of the House for the 2019-2024 period. This raises questions related to why an increase in political participation of women does not directly translate into the adoption of gender-sensitive and gender-inclusive policies. Of course, this is not to say that women are the only actors that can advocate for gender equality. It is, however, important to recognise the voices and experiences of women who have been denied political participation for most of history and therefore would be the better fitting to advocate for improved women’s rights in the public sphere.

 

Women’s Representation in Parliament: Beyond Ideas and Numbers

The concept of political representation has often brought upon varying viewpoints regarding the effects of affirmative action policies that aim to provide improved inclusion for marginalized groups within the sphere of policymaking. Hanna Pitkin suggests four types of representation which have been used by researchers to analyse the extent in which representatives are acting upon the interests of the groups they represent. In a democracy, it is not sufficient to rely on the representation of ideas through ideologies, political stances given that vote-seeking strategies are not guaranteed to lead to tangible political actions. The politics of presence, as argued by Anne Phillips, remains an important aspect to uphold within democratic institutions to ensure that the electoral system is balanced and prevent the misrepresentation, or even, political exclusion of socio-economic groups.

What we are seeing now in the world is a global trend of increasing women representatives assuming high-level positions across governments and parliaments. The gender mainstreaming of policies and globalisation of women’s rights activism has contributed to an improvement of women’s political participation. The 1995 Beijing Platform of Action can be seen as a stepping-stone in which nation states are aiming towards achieving a gender-balanced composition within various career-levels in both the public and private sectors. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) reported an average of 25.4 percent of women occupy seats within parliaments across the globe. These trends can be, in part, attributed to the implementation of gender quotas or parites by the majority of countries who are ratifiers of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. However, achieving gender parity remains a pertinent challenge. The enforcement of laws related to overcoming sexual violence are often contended by political groups that reinforce patriarchal norms, as is the case with the Indonesian bill on Sexual Violence Elimination.

Gender-sensitive policies continue to face barriers in being prioritised within agenda-setting and policy formulation processes. Supporters of critical feminist theory see that embedded patriarchal structures in policy-making institutions are considered a significant factor that disempowers substantive representation. The lack of competence from policy-making institutions in understanding issues relating to women’s interests and gender relations, such as reproductive health rights, is often the reason for neglect, or policy silencing. These challenges to the adoption and promotion of gender-equal policies are widespread, yet also differ within national and cultural contexts.

 

The Indonesian Context: Shadows of a Patriarchal Legacy

As one of the biggest democracies in the world with a majority Muslim population and a relatively young regime, Indonesia presents an interesting case for the issue of women and political representation. A steady increase in the country’s Global Gender Gap Index related to the ratio of women parliamentarians and ministers in contrast to the inclusion of a bill that reinforces traditional gender norms within the household as a policy agenda and backpedalling of the Sexual Violence Elimination bill indicates an ostensible dichotomy between the descriptive and substantive representation associated with women’s position and activities in the political sphere. The gender inequalities that are present within this case reflect a structure-agent problem, where the factors affecting how women parliamentarians are able to advocate for women’s rights depend on structural factors beyond the control of an individual Member of Parliament.

Although Indonesia has been a democracy for more than two decades, we need to take a step-back and reflect on the historical contexts which continue to influence Indonesian political culture and configuration. Indonesia’s current political landscape encompasses a multiparty system reflecting the socio-cultural characteristics of its citizens. This was an attempt to divert from the previous tripartite system during the authoritarian leadership of Soeharto, which was heavily festered in patterns of corruption, collusion, and nepotism practices. However, remnants of Soeharto’s regime have not fully disappeared. New patterns of patronage-clientelism have emerged, and money politics continue to be an obstacle to a fair and transparent democratic process in Indonesia. These tendencies have been studied overtly and publicly recognized.

An overlooked aspect of Soeharto’s legacy is that of the perpetuation of unequal gendered norms in the public sphere. During the New Order (another term for the Authoritarian Regime), the administration managed to institutionalise gender roles through an ideology that glorifies ‘motherhood’ and engineered narratives that depoliticised women’s role in politics. The government at the time invested in policies aimed to reconstruct women’s social status through state apparatuses, such as compulsory civil servants’ wives’ organisations and local community groups aimed at training women to be ‘pillars of the nation’ through their role as a homemaker and devout wife. These apparatuses remain to this day.

Although sentiments by the State regarding women’s ‘natural’ role in the household are no longer as apparent, Indonesian women’s domestication is manifested through other forms. Women parliamentarians face obstacles throughout their career, starting from their political cadres journey, campaigns, and even during their appointment. It is no longer a secret that the Indonesian political sphere is a ‘male-dominated world’, fostering the continuation of a patriarchal regime. This condition becomes an impediment for women parliamentarians to be advocates for women’s interests within the parliament as the group falls into the minority, resulting in increased challenges for the advocacy for gender-equal policies.

There is increasing discourse regarding a conservative uprising within the Indonesian society, sparked by the strengthening of Islamic groups and their involvement in political issues. This trend has hindered the progress of gender equality in the country given that many religious leaders believe feminist values clash with Islamic values. Members from Islamic parties in this case have increased motivation to appease the masses with issues related to the strengthening of religious values, which often overlap with patriarchal values. Representatives of Islamic parties have not been shy in advocating against the Sexual Violence Elimination bill under the premise that the bill promotes ‘sexual disconformity’, extramarital sex, and abortion. However, the bill does not contain clauses that endorses such activities. Instead, the bill protects victims of sexual violence regardless of their gender and/or marital status.

 

A Politics of Presence: Do Women Matter?

It seems devastating to understand that a transformative bill has faced continued delay due to the lack of political will from policy-makers within institutions that benefit from a disproportionate gender composition. What then can women parliamentarians do to break the glass ceiling of a strong patriarchal institution? Does women’s representation matter at all, in this case?

Women’s experiences and voices have long been silenced from the political arena. An increased presence of women in parliaments does and will continue to matter because the personal is political. Incorporating the personal experiences of women (Members of Parliaments and citizens alike) into the policy-making process will provide a wider perspective on creating policies that benefit the empowerment of women and elimination of gender-based discrimination. It simply does not make sense to leave policies that concern women’s bodily autonomy, well-being, and safety to a roundtable dominated by men within a patriarchal institution.

In an effort to emphasize how personal experiences are also political actions, my study focused on obtaining statements from Indonesian women parliamentarians from different political parties and their expert staff regarding women in politics and the manifestation of substantive representation through the Sexual Violence Elimination bill. Following in-depth interviews, I have found that support of political parties and feminist leadership play a crucial role in pushing for trailblazer policies that do not conform with traditional gender roles.

Firstly, women parliamentarians who participated in this dissertation study conveyed the importance of political party organisation and regeneration as a key factor to supporting the advocacy of policies. It is not uncommon for individual party members to face backlash from their own parties for going against their party’s interests. However, women parliamentarians who are passionate about this issue and recognise their position as advocates of Indonesian women’s interests have been seen strategizing their way through their party’s women’s caucus and building allies with like-minded Members of Parliament in other parties.

Secondly, feminist leadership (not to be confused with women leadership) becomes crucial in the advocacy of the Sexual Violence Elimination bill. Feminist leadership becomes the implementation of substantive representation, whereby parliamentary members identify themselves as representatives of a feminist agenda and align their political actions to the achievement of gender-equality. Interviews from this study highlighted the importance of increasing Member of Parliaments’ comprehension of the gender perspective, which may include internal socialization within parties, commissions, and parliamentary agencies. The recruitment and training of women cadres were also mentioned as an important aspect to ensure that when elected, they are able to advocate for women’s interests within different public sectors.

In reviewing the Indonesian case, we are able to understand the enabling and constraining factors influencing women’s substantive representation in parliament. Undoubtedly, the Sexual Violence Elimination bill will continue to face challenges related to structural, institution, cultural, and religious factors. However, this is not to say that an improved legal framework in support of women’s rights is impossible to achieve. There is hope wielded through Indonesian women parliamentarians due to their continued agility, persistence, and leadership in advocating for the prevention of gender-based violence and protection of victim’s rights. Indonesian women have been fighting against discrimination since the colonial era. There is no reason for us to stop the battle towards gender equality now.

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About the Research

This article is based on the Author’s Master’s dissertation research that received the support of the Southeast Asia Student Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. The research conducts in-depth interviews aimed at understanding women parliamentarian’s form of substantive representation in the discussion or advocacy of the Sexual Violence Elimination bill, in addition to qualitative content analysis of media articles and official verbatims of parliamentary proceedings on the bill. The methodology reflects a feminist standpoint in analysing themes and codes present during data collection, suggesting a research objective of empowering the voices and experiences of women who have been underrepresented in public policy and administration discourse.

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*Banner photo of a grass-root campaign to advocate for increased women’s representation in Parliament by a group of women’s rights activists and civil society organisation members. Source: Un Women Asia & the Pacific on Creative Commons under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

*The views expressed in the blog are those of the authors alone. They do not reflect the position of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, nor that of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

About the author

Safira Pusparani

Safira Pusparani is an MSc in Public Policy and Administration candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. She was a recipient of the SEAC Dissertation Fieldwork Grant and holds a BA (Hons) in International Relations from University of Indonesia. She has been working in the public policy sector for more than three years, and is currently a government affairs and political risk consultant at Vriens & Partners, a Singaporean-based firm.

Posted In: Reflections

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