In Indonesia, like internationally, gender quotas would not have been adopted without the persistent and tireless lobbying of grass roots, national and international women's groups. Generally, gender quota promotion has not started until women's groups have identified quotas as a legitimate means to improve women's political representation.
Studies have shown that women's campaigns for quotas tend to be successful when quotas are identified as a strategic benefit to the political elite; linked to existing notions of equality and representation; and supported by international organisations and transnational networks (Araujo & Garcia 2006). Additionally, political parties can have different motivations for adopting gender quotas, including wanting to be seen as modern; as part of electoral competition; meeting international norms; and/or achieving political advantages (Caul 2001; Matland 2004; Tripp & Kang 2008). For example, in France, large parties supported gender parity because male incumbents expected voters to favour male candidates (most of them incumbents) over new female candidates (Frechette &
Piscopo 2008). Meanwhile in Norway, the Socialist Left Party adopted gender quotas to distinguish itself from the Labour Party. In this case, the implementation of quotas was seen as a strategy to attract leftist women away from the Labour Party. Meanwhile, the reason for the Liberal Party's adoption of quotas was to establish a new party identity (Matland 2004).
As mentioned in the introduction of this chapter, women's representation following the 2004 elections at the local level is an average of 10 and five percent in provincial and district parliaments respectively. Gadis Arivia (2006), a founder of Jurnal Perempuan, argued that the “male stream” approach in politics has produced rules that have benefited men and marginalised women in the political arena. As a result, feminists want to feminise democracy in order to construct a just, open, equal and participatory world for women. This can be achieved by adopting quota provisions to increase the proportion of women in parliament. The Indonesian women's movement argued that gender quotas had to be implemented or it would take 75 years to achieve equal representation without adopting special measures (KPI 2002).
3.3.1 THE PUSH FOR QUOTAS IN INDONESIA
The term "quota" was introduced for the first time on 22 December 1998 in a Political Statement made by KPI. The statement called for the Indonesian Government to provide access for women to national leadership positions and to provide a 50 percent quota in legislative, judicial and executive arenas (KPI 1999). This statement was made not long after Soeharto resigned as President in May 1998. KPI is a women's mass organisation established by feminists from various organisations as a result of the Congress of Indonesian Women in
December 1998. Around 600 activists from across Indonesia attended the congress (KPI nd). In this congress, participants highlighted the urgent need for women to be represented in decision-making bodies and for national leaders to voice women's interests. Until 1998, women's political representation in parliament had never exceeded 13 percent, despite Indonesian women having the same right to vote as men since independence in 1945.
After the 1999 elections, there was strong opposition to women's leadership by PPP and several Moslem organisations. These Moslem groups argued that a woman could not be the President as it is against the Quran (Blackburn 2004; Robinson 2009). Much of this opposition was in relation to the victory of PDIP, led by Megawati Soekarnoputri, a daughter of the first Indonesian President, Soekarno. PDIP gained the largest proportion of votes in parliament, and as a result, it was expected that MPs would vote for Megawati as President. Among the parties that won parliamentary seats, PDIP was the only party led by a woman. Despite gaining the most number of parliamentary seats, PDIP did not manage to gain support from other parties to elect Megawati (Sherlock 2004). Megawati received 313 votes, while Abdurrahman Wahid received 373 votes from members of the MPR (Ismail 2013). This result made Abdurrahman Wahid the President and Megawati, the Vice President. Prior to the elections, Moslem leaders at a national consultation organised by Nahdlatul Ulama concluded that women were allowed to be voted as Vice President, but not as the President (Robinson & Bessell 2002). PAN, PPP and other Moslem parties formed an alliance to maintain power in the MPR and to oppose the idea of a female President to prevent Megawati from becoming President (Bessell 2004). This contributed to decreasing support from parties to elect Megawati as President.
The women's movement continued to consolidate, discuss advocacy strategies and agreed on the percentage of quotas they demanded. There were two different proposals, a group that demanded 20 percent and another group that demanded 30 percent. The main argument for the group that proposed 20 percent was because there were not many women in political parties and therefore it would be too difficult to meet a higher quota. Meanwhile the group, including the Women's Parliamentary Caucus, that proposed 30 percent argued that 30 percent was the required number for women to be able to have a voice in decision-making (Siregar 2007). KPI had promoted 50 percent of women's representation, however the international community had set a target of at least 30 percent of women as stated by the United Nation's Economic and Social Council. Therefore, after a series of discussions, the Indonesian women's movement advocated for at least 30 percent in decision-making bodies (Katjasungkana 2002).
The slogan used by the women's movement to promote quotas was "No democracy without women's representation" (Budhiati 2003; KPI 2001). The main arguments used by KPI for gender quotas included:
women's representation is a key principle of democracy and implementing gender quotas is one way of achieving this;
affirmative action is promoted in international conventions ratified by Indonesia, thus the government is obligated to implement the recommendations as set out in the conventions.
In addition to these international conventions, the 1999 Indonesian Human Rights Law states that the electoral system, political party systems and judicature and executive appointment mechanisms must guarantee 30 percent women’s representation. Women's activists argued that women constitute more than 50 percent of the population and therefore, should be represented equally in decision-making bodies as a form of democracy. Also, the Indonesian women's movement believed that only women can speak and advocate for women's interests in policies (Siregar 2007).