Recruitment of Women Legislative Candidates: Case Study in

Political Parties in Bandung in 2018

Dede Sri Kartini, Antik Bintari and Muradi

Universitas Padjadjaran, Jl. Raya Bandung Sumedang Km. 21 Jatinangor, Sumedang

Keywords: Recruitment, Political Parties, Legislative, Candidate, Patriarchy

Abstract: Women’s role and position in politic still has little significant transformation since values and culture of

patriarchy (a value whom emphasize more on male’s advantage) remains dominant in society. Political

activity often being depicted as dirty, dangerous yet full of anarchy without any advantages at all for society.

Generally, it depicts the conditions in several Asian countries, except in Taiwan and South Korea which has

increased amount of woman legislative member from election to election. Even though in current condition,

Indonesian society has positioned political matters in line with economic advantages, thanks to high rate of

corruption among officials and politicians. It still possessed negative impact in society since money-politics

brings too many people get jailed by Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). These conditions are

assumed as triggering factor on woman’s declining participation rate in 2014’s Legislative Election in

Bandung whom only leaving 3 candidates remains. By applied qualitative – descriptive approach and research

instrument through Focus Group Discussion, it has been concluded that the declining rate of woman

legislative candidates lied on internal political parties’ recruitment process do not positioned women as it

should be. Money politics and local elite’s authority in regional level still dominated the recruitment process.

Local Elite’s also purposely put woman legislative candidates in almost-final number, whom isolated women

role only a mere “candidate” in legislative elections. Surely, policy from Central or Local Government should

be improved in order to increase women’s capacity in politic especially in Legislative candidate at Bandung.

1 INTRODUCTION

The change of political life marked by the

strengthening of democracy in Asian countries, did

not affect the change of political life in women,

especially the representation of women in the

legislature. This is confirmed by Iwanaga (2008, p.1)

by saying that:

“Women as a group have consolidated enormous

voting power in recent years, but have been

simultaneously disenfranchised with regard to

political representation. This begs the question of

why women are grossly under-represented at all

levels of government in Asia in an era when

democracy as a system of government has been

spreading worldwide.”

Furthermore Iwanaga (2008) also states that

women in Asia receive the right to vote and be elected

sooner than women in industrialized countries that

have been democratic first. When most of the

countries in Europe and the United States involved

women in politics in the early years of the First World

War, only three countries in Asia included women in

politics at the start of the Second World War. Sri

Lanka was the first country in Asia that allowed

women to vote in 1931, followed later in 1932 and by

Myanmar in 1935.

The gender gap in public life and politics is a

global challenge that the global community continues

to face in the 21st century. Indonesia's Gender

Development Index (GDI) in 2015 is ranked 6th out

of 8 ASEAN countries (UNDP, 2015) . This

achievement of Indonesia is just above Laos and

Cambodia. However, this figure is already slightly

above the world average of 92.36. Compared to

China, India and Japan, IPG Indonesia is still below

Japan and China, but far above India. GDI measures

human development, but takes into account gender

differences. The GDI components are similar to those

used in the Human Development Index (HDI), but are

adjusted to see differences in achievements between

women and men; three indicators were used including

life expectancy, as measured by life expectancy at

birth; educational attainment, as measured by a

combination of reading ability among adults and the

average number of years spent attending school; as

Kartini, D., Bintari, A. and Muradi, M.

Recruitment of Women Legislative Candidates: Case Study in Political Parties in Bandung in 2018.

DOI: 10.5220/0010273800002309

In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations (ACIR 2018) - Politics, Economy, and Security in Changing Indo-Paciﬁc Region, pages 107-112

ISBN: 978-989-758-493-0

107

well as the standard of living, as measured by per

capita expenditure. That women are still left in these

areas indicates that there is still a way for women to

be truly equal in Indonesian society.

Indonesia is committed to carrying out the

principle of gender equality through various national

and international commitments. The 1945

Constitution ensures equality between men and

women, and gender mainstreaming has been adopted

into a policy to integrate gender perspectives into

policy, planning and budgeting. The afrmative action

has also been introduced starting in 2003 through

Law no. 12/2003 on General Election of Members of

the People's Legislative Assembly, Regional

Representative Council, and DPRD, in Law no.

10/2008 on General Elections to ensure that at least

30 per cent of women are nominated for legislative

candidates to address the issue of gender inequality in

politics in the country. Last is on the Election Law no.

7 of 2017 on General Election. Although women in

Indonesia are actively contributing to the national

economy and households through their productive

and reproductive work, they are still excluded from

the various structures and decision-making processes

in the family, community and country level. The lack

of representation of women in decision-making

positions in the public sector has led to the

development of economic and social policies that

provide privileges to men's perspectives and interests,

as well as investments in national resources taking

into account benefits to men.

Although women in Indonesia are actively

contributing to the national economy and households

through their productive and reproductive work, they

are still excluded from the various structures and

decision-making processes in the family, community

and country level. The lack of representation of

women in decision-making positions in the public

sector has led to the development of economic and

social policies that provide privileges to men's

perspectives and interests, as well as investments in

national resources taking into account benefits to

men.

Before this article discusses the conditions of

female legislators in Bandung, the writer will

describe in advance the conditions of female

legislators in several countries in Asia namely China,

Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea including

Indonesia. China and Thailand have a resemblance to

Indonesia, in these countries the democratic life that

gives women women a wide opportunity in politics

does not at all increase the number of female

legislators. In contrast to South Korea and Taiwan,

these two countries have improved women legislative

members from elections to elections.

2 METHODS

This research approach using qualitative approach or

qualitative paradigm. Paradigm is defined as a way of

thinking of the scientific community to understand

the reality of the object under study (Satori and

Komariah 2012). While the technique used is

descriptive that included into the expost past research

that the events studied have occurred so that the data

can be traced back through interview guidelines and

relevant documents (Gulo 2002).

The data source consists of primary and secondary

data (Hasan 2002), the primary data in this study was

obtained through focus group discussions (FGD) with

political party and women organization officials in

Bandung. For secondary data obtained from libraries,

Statutes and Bylaws of political parties, and e-books

derived mostly from the internet. FGDs were chosen

because discussion participants could synergize and

interact between individuals who would explicitly

produce general data (Finch, et all 2014).

As the character of a more 'investigative'

qualitative approach, sampling is more emphasized

on the quality of the sample and not on the number

(Salim 2006). The informants in this study were

determined purposively (Yusuf 2016). The term

purposive is still taken from quantitative terminology

so that it is categorized as non probability sampling.

3 RESULT

According to Howell (2008), legislative women

representatives in China is better comparing with

another countries, since it reaches 20,2% in national

legislative level (n=National People’s Congress).

Based on Howell, there are three factors which

supported that conditions. First, not only are women

under-represented in Party/government institutions at

all levels, but the numerical representation of women

has declined over the past two decades. Second, when

women do make it into leadership positions, they

usually occupy the deputy-positions. Third, women

are usually assigned ‘soft’ portfolios such as

education or health, or portfolios that reflect their

gender, such as family planning and women’s work.

(2008, p.56).

In order to reach 20.2% is not easy since first the

goverment and society strengtening cultural values

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that emphasize the inferiority of woman, so they are

not confindent entering political role. But, in the

nedm the goverment whom supported by party’s

wings organization, campaign to persuade women to

be more confident.

Social beliefs, practices and processes of

socialisation tend to reinforce gendered stereotypes,

which position the biological sexes of male and

female into distinct roles in society. Despite

government intervention to promote notions of

equality between men and women, deep-seated social

beliefs about the inferioritas of women and their

‘proper place’ in the home work against women

taking a more active role in public life. These beliefs

about the inferiority of women are shared both by

men and women, and become reflected in women’s

sense of self-worth and self-confidence and in turn

men’s belief in their own innate superiority. The All-

China Women’s Federation has run numerous

campaigns aimed at raising women’s self-confidence

and consciousness, such as the ‘sizi yundong’ [Four

Selves] campaign. However social beliefs about the

appropriate division of labour between men and

women in the economy and within the household as

well as the actual and desirable attributes of male and

female genders continue to prevail and can affect

negatively the prospects of women getting into

positions of authority, whether by election or not, and

their chances of promotion. (Howell, 2008, p.61).

Thus, in order to gaining woman representation in

local levels, the goverment issued regulation in 1988,

1998 and the Home Ministry also issued new

regulation in 1999 to harmonize the amount og

womaen legislator in local legislation, namely:

“Suggestions for the Guarantee of a Proper Portion

Among Members of Village Committees’.

Goverment intervention is necessary to ensure fair

competition between man and women, besides to

ensure women confident on politic (Howell 2008).

In contrast to Taiwan which has women's

representation of more than 20% in national

legislatures since the 2001 elections, the country uses

the representation of quota women with a reserved

seat system (Chiang 2008). It is the system that gives

women the opportunity to gain seats in the National

Legislative Yuan. Furthermore Chiang also pointed

out that "The Additional Articles of the Constitution

amended in April 2000 limits the total number of

legislators and imposes a number of seats to be

allotted to female representatives in the legislative

election" (Chiang, 2008. P.89). For example, in the

legislative election of 2004, there was not one female

candidate out of the total 16 candidates who obtained

a number of ballots higher than the male candidates

in Tainan County. As a result of the Electoral Law, of

the eight seats elected into the legislature for this

County, one female candidate named Yi-Jing Ye who

earned the highest ballots among the female

candidates in Tainan County obtained The reserved

seat in her constituency. The final electoral result

dismissed the eighth male electee despite the fact that

he obtained more votes than Ye did. (Chiang, 2008,

p. 90).

In South Korea, woman participation in

legislative is no more than 13% of population, altough

goverment has issued regulation to increase it. The

rules are: As an effort to improve the institutional

environment for women’s political National

Assembly election in 2000 stipulated that 30 per cent

of the nominations be reserved for female candidates

for national constituency seats. In face of the 3rd local

election held in 2002, Law Related Politics

additionally encouraged a 50 per cent minimum of

female candidates for national constituency seats and

a 30 per cent minimum for local constituency seats in

Broad District Assemblies. In the recent 17rd general

election, the quota system succeeded. (Kim 2008, p.

139).

The increasing rate of women in the legislature,

not separated from the character of South Korean

voters who do not distinguish between women and

men politicians, as long as politicians are good

quality, it will be selected. In addition, 70% of female

voters chose female candidates as well (Kim 2008).

Elite political parties also play a role in nominating

women as members of the legislature.

Conditions in Indonesia differ from those in South

Korea, as Indonesia experienced a democratic

vacuum since the 1955 elections. Indonesia started

democracy back in the 1999 elections, but in the

election it only put 9.6%. This figure is very small

compared to the number of women legislatures during

the New Order (Hilman 2017).

Indonesia then established a regulation on the

quota system for women in the legislature through

Law no. 12 Year 2003, then this regulation was

applied in the 2004 election which resulted only

increase the number of female legislators at the

national level by 11.1%. The following table shows

the percentage of female legislators from the 1999

election to the 2014 election.

Recruitment of Women Legislative Candidates: Case Study in Political Parties in Bandung in 2018

109

Table 1: Seats Won by Men and Women in Indonesia’s

National Parliament 1999-2004

Election Total

Seats

% Men % Women

2014 560 82.68 17.32

2009 550 82.14 17.86

2004 550 88.9 11.1

1999 500 90.4 9.6

www.kpu.go.id in Hilman (2017: 41)

Based on the tabel, it can be concluded that the

amount of quota for woman is still far from 30%. The

decreasing of women quota procentage is also happen

in Bandung Cuty Council (DPRD Kota Bandung). In

2009 election, member of Bandung City Council was

9 people, and in 2014 was 3 people.

4 DISCUSSION

Hilman (2017) stated that generally there are three

types of gender quota, i,e,: reserved seat, voluntary

party quotas dan legal candidate quotas. Under a

reserved seats system, a minimum number of

parliamentary seats are reserved for women

representatives. Voluntary party quotas are political

party commitments to increase the number of their

women candidates. Legal candidate quotas or

‘legislative quotas’ as they are sometimes known,

require political parties to ﬁeld a minimum number of

candidates (typically between 20 and 40 per cent) in

order to be eligible to contest elections. (Hilman

2017, p . 38).

Legal candidates quotas system is widely used by

countries today including Indonesia since this system

is argued more democratic which does not lay based

upon gender but the candidates ability. Thus,

countries that adopt this system usually have low

female representation or women quota in legislative

is very fluctuate.

Thus, it also happens in city of Bandung whose

members of parliament numbered 9 people in the

elections in 2009 declined sharply into 3 people in the

2014 election. The description below will see the

factors of decreasing the representation of women in

the city of Bandung viewed from the internal policy

of political parties, women's recruitment system as a

candidate members of parliament and the attitude of

political parties in positioning women sebgai party

political party.

4.1 Internal Party Policy

Political party policy can be seen from the vision of

the mission listed in the Basic Charter and Bylaws

(AR / ART), if the vision of the mission is very

general then the political party's policy is seen in the

AD / ART section only. So also in the analyst of this

study, the researchers will see the vision of the

mission of the political party leaders who made the

informant in the FGD. Researchers take on several

vision and mission passages that show women's

involvement in political policy.

Can be seen from the vision of the mission of

several political parties, not at all mentioned or no

words that emphasize the importance of women in

implementing the policy of political parties. Political

parties only deliver women in prospective candidates

only means that few choose women candidates. This

is contradictory to the number of female voters in

Bandung around 828,587 people, not much different

from the male voters who numbered 830,221 people.

This condition is not surprising because the legal

candidate quota system used in legislative elections.

However, Hanura has advantages in responding to

gender equality. This is evident from the party's

mission, and its basic budget explicitly involving

women in political education and recruitment.

Hanura's vision does not mention gender equality, but

Hanura in formal policy has responded to gender

equality.

Hanura also provides the widest opportunity for

women to take an active role in nation building.

Equality is also seen in Hanura's Articles of

Association in party functions, political education and

recruitment as set forth in chapters 19 and 23. For

details can be found in article 19, paragraph 5 on

Party Functions which states: "a recruitment center

for cadres in the process of filling political office

through the mechanism of democracy by taking into

account gender equality and fairness.

But it can not be denied, although political parties

have a formal policy on political education for the

community by taking into account gender equality,

political education is not yet equitable and

comprehensive. This also affects the people who are

less aware of women's politics, the existence of

patriarchal culture.

4.2 Woman Recruitment System

This section will emphasize the recruitment of

women as candidates for DPRD members.

Recruitment which is one of the functions of political

parties, according to Ichlasul Amal is used in the

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broadest sense possible to "demonstrate training and

preparation for leadership: open to the public, the

appearance of legislative bodies or other functions by

party members, and of course competition the good is

the election ". (1996: 28). When referring to this

opinion, political parties in the city of Bandung in

general only to take someone to become a candidate

member of parliament, without preparing the cadre to

compete in the election. But there are also political

parties that provide training to candidates for their

DPRD members.

However, this recruitment cannot be separated

also from the element of "money politics", thus

hampering women legislative candidates who have

no money. The consideration for women to be a

legislative candidate according to one of the cadres is

"willingness and existence of fund (capable) will get

strategic position".

There are several parties that have criteria for

candidates for DPRD members. Perindo as the new

party that will participate in legislative election 2019,

has consideration in recruitment of legislative

member that woman legislative must have potency to

build party, have good social base / populist, and have

power in society. While PBB as a non-parliamentary

party has consideration in the recruitment is

experienced and how long they had participated in

politics and also their level of education. The

consideration for PKB is to have ideology (religious,

nationalist) and the presence of women in society.

Especially for the placement of the legislative

candidate number, there are still subjective

considerations such as the closeness of the cadre with

the Party Chairman. However, there are also political

parties who consider the serial number due to loyalty

or through a series of tests, such as interviews and

pretest on the insights of nationality and Pancasila.

There are also parties that apply the policy on the

serial number, e.g from 3 candidates should be

women's thus, women made in number 3 as an option.

Determination of party serial number already exist

mechanism so that the determination of the serial

number is based on the party leader's policy. Thus, the

absence of a struggle is made, because it is all

determined and submitted to the Party Chairman. If

the legislative candidate accommodates the

aspirations of the voters, the usual contents of the

voters are usually economic difficulties such as

school cost difficulties and hospital costs. There are

also voters who convey the aspirations of domestic

violence (KDRT).

4.3 Political Party Response

The attitude of political parties in positioning women

as party officials of political parties, referring to the

stewardship of women in political parties at the

central level accommodated by Law no. 7 Year 2017

about the election, although some political parties

have accommodated the management of women to

the regional level even Rukun Tetangga. The Hanura

Party is an example for that statement. Women as

party administrators do not get a strategic position.

Most are still administrators who are placed in

divisions relating to women.

So also with Gerindra Party that has

accommodated women in stewardship from the

central level even to RT. In its AR ART it states that:

"The number of Board of Directors of the Central

Board of at least 90 (ninety) persons with regard to

women's representation of at least 30% (thirty

percent" (Article 7 paragraph 5) .But in fact, there are

only 12 people from a stewardship of at least 90.

Thus, for central management, it does not reach 30%,

in reality, the Gerindra Central Executive Board can

only access about 13%.

There is a contradiction between the requirements

of election participating parties according to Law no.

7 of 2017 on the election of article 173 paragraph 2

points e, with data in the KPU. If the requirement to

participate in the election, a political party must

include at least 30% (thirty percent) of the

stewardship of the central political party, then in the

KPU the data listed is 30% female representation of

the number of members.

The lack of synchrony between what data should

be contained in the KPU with the order of the law,

indicates that election organizers find it difficult to

ask political parties to comply with the law. It does

not rule out the possibility of any political party

looking for female administrators who can take care

of the organization. On the other hand we must also

take into account the internal barriers of women

themselves, who consider politics a masculine world,

so there is no motivation from women to be active in

political parties.

5 CONCLUSION

The condition of women's representation in the

legislature in some Asian countries is generally

difficult to reach 30%, in how many countries the

procentages fluctuate that tends to decline sharply,

except Taiwan because it uses a system of reserved-

seat quota. Although the government is trying to enact

Recruitment of Women Legislative Candidates: Case Study in Political Parties in Bandung in 2018

111

legislation to increase women's representation in the

legislative level, the percentage of women in the

legislature declines compared to the New Order.

Viewed from the vision of the mission of political

parties that reflect the internal policy, there is no

mention or absence of words that emphasize the

importance of women in implementing the policies of

political parties. Political parties only deliver women

in prospective candidates only means that few choose

women candidates. The women's recruitment system

is also characterized by money politics and close

relationship with the Chairman of the Branch

Leadership Council. The attitude of political parties

in positioning women as party officials of political

parties, when viewed from the policy is in accordance

with the Election Law no. 7 Year 2017, but the fact

remains difficult to place women as party officer.

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