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Regency Council Leaders Share Views on CEDAW
Regencies in Indonesia are local administrative units that sit just below the provincial level. They are governed by local parliaments in the form of Regency Councils. The number of members in each council varies depending on the size of the regency and the number of subdistricts and villages they contain.
An umbrella organization called ADKASI, the Association of Indonesian Regency Legislative Councils, regularly convenes meetings of regency councils from all over Indonesia, and provides training and capacity building for local parliamentarians on a range of governance issues.
In 2007, ADKASI organized a training workshop on CEDAW for several regency council members from 3 provinces – East Java, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi. The workshop, supported by UNIFEM, touched on CEDAW principles, on the state’s obligations, and on the practical implementation of the Convention in local legislative and administrative processes. Much of the information was new for many of the parliamentarians, but they found it useful for their work and have asked for further follow-up training, as well as technical support to prepare their workplans and develop their budgets from a gender perspective.
Some regency council members from different parts of South Sulawesi share their thoughts on CEDAW:-
How was the CEDAW training helpful?
“I knew about discrimination against women, but not much about CEDAW except for hearing about it once or twice in the media. The training helped us to pay more attention to issues that might affect women differently from men. In Bantaeng, 60 per cent of the population is female, and many of the very poor are also women. Poverty is something that can affect women differently from men, especially if women are discriminated against in the first place.”
Muhammad Amiruddin, Deputy Head of Regency Council, Bantaeng
“I already knew about CEDAW before the training, because I am a graduate in gender studies, and I’ve attended workshops on women’s rights before. But I didn’t know about the obligation of the state to implement CEDAW. The workshop was helpful because it was very practical – it covered issues that we deal with in our regencies and how to apply CEDAW to these to promote gender equality. We also learned how to incorporate gender into our workplans.”
Hajjah Agusnawati, Regency Council member, Maros
What are some practical applications of CEDAW that are already being carried out in your regencies?
“We are in the middle of our budget process right now, and it’s the first time that we will be including a gender perspective because some of us attended the workshop. We are looking for example at programmes to improve women’s literacy and economic skills, and trying to allocate more money for this. This regency is well-known for corn, and we are also trying to see if women can start to produce alternative corn products such as corn chips. Women are not usually involved in corn production, so this will be something new. I think it will benefit a lot of women and their families, especially the very poor ones.”
Muhammad Amiruddin, Deputy Head of Regency Council, Bantaeng
“We want to make Gowa into a model regency. Unlike many of the other regencies we have a lot of female activists because women are better educated. We focus on girls’ education, and we are now spending more money to ensure that illiterate women, especially those who are poor, also have access to literacy programmes.
In our budget, we are giving more resources to women to form agricultural collectives such as coffee, vegetables, potatoes and rice. We are also giving loans to women’s groups, for example for weavers, and providing skills building courses. Water is one infrastructure issue that affects women, and in some areas during the dry season, they have to walk very far to collect water. So we built a water piping system that brings the water closer now.”
Mallingkai Maknun, Head of Regency Council, Gowa
“During the training each regency committed to carrying out at least one activity. In Maros, we are focusing on capacity building for women, and improving civic and political education so more women will join public life. We have shared the lessons we learned with the development planning bureau at the district and village level and encouraged them to include more women in their planning committees.”
Abdul Halid, Regency Council member, Maros
“We are in the process of providing fully equipped health services for women and children in all the villages, so that they have closer access, unlike before when these were only in the subdistricts. Hopefully this will be completed in 2009.
We are also approaching the village women’s groups that regularly meet to study the Qur’an and discuss religion, to encourage them to also start discussing other issues and take part in community life.”
Hajjah Agusnawati, Regency Council member, Maros
Why do you think there are so few women in politics and public life?
“There is a lot of tradition that stops women from coming forward. The thinking is that girls get married and look after the house and the children. Many parents only send their boys to school even though schooling is now free, so women are not as well educated as men.
I think we need to have more women role models, so others will be encouraged to come forward. In our regency, we have fewer women than men in the council, but one of our members, Ibu Tenri, is also the head of ADKASI. She is a good role model. We should remember our history – we had a strong and powerful queen who everybody respected, so it’s not true that women are not as good as men.”
Mallingkai Maknun, Head of Regency Council, Gowa
“Women face disadvantages if they want to join politics. The new 30 per cent quota requirement for political parties is good to encourage them to participate, but it’s not enough. It’s not just about ensuring more women join the parties, but also that they are put at the top of the party electoral lists so they can get the votes to be elected. I am from a party that put women on the top of the list, and I got elected.
I think for men politics is seen as a profession – less so for women. If men don’t get elected, they can lobby for other strategic projects and stay within the political system, whereas for women, if they don’t get elected, they are slowly excluded – these women tend not to get any strategic roles, but only the administrative jobs. So it’s crucial to ensure that not only do we have more women participating, but that they actually get elected also.”
Hajjah Agusnawati, Regency Council member, Maros
“I believe that women do have the capacity to participate as long as room is made for them, because the truth is that those who are good at organizing and mobilizing are always the women. But women are usually not put at the top of the lists because parties don’t think they can get the votes.”
Abdul Halid, Regency Council member, Maros
(January 2008)
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