Participation Of Female In Indonesian Politics

One of the main parts in the Gender Equality democratic is due to change and ensure free access to all elements of society. Gender equality has been long disputed by feminist fighters in various countries, both countries in industrialized, as well as third countries including Indonesia. This is inseparable from the problematic of women themselves, where the assumption that women are lacking or even cannot play an independent role in the domestic public level.

Based on the book of Body Politic Feminist, Criticism and Latin American Women writer (Amy Kamisky, 1992), the assumption that women have always been the conservative force in society counted on not to produce, but to reproduce, to maintain whatever is worth maintaining in the culture serves masculinist agendas on the left as well as on the right.

According to Raia Prokhovnik, the most effective way forward is to recognize the extended meanings of the terms reason and emotion, man and woman, extensions which occur when relations other than dichotomous ones are conceptualized. In fact, the meaning behind the reason and emotion, man and woman are difficult to be understood when each item is interdependent towards one another.

In Indonesia, it is not a new thing that women often experience the process of gender injustice through marginalization, subornation, stereotype and become victims of violence. This is concerned with the attractiveness between the domestic role and the public role of women. The process of marginalization, resulting in poverty, occurs in many communities and countries affecting men and women, such as evictions, natural disasters, or exploitation processes.

A gender perspective can also lead to subornation, the assumption that women are irrational or emotional so that women cannot appear to be leaders, resulting in an attitude that places women in unimportant or unnecessary positions, and in general stereotypes towards women is labeling or labeling a certain group where the views are originated from gender. For example, a marking that begins with the assumption that women groom in order to attract attention so that many putting up cases of violence and abuse against women.

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) and the public. In short, it is about reputations of what you do, what you say and what others say about you, and it is planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between the organization and its publics. In this case, a country can be seen as a big organization too, so the job of a PR of a country is to maintain the reputation of a country. And women can be seen as a community who also need their own PR to create their image and reputation.

Our research topic is related to PR communication in 2 aspects. First, women equality in political area in Indonesia might also affect how people perceive Indonesia and the reputation of Indonesia, and this is the job of PR practitioners to build and maintain Indonesia’s reputation. Second, how female politicians in Indonesia helps the female citizens being perceived in a good way by man in Indonesia, that’s why having female equality in politics in Indonesia can help this community called “women”, and that’s PR of this community.

Greater participation of female in Indonesian politics, in terms of their presence on legislative bodies, is key to the country’s efforts to close the gender inequality gap, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has said in its latest Human Development Index (HDI) report. Countries with increased women’s participation and leadership in civil society and political parties tend to be more inclusive, responsive, egalitarian, and democratic. When women meaningfully participate in peace processes, they can help to expand the scope of agreements and improve the prospects for durable peace. With this thought, if Indonesia can increase women in politics, it can help the country to grow and by doing this Indonesia can gain a good reputation and it will be perceived by people from other country with a good thought. Strengthening women’s rights and addressing barriers to political participation are critical to achieving gender equality and female empowerment.

Recently, Surabaya was suffering its worst terrorist attack, family of five bomb some places in Indonesia. And there are women called Tri Rismaharini, she is the leader of Surabaya, and she went to crime scene right after the accidence happened, she is being responsible, and that helps he gain her reputation and even the female leaders’ reputation. Another famous female leader is Raden Adjeng Kartini who was a prominent Indonesian national heroine from Java, and she was also a pioneer in the area of education for girls and women’s right for Indonesians. Kartini not only helped in the area of the emancipation of women, but also other problems in the society. Kartini saw that the struggle for women to obtain their freedom, autonomy and legal equality was just part of a wider movement. With all of her achievement, she influenced the way Indonesian man perceive women and also who foreigners perceive Indonesians.

Moreover, if we elaborate more about other country, the mid-term elections of 1998 saw all time low for youth voting in the U.S. with roughly 12.2 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds showing up to the polls that year (Moseley, 1999). While this may have been the lowest turnout on record, it represented just one example in a long line of minimal voting years for young Americans. The 1996 presidential election saw just 36 percent of 18 to 24 years-olds voting, the lowest ever for a presidential election year, and the 2000 election was no better, pulling the same 36 percent (Cannon, 2007). Additionally, the 2000 elections saw the 18 to 21-year-old vote drop below 30 percent for the first time (Cannon). However, the 2004 presidential election brought with it resurgence in young adult’s interest in politics (Patterson, 2004), ultimately leading 47 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds to vote.

Some attributed the low voter turnout seen in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s to the disconnect young people felt between their votes and their daily lives (Moseley, 1999), others attributed the low numbers to the preoccupation many young adults experience while perusing their education, new jobs, and marriage. Larson (2000) said that the low voter turnout among youth voters was due to a lack of inspiration caused by the similarity seen between the two major party candidates. However, when this downward trend took a turn for the better in 2004, Patterson (2004) believed the increase in young adult voting was due to the issues presented during that election, primarily the war in Iraq and the economy.

While the youth in America appear to have different reasons for voting they have also been found to be a different breed completely when it comes to how they identify themselves politically. For instance, Generation X has been noted for their support of third party candidates such as Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura (Halstead, 1999). Accordingly, Halstead pointed out that only one-third of Generation Xers identify with one of the major political parties, 44 percent identify themselves as independents, and they are the group most likely to disapprove of the current two-party system. Similarly, in 1999, Rock the Vote campaigns claimed that over 80 percent of their registrants declined providing a party affiliation and at any single event over 50 percent of their young adult supporters identified as independents (Moseley, 1999).

With the success of Jesse Ventura in Minnesota, it was believed that young adults could also be stimulated to increase their voting tendencies with the possibility of expanding the two-party system (Moseley).

It also seems apparent that a college education plays a significant role in the likelihood young adults will vote. In 2004, 77 percent of college educated young adults between 18 and 29 voted, while only 52 percent of all 18 to 29-year-olds voted (Farrell, 2004). Also, young adults with a college background were found to be as attentive to the 2004 election as older adults (Patterson, 2004). While it is not known exactly why college educated young adults have the voting tendencies they do, it seems clear they have a perspective different from adults and even their non-college educated counterparts. College is believed to be an intellectually safe environment to explore the surrounding word and a place where the status quo is openly questioned, which may explain why many young adult voters tend to be more open to third parties and are more likely to identify themselves as independents than adults. However, not all young adults choose to peruse a college education and many of those non-college educated 18 to 24-year-old do not participate in elections.

Is it possible that a college education encourages these young adults to seek new answers to the problems facing this country and that the prospect of viable third party or independent candidates could encourage more young adults, college educated or not, to become more politically active? The purpose of this thesis is to examine third party presidential candidates and their supporters as a possible muted group within U.S. politics. Since college educated young adults are the greatest supporters of third party candidates, as witnessed by the Rock the Vote registration data (Moseley, 1999), they will be the focus of this investigation and will be asked to identify how they view third parties and those who support them. If third parties are a muted group, it may explain the difficulty these candidates have experienced in trying to get elected. It may also provide a new avenue to be explored when trying to encourage new voters to get involved.