By Bernama,
Jakarta : Indonesian women’s participation in politics is still very limited, despite the existence of a law requiring 30 percent of seats in political representation bodies to be given to women, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono said.
“We must admit that the role of women in the political field must still be intensified,” she said in a statement at the Monas (National Monument here on Saturday after officiating an exhibition.
The two-day exhibition is to mark the one decade of the Indonesian women’s awakening in conjunction with the centennial of National Awakening.
In the future, she hoped that the number of female legislators in the country would surpass the quota.
Meanwhile, State Minister of Women’s Empowerment Meutia Hatta called on political party leaders to give more opportunities to women so that the 30-percent quota could be met.
Meutia, who is the daughter of Indonesia’s former vice president Mohamad Hatta, also urged women to improve the quality of their capabilities so that they would be able to equal their male partners in the political field.
Meutia said 45 percent of her party’s legislative nominees were women. If women were not empowered properly, national development would be imbalanced because women were an asset, not a burden nor an obstacle, to development.