Yogyakarta, IDEA – The 2019 Women Legislative Candidates Discussion throughout the Regency/City and the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province was finally successfully held at the Arjuna Hotel Yogyakarta, Wednesday (07/11). The discussion, which was held by IDEA Yogyakarta together with the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the Women and Community Empowerment Agency (BPPM), was entitled Winning with Women: Women Speak Up, Media Reports. In addition to involving all representatives of legislative candidates throughout the Regency/City and the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province, this women legislative discussion also involved civil society organizations, the Mass Media, and figures supporting women in politics.
There are at least six main objectives of the “Winning with Women” Dialogue. The six objectives are divided into short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives.
In the short term, this dialogue aims for female legislative candidates and the media as well as NGOs and other stakeholders to get to know each other better and for there to be an understanding between the media and female legislative candidates regarding special space for women in the media as an affirmative action step.
In the medium term, female legislative candidates can have the opportunity to convey ideas/programs and reasons why they are worthy of being elected and the media covers news/stories about female legislative candidates; NGOs advocate and campaign to increase the electability of female legislative candidates. While the long-term goal is for the public to get to know more about female legislative candidates who are contesting in the 2019 Election and then elect women as legislators who are able to articulate the interests of the community, vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Therefore, it is very important to then bring women closer to the media and bring the media closer to female legislative candidates. This effort is made to introduce female legislative candidates to the community through development issues and public services that are close to the community. The ideas and thoughts of female legislative candidates are important to be part of the information that is worthy of being reported by journalists.
The discussion began with a presentation by IDEA activist, Triwahyuni Suci Wulandari, about the results of IDEA's analysis of the list of permanent legislative candidates who will contest in April 2019.
According to Suci, the number of female and male legislative candidates in the DIY DPRD and regencies/cities throughout DIY is 2,829 people. With the number of female legislative candidates as many as 1,239 people. This means that male legislative candidates still dominate the nominations in the 2019 election.
However, in the IDEA study, women's representation in the Permanent Candidate List is already more than 30%, which means that quantitatively political parties are able to fulfill the 30% nomination as mandated by Law No. 7 of 2017.
The IDEA study also found that several parties have made breakthroughs by providing affirmative action for vulnerable groups, as evidenced by the presence of disabled women who are legislative candidates included in the DCT. In the IDEA study, there are at least three female candidates with disabilities from DIY, namely 1 DPRRI candidate from Nasdem, 1 DIY DPRD candidate from PSI and 1 Kulon Progo Regency DPRD candidate from PDIP.
Meanwhile, the highest number of women's representation in 16 political parties in the DIY DPRD DCT is filled by the Golkar and Demokrat parties, with a total of 119 people each, then PAN 116 people, PKB 114 people while the 5th position is occupied by PDIP as many as 112 people. Unfortunately, of all these numbers, the motivation for women to advance is still dominated by the spirit to fulfill the quota of women's representation.
Also read: Women's Dialogue' Reflects on the Role of Women in Parliament
Next, another IDEA activist, Wasingatu Zakiyah, facilitated a discussion that discussed the challenges, opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths of female legislative candidates.
This discussion was enthusiastically welcomed by all female legislative candidates, including the KPU, Bawaslu and the Government represented by BPPM. This enthusiasm was proven by the many female legislative candidates who shared their experiences, challenges, and openness in admitting their weaknesses. The female legislative candidates also did not hesitate to share strategies and motivate each other, so that they are ready to face the 2019 legislative election contestation.
Of the many opinions of female legislative candidates, there are at least four things classified by Wasingatu Zakiyah, as the Facilitator. The four include weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and challenges experienced in the field by female legislative candidates. More details are in the following table.
| Weaknesses | Strength | Opportunity | Challenge |
| – Women are often betrayed by the existing process. – Black campaign to women – Not yet skilled in packaging issues – Some lack self-confidence – Queen be syndrome (women do not want to give support to women) – New competition with incumbent women – Some only come during the campaign – | – Social network capital– Women are able to answer the economic complaints of mothers– Have capacity in certain issues that are close to the community– Have a vision, mission and strategy that is close to the community– Be observant in developing communication methods– Bring a loudspeaker to certain events that exist in the community– Be confident in yourself– Women have a positive mindset– There is a commitment to educating the community– It doesn't matter where the number is. Some even choose the last number because it is easy to campaign. | – Ask for support from figures– Create programs that answer problems– Have a solid team– So far, disabilities have only been objects instead of subjects– Create campaign materials that are different from the usual. | – Legislative elections are number 2 rather than presidential elections – Build trust in the community – The community still asks how much, how much – Pragmatic community – There are rules in the party, they are not allowed to collaborate with other party candidates for the campaign – Not all people are aware of disability issues – Inclusion issues are considered sectoral – Reports of irregularities are not blown up – Stereotype that women are incapable – Open proportional system – High political costs. – The party places number 1 on the incumbent – The community asks for real programs, not just talk.– |
Nelly Tristiana, the representative of the DIY government for the head of women's empowerment, BPPM DIY said that it is very important to improve the DIY gender development index which is still far below the national average. Support to encourage this affirmative step is one of them is re-facilitating female legislative candidates in many moments, one of which is Mother's Day. According to Nelly, this is to strengthen concentration in formulating winning strategies through programs that are in line with government targets such as SDGs, and other effective strategies for women's winning.
The government, said Nelly, will also carry out voter education through a smart voter program so that they vote based on the vision and mission and commitments that have been built, not based on money or momentary money politics.
Meanwhile, a member of the Kulonprogo General Election Commission, Hidayatuttoyyibah, reminded female legislative candidates to ensure that the people who vote are included in the permanent voter list (DPT). She also appealed about the importance of women's presence in public meetings or open campaigns that will be held in mid-March 2019. For internal parties, Ida suggested that the campaign fund reports of the parties have been submitted. According to her, it is important for women to be able to access campaign funds in each political party, including the importance of guarding the ballots after the voting.
Meanwhile, the DIY Election Supervisory Agency, which at that time was represented by its member, Sutrisnawati, conveyed the importance of female legislative candidates to understand the existing regulations, so that they would not be trapped. With the existing understanding and capacity, the election system is expected to have a new way to carry out winning strategies. However, Sutrisnowati regretted that until September 22, many political parties had not taken advantage of the opportunity to open social media accounts for their legislative candidates' campaigns.
Sharp criticism of female legislative candidates came from the Bernas Newspaper. Putu, as a Bernas journalist, said that so far female legislative candidates have actually distanced themselves and lacked confidence in dealing with the media. Putu believes that the media's difficulty in finding news from female legislative candidates will not happen again if legislative candidates like those present at this discussion understand the problems in the field. Putu added that it is important for female legislative candidates to deepen their data, find accurate data so that the news presented to the public is also accurate. . He hopes that this will not happen to female legislative candidates who are elected later.
Delima Saragih, as a representative of IRI, welcomed the extraordinary decision of women to become legislative candidates. According to her, the future challenges that will be faced by female legislative candidates are constituents from the millennial generation, therefore, said Delima, female legislative candidates need to be more creative in conducting campaigns and dealing with potential voters. Delima strongly believes that women know more about problems in society, know more about kitchen affairs so they understand constituent problems. She suggested that female legislative candidates be able to capture constituent problems, because it is important to be a provision for victory.
Delima's opinion was agreed by Narasita activist, Renny Frahesty. According to Reny, female legislative candidates must prepare a winning strategy well in advance. One of these efforts, said Reny, is for female legislative candidates to write ideas, experiences, and plans that will be carried out through the mass media. According to her, this can help female legislative candidates to be known to the public.
Reny also has an opinion on the importance of writing down people who have the potential to vote and not vote for female legislative candidates. The reason is to further clarify future plans. According to Reny, sometimes legislative candidates only realize that not much has been done when the list of potential voters has been made. This method is done to ensure that social capital can become electoral capital.
After the discussion and sharing of experiences, the participants in this forum, consisting of representatives of female legislative candidates, mass media, and civil society organizations agreed to make a declaration of female legislative candidates against HOAX, anti SARA and hate speech as well as signing a declaration for clean, peaceful and dignified elections. The contents of the declaration are as follows.
- Realizing that hoaxes, SARA and hate speech are rampant in society, it is necessary to get special attention from all elements of society.
- We promise not to spread hoax news, news related to SARA issues and hate speech that we receive on existing social media, for the sake of creating a peaceful society.
- We ask the authorities to immediately take action against the perpetrators of hoaxes and hate speech so that they do not continue to spread hoax news, SARA and hate speech.
Contributor: WZ, TSW, AH
Editor: AH
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