Recruitment System for Women's Legislative Candidates in PKSPKB in Indonesia

摘要

Democracy and Islamic interpretation toward representation of women in politics is still a debate. Indonesia is one example of democratic countries with Muslim majority population. Although the Indonesian constitution guarantees the equal rights between women and men, the proportion of women's representation is lower than the critical mass. However, the proportion of women's legislators is a result of the recruitment systems conducted by the political parties. Therefore, this paper evaluates the recruitment systems of candidates for the Indonesian parliament in two -Islamic and Muslim-based-parties, the Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera-PKS) and the National Awakening Party (Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa-PKB) in Indonesia. This paper argues that those parties have not had special treatments to enhance women's chances of winning parliamentary seats in elections. As the aim of PKS and PKB is to win the votes, they tend to nominate those who have experience and capacity, such as the incumbents and senior cadres. However, the Islamic interpretations do not matter. PKS allows women to be members of parliament as they are not considered to be leaders in such a role and PKB does not have special requirements regarding religion.