Motherhood Identity in the 2019 Indonesian Presidential Elections: Populism and Political Division in the National Women's Movement.

AuthorDewi, Kurniawati Hastuti

Approximately 193 million Indonesian voters went to the polls on 17 April 2019 as the third largest democracy and the biggest Muslim-majority country successfully held one of the most complex elections in the world. The general elections of 2019 were the first concurrent elections in Indonesia as both the legislative and presidential elections were conducted simultaneously. In the presidential race, the incumbent Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi) was seeking re-election and had chosen as his running mate Ma'ruf Amin, a well-known Muslim cleric and the head of Majelis Ulama Indonesia (a council of Indonesian ulama/Islamic religious leaders founded by President Suharto in 1975). The Jokowi-Ma'ruf slate was challenged by Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno. Prabowo is a retired general who had previously contested the 2014 presidential elections against Jokowi, while Sandiaga Uno is a successful businessman who was serving as the deputy governor of Jakarta before joining Prabowo as his vice presidential candidate. (1)

Numerous studies on the 2019 elections have been published, with some describing the potential erosion of Indonesian democracy. (2) Nevertheless, there is no denying that the elections were conducted in a relatively safe and peaceful manner. Other studies have focused on the candidates' use of religion, particularly the so-called "Islamic card"; (3) the widening electoral cleavage based on religious identity; (4) issues of women's representation; (5) and the evolution of Indonesia's foreign policy in the wake of the election. (6) Unlike these previous studies, however, this article focuses on women voters and the discursive contestation over motherhood identities in the presidential race. Women voters formed a significant voting bloc in the 2019 elections, with the General Election Commission reporting that female voters represented 50.06 per cent of voters. (7) Moreover, because many women were reported to be undecided voters, their votes were particularly coveted by both presidential campaigns. (8)

This article analyses the contestation and debate among Indonesian women's activists that emerged in response to the campaign rhetoric of the "power of emak-emak" (a term used to describe ordinary, working-class mothers) and Ibu Bangsa (Mothers of the Nation). The "power of emak-emak" was the slogan used by the Prabowo-Sandi camp in order to target ordinary working-class mothers. This article argues that the "power of emak-emak" represented a populist narrative which sought to empower ordinary working-class mothers in a manner reminiscent of how motherhood identity is harnessed as a populist narrative in Latin America. In contrast, the Jokowi-Ma'ruf camp advanced the idea of Ibu Bangsa which is less related to daily ordinary women's problems. This article explores how Indonesian women's activists responded to the two different campaign slogans and how their reactions reflected the division within the national women's movement. This article, therefore, not only seeks to enrich the discourse on gender and populism in Indonesia (which has so far received insufficient attention) but also provides a portrait of the contemporary women's movement in Indonesia.

Following Elizabeth Martyn's definition of the women's movement as "female-membership groups plus individual women who seek to represent women's interests, including practical and strategic gender issues, as well as nationalist, class, ideological, religious and other identity issues", (9) this article includes in its research scope the role of informal groups, formal associations and individual activists. (10) The qualitative research in this article uses primary data obtained from interviews with women's activists who were either members of the two presidential campaigns--Jokowi's National Campaign Team (Tim Kampanye Nasional) and Prabowo's National Winning Body [Badan Pemenangan Nasional)--or showed support for either candidate on an individual or collective basis without being officially affiliated with their respective campaign teams. (11) The author interviewed eleven persons in Jakarta and surrounding areas during the election campaign period from September 2018 to April 2019. All the interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia. The article also relies on secondary data derived from newspapers, videos and related written materials.

The Indonesian Women's Movement from the New Order to post-Reformasi

The Indonesian women's movement has a long history dating back to the colonial era. Various scholarly works have examined the movement during the colonial (12) and post-colonial periods, (13) including its evolution during the New Order (1966-98) and post-reformasi years. This article identifies four distinct phases in the development of the Indonesian women's movement following the establishment of the New Order: first, the passive-depoliticized phase of the New Order era; second, the rise of the contemporary women's movement between 1998 and 2013; third, the early division of the movement in the 2014 presidential elections; and fourth, the reinforcement of divisions during the 2019 presidential elections.

During the New Order era, President Suharto developed "state ibuism" as a gender ideology that demanded the total devotion and commitment of Indonesian women in their roles as mothers [ibu) and wives. (14) As part of Suharto's nation-building efforts, "state ibuism" was channelled through Dharma Wanita, a women's organization founded in 1974, and the Family Welfare Guidance (Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga, or PKK). Membership in Dharma Wanita was mandatory for the wives of civil servants, while the PKK was established in 1972 for mothers and wives living in both urban and rural areas. (15) This period can be characterized as a passive-depoliticized phase because these two organizations were primarily oriented towards supporting the political development of the New Order and did not advocate for gender equality. (16)

In 1995, three years before the fall of the New Order, the Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, a non-governmental organization (NGO) seeking to promote feminist thought, was established. In 1996, it published the country's first feminist journal, Jurnal Perempuan (Women's Journal). In the lead-up to the 1998 mass demonstrations that led to the overthrow of Suharto, the Indonesian women's movement continued to expand. Gadis Arivia and Nur Iman Subono have highlighted the significant role of Suara Ibu Peduli (SIP, or the Voice of a Caring Mother) in consolidating women's advocacy efforts. (17) Several scholars have since critically analysed the role of SIP, including Monika Doxey, Susan Blackburn and Kathyrn Robinson. (18) Since the early 2000s, there have also been various initiatives to increase women's representation in parliament. These include, for instance, the establishment of the feminist-based educational NGO Institui Kapal Perempuan in 2000, (19) and the publication of the Afirmasi journal in 2002 by the Women Research Institute (WRI). (20) In the lead up to the 2004 and 2009 general elections, women's activists, NGOs and female politicians from both outside and inside parliament also collaborated to push for the adoption of an affirmative action policy. (21) Moreover, during this period, women's organizations were instrumental in shepherding the passage of various gender-responsive laws by parliament, including Law No. 23/2004 on Anti-Domestic Violence, Law No. 12/2006 on Citizenship and Law No. 21/2007 on the Elimination of Human Trafficking. (22) Some of these organizations, such as LBH APIK (the Legal Aid Institute of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice), (23) LBH Jakarta (the Legal Aid Institute of Jakarta) (24) and Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (KPI, or Indonesian Women Coalition), (25) were part of the same network that had provided help to victims of sexual violence during the May 1998 riots. These groups also actively lobbied for changes to the drafts of Law No. 44/2008 on Pornography and Pornographic Acts and Law No. 8/2012 on the Election of Members of National Parliaments, out of concern that these laws could be potentially biased against women and female candidates in the 2014 general elections. (26) These are some of the significant milestones that marked the rise of the contemporary Indonesian women's movement during the period from 1998 to 2013.

The 2014 presidential elections, however, resulted in a division in the women's movement. Those elections marked the first time that Jokowi, who was the governor of Jakarta between 2012 and 2014, had to face off against Prabowo for the presidency. At least fourteen prominent women's activists met with Jokowi during the election period to persuade him to include important women's issues in his campaign. (27) TR, a prominent women's activist, described how an embryonic political division among women's activists, especially those in Jakarta, began to emerge during the 2014 presidential elections. (28) TR narrated how a fellow activist from a leading Indonesian organization had asked her to join a group of women who were helping to create special programmes for one of the presidential candidates; TR, however, declined this invitation. (29) TR said that this incipient rift persisted into the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (popularly known as Ahok) was Jokowi's deputy when he was governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014. Ahok took over his position in 2014 when Jokowi won the 2014 presidential election. In the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections, Jokowi's political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, or PDI-P), nominated Ahok and his running mate Djarot Saiful Hidayat as candidates for governor and vice-governor. This put them in competition with Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno, who were candidates from Gerindra--Prabowo's political party--and Prosperous Justice Party...

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