11 - Yudhoyono's politics and the harmful implications for gender equality in Indonesia

Summary

Excuse me, Mr President …

I am impatiently waiting for your presidency to finish …

And I long for … patriotic anthems …

not songs that you have composed yourself …

(Open letter to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by senior journalist Linda Djalil, 18 November 2013)

In 2004, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono became the first Indonesian president to be elected directly by the people through free and peaceful democratic elections. In 2009, he was re-elected with impressive support of more than 61 per cent of the vote. Significantly, in both elections Yudhoyono enjoyed particularly high popularity among women voters. In 2009, for example, an exit poll conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (Lembaga Survei Indonesia, LSI) found that 66 per cent of women, but only 55 per cent of men, had supported Yudhoyono, prompting LSI researcher Saiful Mujani to conclude that the president had been ‘saved by women voters’. Maeswera (2009: 81) echoed this view, noting that Yudhoyono was particularly popular with mature women, including married women and mothers (ibu-ibu), due to his handsome appearance and his image as a guitar-playing songwriter. (Yudhoyono would produce four albums during his presidency.)

Recognising his standing with female voters, Yudhoyono made lofty promises to women's rights activists towards the end of his first term. Speaking at a national event in 2009 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komisi Nasional Anti Kekerasan Terhadap Perempuan, Komnas Perempuan), Yudhoyono emphatically declared that the state should immediately implement its responsibilities to protect women from violence and injustice and empower women in all aspects of life, giving them greater choice and access to full participation in public life:

I need to reiterate what I have said in various forums in the last five years. I have stated that all of us—especially the state—must give better protection to women; must promote them and give them opportunity and empowerment. I could not but underline these three important things, protection, promotion and empowerment of the women in our beloved country. We need not only policies and strategies, but more importantly operational and practical steps that can immediately be applied in our lives

(Yudhoyono 2009: 2).

Towards the end of his second term, however, it was clear that these promises were nowhere near being realised.