Rumah Pemilu Indonesia Election Portal
The National Commission Against Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) views the alleged immorality case of the Chairman of the General Election Commission (KPU), Hasyim Asy’ari, as being caused by the election organizers not having a mechanism for preventing and handling sexual violence. So that in its implementation it does not pay attention to the interests and protection of women.
“In the context of the case of the KPU chairman, it is not only violence against women in politics but also related to the TPKS Law, ILO conventions, and Ministry of Manpower Regulations,” said Komnas Perempuan Commissioner Siti Aminah in a discussion entitled “Creating a Gender-Just Election: Organizing an Ecosystem Without Sexual Violence” (4/19).
According to Aminah, efforts to prevent elections without sexual violence should be carried out during the selection stage of election organizing officials so that the resulting policies also protect women. Based on monitoring by the National Commission on Violence Against Women in 2023, many cases of violence against women in politics were found, which affected women’s aspirations to obtain public or political office in holding elections.
Aminah further explained that violence against women in politics aims to limit, hinder, and weaken women so that they are not equal in politics. Komnas Perempuan’s findings include physical violence, harassment, slander, gender insults, rape of election candidates, sexual extortion, restraints on women, seduction, sexual comments and speech, intimidation, loss of livelihood, gender bias monitoring, forced resignation, and the murder of female politicians.
“The actors in politics are party leaders and members, candidates, campaigners, and sympathizers.” Meanwhile, in the context of the country, those are election officials and implementers, while the victims can be all women who are related to the election,” explained Aminah.
Previously, Hasyim Asy’ari was reported on suspicion of immorality towards a female member of the Overseas Election Committee (PPLN) to the Election Organizer Honorary Council (DKPP) on Thursday (18/4) by the Legal Aid Consultation Institute, Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia (LKBH FH UI) and Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice Legal Aid Institute (LBH APIK). The victim’s attorney, Maria Dianita Prosperiani, explained that Hasyim’s actions included a violation of the code of ethics based on DKPP Regulation Number 2 of 2017 concerning the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for General Election Organizers.
Maria said that in reporting to DKPP RI, a number of pieces of evidence had been submitted that showed Hasyim had violated the code of ethics. He said Hasyim prioritized personal interests to satisfy his sexual desires.
“There is something similar, but maybe a little different, regarding what the golden woman experienced. This is what has also been given the final harsh warning sanction. “So after there is a decision from the DKPP, our target should be that the sanctions given are no longer warnings, but termination,” explained Maria.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Setara Institute, Halili Hasan, expressed his concern about the ethical integrity of election organizers. He saw that from the start, the KPU had problems in the selection process, which was heavily influenced by political power. According to him, this was intentional so that it could be controlled for political interests.
“So problems within a candidate for public office can become strategic hostage targets for political power,” he said.
Apart from that, according to Halili, legal and formal institutional mechanisms are also considered to be insufficient in providing hope for preventing sexual violence. According to him, the only hope amidst the poor implementation of elections is collaboration between civil society, the media, and universities.
“When an election has a serious record regarding the integrity of the organizers, it must be noted as part of the poor legitimacy of the election,” he stressed. []
