Indonesian party leader praises Fijian women’s progress
An Indonesia political party leader has praised the role of the Speaker of Parliament Jiko Luveni and praised Fiji for providing more political opportunities for women.
“In other countries we still fight to get more women at positions such as the Madam Speaker’s (Dr Luveni), Ministers and Presidents so we appreciate Fiji for this,” said Indonesian Democratic Party Faction chairperson Nurhayati Assegaf. Ms Assegaf was making the comment during a meeting of women Parliamentarians attending the 2017 Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) yesterday at the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa at Natadola. Participants who attended the meeting included Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, Canada and Indonesia. Ms Assegaf said Fiji was leading by example in women’s roles in leadership and how it must be appreciated and supported. The Indonesian politician said although she did not know how many women parliamentarians Fiji had, she was sure that the nation was doing well in terms of defining the role of women at the higher levels.
“This is a fact that women still face discrimination and still experience with violence and these needs to be addressed,” she said. “In most countries including Indonesia have the laws on violence against women, but many countries don’t have that.”
Therefore she said it became the responsibility of the women parliamentarians to push for laws such as these in their countries to be implemented or strengthened. Gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in decision making and increasing participation of women in politics were the key discussions in the forum. One of the resolutions for the APPF 24th annual meeting by Australia and Indonesia in line with the forum theme, was ensuring women’s participation at all levels of political and public life. Ms Assegaf said the resolutions were merged and it would be endorsed as proposals before the drafting committee of APPF. One of the main outcomes of the meeting was a call by women to put Women’s Parliamentary Meeting of APPF in the agenda of the APPF meeting. The Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama will attend the official ceremonies of welcome at the Forum at 8.30am today at then deliver the opening address.