ASIA'S WOMEN LEADERS MASK CONTINUED INEQUALITY IN POLITICAL POWER GAME

Agence France Presse, March 6, 2005

In the 21st century world the number of national leaders who are women
remains extremely small, but with four female presidents and prime
ministers currently in office Asia appears to be doing more than most
regions for gender equality.

This picture of political power, however, is misleading since it does not
so much reflect increasing female empowerment and grass roots
representation as it does the region's enthrallment with dynastic
politics, analysts and activists say.

While strides have been made in female political involvement since the
first International Women's Day 30 years ago, the lesser-represented sex
remains heavily in the minority in parliaments across Asia, recent figures
show.

Asia has four women leaders: Prime Minister Helen Clark in New Zealand;
President Gloria Arroyo in the Philippines; President Chandrika
Kumaratunga in Sri Lanka and; Prime Minister Khalida Zia in Bangladesh.

Until last October Megawati Sukarnoputri was Indonesian president, while
India last year elected Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party into power, though
she declined the premiership.

Pakistan too has had a female prime minister in the not too distant past,
while in the cases of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and New Zealand the current
leaders are not the first women to head their nation.

Yet in all but the case of New Zealand the women concerned have been the
widows or daughters of former rulers and founding fathers, some of whose
families have maintained a grip on power off and on over several decades.

"There is strong legacy of family politics in South Asia, where family
background takes precedence over gender," Pakistani women's rights
activist Kamila Hayat told AFP.

"But this leadership by women does not translate into empowerment of women
in their countries, where levels of female education and social, political
and economic development remain low."

In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was prime minister from 1988-1990 and again
from 1993-1996 before she was forced out of power on corruption charges
and left the country to live in self-imposed exile.

Her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was Pakistan's first elected prime
minister, but was executed by military leader Zia-ul Haq in 1978.

Hayat points to similar situations throughout South Asia, with
Italian-born Sonia Gandhi hailing from the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty in India,
and Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga being the daughter of an assassinated
prime minister.

In Bangladesh voters have had a woman prime minister since 1991, with two
major rivals twice swapping the post: Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the daughter of
the country's founder Mujibur Rehman, and incumbent Khalida Zia, the wife
of slain president Zia ur Rehman.

"That both the ruling and main opposition parties are led by women is the
exception, not the rule," says barrister Khusi Kabir, a leading women's
rights campaigner in Bangladesh.

"More than three decades after independence, the number of women MPs is
very low in Bangladesh because the political parties don't have the
commitment to promote women."

Parliament last November passed a bill to reserve 45 seats for women,
although this has yet to be implemented and it has been criticised for
allowing parties to select the appointees rather than them being elected.

Philippines President Arroyo is the daughter of former president Diosdado
Macapagal, while the country's first female president Corazon Aquino, who
swept into office on the strength of People Power in 1986, was the wife of
an assassinated opposition figure.

Political analyst Sheila Coronel said, "the country is ruled by political
elites ... marriages are a form of clan alliance that expand the influence
of the families and allow them to consolidate their resources.

"When compared to party loyalties that shift with each change in political
season, marriages are long-term, if not permanent, coalitions. Philippine
law, after all, does not allow divorce."

Women who occupy seats in the congress are for the most part, at around 60
percent from political families, although with almost one-sixth of MPs
women -- compared with five percent 40 years ago -- the country has better
representation than many Asian countries.

Across Asia, no parliament has more than a third of its legislators as
women, according to a survey released Thursday by the International
Parliamentary Union (IPU).

The region lags behind Europe and the Americas and hovers just below the
world average of 15.7 percent representation at the beginning of 2005, the
survey found.

New Zealand fares best in the region with almost 30 percent of
parliamentary seats occupied by women. It also has a female
Governor-General and top judge.

Despite long histories of women leaders, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka rank
worst in the region for female MPs, with 2.0 percent and 4.9 percent
respectively, according to the IPU survey, while India does not fare much
better with 8.3 percent.

"There was a time from 1985 to 1990, when the presence of women in
parliament and legislatures was high and that was because then prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi gave more tickets to women to contest polls. But in
the 1990s, that trend declined," said Girija Vyas, who heads India's
national commission for women.

But things might soon change for the better, she added, saying the
government had promised to present a bill reserving one third of the seats
in parliament and state legislatures for women.