Speaking at the panel as the inaugural speaker, minister in the prime minister’s office of Singapore, Indranee Rajah, said the country has not been able to solve all gender issues but has made great strides since 1965.

Indonesia's new parliament elected its first female speaker, Puan Maharani Nakshatra Kusyala, granddaughter of the country's first president, after members of the House of Representatives were sworn in on Tuesday amid continuing protests against several new or proposed laws.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) released a report on its official Twitter account about women’s representation at the Indonesian parliament, which the commission deemed the highest in the post-reform (pasca-reformasi) era.

The infographic shows that women’s representation in the House of Representatives (DPR) in 2019 reached 118 seats.

The race between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto might have captured most of the media attention, but tomorrow nearly 8,000 candidates will also be competing for 575 seats in the national legislature (DPR). About 40 per cent of these candidates are women, the highest proportion of female candidates ever. But what do the numbers really tell us about women’s representation in Indonesian politics?

From her home in Jakarta, Permaswari Wardani proudly holds up an intricate hand-drawn comic.

It’s her humorous take on what she sees as the wrongs in Indonesian politics today.

The 38-year-old architect hopes the run of 5,000 copies – leading to donations – will help propel her to an upper house seat in her country’s parliament, within the week.

Sahanan thought her chance of being elected to the Lampung Provincial Parliament in Indonesia on last year’s parliamentary poll was next to none. 

Tina Chadarsi, jostling for a district parliamentary seat in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, had similar misgivings.  They were running against at least dozens of other candidates from 12 political parties. “As a housewife, I was really pessimistic that could be elected,” Sahanan said.