About the Women's Candidacy Initiative (WCI)

The Women's Candidacy Initiative (WCI) created history in Malaysia in 1999 by running the first Malaysian independent women's candidate in the 10th General Elections. WCI grew out of the recognition that the political participation of women at every level of decision-making is vital to advance and uphold the rights of women and to better represent their concerns. The idea of forming this initiative was mooted in August of 1998, before the political crisis of 1998.

The WCI brought together women and men who wanted to see civil society involved in the process to push the democratic boundaries but yet remain independent of any political affiliations. Our objectives are to:

WCI engaged in a range of activities – we held talks, trainings, and media interviews. We also held numerous leafleting and meet the people exercises where we distributed leaflets on women’s issues and the need for a gender-sensitised Parliament in several constituencies, such as Lembah Pantai and Selayang (in Selangor) and even up to as far as Arau in Perlis when we went on a road show with a group of youths.

We organised several talks – one example was the national seminar we held ‘Distribution of National Wealth, Do Women Have a Say?’ to which several prominent political party leaders were invited and where WCI members spoke as well. We were also invite to numerous talk, events and media interviews organised by various civil society groups as well as political parties and our mission was clear – to ensure that the issue of women’s representation remained and strengthened on the agenda.

WCI members have also been invited to share our experiences at training workshops with young women in politics in Malaysia, as well as women from around the region.

WCI felt that it was possible for there to be a bridge between political participation as party members and social activism through non-governmental organisations, and that for a democracy to be truly representative, it must have the participation of civil society - ordinary men and women who make up this country, regardless of whether they choose to join a political party or not.

During the discussions held at the time, there was to have been a “rainbow” coalition between political parties pushing for greater democracy and civil society members from various sectors - human rights, labour, green issues, women, and so forth. However, in the end, only the women’s candidacy remained outside of a political party as an independent candidacy.

Living out this principle has not been easy - politicians who have ruled over us for 50 years have largely drowned the voice of civil society. Systems and structures have been put in place to make it very difficult for the diverse Malaysian voices to be heard. These include gerrymandering and increasing the deposits for candidates who wish to run in the elections. For women, these barriers, coupled with social barriers, are even more pronounced.

In 1999, in spite of the scepticism, the WCI candidate took up the challenge and ran its first independent women candidate, Zaitun Mohamed Kasim, under its core principle: ‘Towards promoting the participation of women in political processes- Moving women’s voice from the periphery to the centre’.

Because of the unfair election system in the country, WCI chose to run under a party banner. Specifically, the short election period and the fact that independent candidates can only pick out their independent logos on nomination day is designed to make it near impossible for independent candidate to create their own identity. Hence, the decision was made to be an independent candidate running under a party banner.

In the face of scepticism, WCI forged ahead with its mission and polled approximately 43% of the vote in the constituency, slashing the winning margin for the ruling coalition from 38,627 in the 1995 general elections to 8,835 in the 1999 general elections – a resounding victory for a group of dedicated women and men who believe in the power of civil society involvement.

Although WCI was unable to field a candidate in the 2004 elections due to several circumstances, many WCI members went on to support and play vital roles in the campaigns of other candidates with the skills that they had garnered during the 1999 elections.

WCI is experiencing a thrilling second phase to its growth and have come together with renewed energy on taking this agenda further. We will be participating in the upcoming 12th General Elections and will continue to do voter education work after the elections. We also have plans to conduct workshops and exhibitions to highlight issues related to women, and in particular women’s representation in decision-making.

At the heart of WCI, which operates along collective lines, is a core of about 20 women and men committed to gender and social justice. Our supporters and volunteers come from all walks of life. In the face of Malaysian politics that operates very much on racial and religious lines, that WCI is so racially and religiously diverse is something that we are all proud of. Some of those in WCI are activists that have been involved in women’s rights activism for many years and some are also members of political parties although most are not party affiliated.

So come join this initiative! Contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 017-302 7030

(Click here and see how badly Malaysia fare on the ranking of women parliamentarians http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm )