Voting For Gender Justice
by Jacqueline Ann Surin
The Sun, 17 January 2008

(Jan 17, 2008):“WHICH political party, from either the Barisan Nasional or the opposition, has fielded 50% women candidates in the elections? Or even the minimum 30% the government has committed to?” Zaitun Kasim asks.

The answer is a dismal “none”.

In 2004, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry announced a programme towards achieving at least 30% participation of women at decision making levels, in line with the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which Malaysiaratified in 1995.

But despite having a highly-educated population of women, and steady economic growth, Malaysian women remain politically sidelined.

The percentage of women representatives in state assemblies was 4.8% in 1990, 6.3% in 1995 and 5.8% in 1999. In the Dewan Rakyat, women’s representation was 6.1% in 1990, 7.8% in 1995, and 10.4% in 1999 (the first time in Malaysian history the percentage of women MPs hit double digits).

The latest statistics shows that currently only 6.9% of state assembly members and 9.6% of MPs are women.

“It’s not enough to pay lip service to gender issues,” Zaitun argues, adding that no Malaysian political party has an active policy about fielding women candidates. “And in winnable seats, too.”

Indeed, joining a political party does not guarantee that a woman will be given a seat. After the 1999 elections, Umno Wanita permanent chairperson Tan Sri Aishah Ghani said the 12 women candidates the party fielded was the highest number in the party’s more than 50-year-old history.

Zaitun stresses it’s also disingenuous to say that political parties cannot field more women candidates because the women they approach have family commitments or are uninterested.

“That’s a fatalistic argument. Why don’t our political parties and the government start saying instead that they will help women overcome the barriers they face?” Zaitun says, noting that Sweden and Rwanda, for instance, have almost achieved 50% women representation in government (see http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm).

In the 1999 general election, in response to these issues, politicised Malaysians banded together under the Women’s Candidacy Initiative (WCI), and with some cooperation from opposition political parties, fielded Zaitun as the first ever independent candidate to run on a gender platform.

She challenged MCA incumbent Datuk Chan Kong Choy in Selayang and while she failed to secure the parliamentary seat, she garnered 43% of the votes and reduced Chan’s majority from 38,627 in the 1995 elections to 8,835.

At the end of last year (2007), WCI was revived under the name of WCI2. The group is likely to field at least one candidate in the next elections, widely expected to be held this year (2008).

“Last year alone was a really good example of why we need good, gender-sensitive MPs. We had the ugliest display of what it means to have sexist MPs,” she says, referring to the “bocor” remarks in Parliament by Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers Datuk Mohd Said Yusof and Datuk Bung Mokthar Radin.

Additionally, at last year’s Umno general assembly, Datuk Badruddin Amiruldin, who is the Jerai MP, was reported to have said, “Yes, we can see a tunnel in her skirt” after an Umno delegate complained that AirAsia stewardesses’ skirts were too short.

At the same time, women political leaders who lack a gender perspective have no qualms telling women what they should wear and how to please their men, as was the case late last year (2007) with Wanita MCA chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen.

Far more worrisome, says Zaitun, is when MPs and senators are told to toe the party and government line and are coerced into voting against their conscience, which is what transpired in 2006 when Parliament passed amendments to the Islamic Family Law that were deemed unjust to women.

Zaitun argues that when women and women’s interests are constantly subordinated to the party structure, gender issues and women’s representation will always fall off the radar even though women are usually the most marginalised and affected by social and economic injustices.

She says WCI2 hopes to continue raising awareness about women’s issues and not just when it’s seasonally vogue to do so, and to reinforce the message that concerned citizens can be political without joining a political party. “WCI showed Malaysians it was possible to run a good campaign as an independent without a formal political party structure.”

Already, Zaitun says, others, including men, who are thinking of running as independents are consulting with WCI2. “We also have women who say they want to run in the elections after this next one and want to help out in WCI2 so they can learn the ropes,” Zaitun adds.

Indeed, WCI2 has garnered twice the number of people in its core group compared to the same period in 1999, out of which more than ten are men.

“We’ve expanded the possibilities and enlarged people’s imagination,” Zaitun says. “And the more we do this, the more we make politics accessible to all of us.”
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Jacqueline Ann Surin believes that both the Barisan Nasional and the opposition should be taken to task for not encouraging greater women’s participation in politics. She is assistant news editor at theSun. Comments: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it