Apply ‘30% club’ for women in politics, Marina tells Putrajaya

Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir says Malaysia's goal of 30% participation of women in decision-making positions is two decades behind. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, September 18, 2014., September 18, 2014

Social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir today dismissed as inadequate Putrajaya's recently announced policy to increase women's participation in high positions to 30%, as it does not cover the critical field of politics where there are currently only two female ministers in the Malaysian cabinet.

She said while the federal government was already two decades behind in announcing such a policy for women, there should still be greater participation in influential political seats instead of just career positions in public and private sectors.

"To me, there is almost no point in having women in 30% of decision-making positions in business when the really important policy decisions are made in the political arena," she told the 2014 Women's Development Forum organised by the Penang Skills Development Centre in Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday said the government was studying the possibility of creating a "30% Club" to increase women's participation at the decision-making level.

Speaking at the Women's Summit 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, he said the government drew up a policy and provided incentives for the private sector to encourage more women to join the workforce and to ensure they were capable of filling high posts.

He also said the number of women holding high positions in the public sector was expected to grow through the Public Service Department fast-tracking the upward mobility of women officers.

Marina today said Muhyiddin failed to mention that the 30% participation of women was in compliance with the UN's Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), signed by Malaysia in 1995.

"This club comes almost 20 years after we signed CEDAW," she said.

She added that CEDAW's stipulation is not just for private and public sector workplaces, but also in the political arena.

She said the Domestic Violence Act 1994 took at least six years before it was passed because there were not enough women in Parliament who would understand its urgency.

She also pointed to the move to amend the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 in 2005 to give men greater leeway on polygamy, which was passed by Parliament but forestalled at the Senate level after an awareness drive by NGOs.

She said women's rights were being chiselled away "under our very noses", largely because such laws were not debated or discussed in public before being passed.

The low proportion of women at just 10% in Parliament and about 8% in state assemblies means that these laws can be passed "stealthily behind closed doors".

She added that there were only two ministers in Putrajaya's 33-member strong cabinet, excluding the prime minister and his deputy.

They are Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim.

"If there were more women in those positions, then they can support one another in pushing for laws and policies for women."

If the 30% allocation were applied in the cabinet, one-eighth of the ministers would be women, some of whom can hold posts in critical portfolios beyond just being in charge of tourism, women's development and so on.

Marina also made a veiled reference to religiously laced opposition by politicians against women like PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail assuming top government posts because of their gender.

She criticised assertions that women could not function well because of periods.

She said the Queen of Sheba, a historical figure, was renowned as a wise and just ruler.

"I would like to remind the politicians who are saying today that in Islamic law women cannot be leaders that the Queen of Sheba is cited in the Quran," she said.

- TMI