THE Pakatan Harapan government that lost power last month was strong on one front – women’s empowerment.
In its 22-month administration, we saw the unprecedented rise of women to the forefront in the nation’s affairs, and there was jubilation and celebration among women’s organisations and activists, who have been fighting for gender equality in an otherwise male-dominated society.
First was the appointment of Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the first female deputy prime minister when the PH coalition won the May 9, 2018 general election.
Hardly a year later, Tengku Tan Sri Maimun Tuan Mat created history as the first woman to be appointed Malaysia’s chief justice.
Several other women were also appointed to head important institutions but what happened in the past month or so since the new Perikatan Nasional government took over must have come as a big setback for these activists.
And a huge step backward for women’s empowerment.
Dr Hasnita Hashim, chairman of Mara, Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, chairman of the Human Resource Development Fund and Datuk Noripah Kamso, chairman of Bank Rakyat, all have had their contracts terminated just over a year or so after their appointments.
I, too, am disappointed over these developments because I am all for women’s empowerment to be given greater priority rather than mere lip service.
It was Mahatma Gandhi who said: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a family and the larger society”.
Fellow columnist Bhavani Krishna Iyer, in her piece marking International Women’s Day on March 8 quoted former US President Barack Obama: “When women succeed, nations are more safe, secure and prosperous”.
She argues that empowering women is the key to economic growth, political stability and social transformation.
There is already a declared government policy to have women in at least 30% of decision-making posts but like I mentioned earlier, we are moving backward once again with these quick succession of changes in just a short spell.
Former cabinet minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, nicknamed the Iron Lady, is equally upset by these developments.
She told me every appointment is unavoidably a “political appointment” because the person/entity that is making the appointment is doing so at the behest and authority of the current government at any point in time.
“What is disgusting is the manner that removals and appointments is done ... which is the random, unwarranted removals and replacements mostly at mid-term contract of competent individuals, who happen to be competent, professional women,” she said.
It irks her that no other reasons were given for their removals except that they were “political appointees”.
“(They were) NOT evaluated according to their performance. The only excuse given was that, because they were political appointees, they must be replaced,” she said
“Forget competence and value added to the nation. I feel sorry for Malaysia and nation-loving Malaysians.”
She said she doesn’t see the three chairmen who lost their posts as women per se, rather as competent individuals, who are professionals with their own good performance track records. It was a bonus that they happen to be women.”
Some years ago I was invited by a women NGO to give a talk on media matters and as a journalist with a “nose for a good story”, prior to the event I called up a senior official of the Prisons Department for statistics of female inmates in prisons.
To my pleasant surprise, I was told that at that point of time, of the some 45,000 prisoners, only about 5% were females. And even at this lowly figure, a sizeable number were foreign women, who were behind bars mainly due to offences related to immigration laws.
I told the gathering that what this means is that women would think 10 times before committing a crime while men don’t.
There was a hearty applause from the audience when I said that more women should be placed in positions of trust and responsibility against the backdrop of rampant criminal breach of trust cases.
Even as the world is desperately containing the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, the frontliners who are risking their lives like never before are the nurses who are spending much more time trying than other medical staff to save the lives of tens of thousands who are confirmed positive carriers of the virus.
Closer to home, more than 50% of the medical staff of the Ministry of Health are from the nursing fraternity comprising matrons, sisters and nurses, of whom more than 90% are females.
I have been following closely the international updates on how countries are faring in history’s worst health disaster and can’t help but be amused by the frequent inconsistencies and public relations blunders the US networks exposed on how US President Donald Trump handled the situation.
In contrast, New Zealand, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, has so far reported only one death!
New Zealanders in electing her have important lessons for the world.
So it’s also important for Malaysia, for whatever reasons, not to weaken women’s empowerment.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
