MB's position: We need a tigress and not a scaredy-cat

I am incandescent with rage at the remarks of Perak BN senior exco member Hamidah Osman for suggesting that females cannot become menteri besars.

She is leading us back into the Middle Ages.

The oft repeated adage is, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". But actually in this case, it is the exco member who must return to the kitchen.

For her information, Malay girls gained access to formal education in 1885 and Malay education, though limited, was an important precursor for social and political change. Thus I will not let my nenek-moyang down by backtracking. It makes little sense in abandoning all the hard work, ideals and aspirations of my own and the generations before me.

I am amazed at her blinkered vision. In one fell swoop she cut short any progress in women's equality and justice. Fortunately, I can explain why we can disregard her.

A little technicality of meeting certain people did not detract distinguished women from being celebrated politicians or captains of industry or heads of state.

In a sense, Hamidah is right. Malaysians have no need for pussycats to lead the country. We need a tigress – one who has vision, guile, temerity, diplomacy, intelligence, cohesiveness and cunning to push through policies. In essence, the tigress must lead. Why waste time on someone who is cowed by whom she meets. This tigress needs nerves of steel to give as good, as she gets, when she confronts the men in parliament with gutter-standard manners and little respect for them.

Great Women

The world has seen Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth I, Amina, Tzu-hsi, Liliuokalani, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi and more. Or closer to home, Patani was ruled by a succession of six women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Our contemporary women are Merkel, McAleese, Arroyo. The list is long.

These ‘greats' had ambition, judgement, political will and strength of character. Similarly, women with vision like Benazir Bhutto, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Aung San Suu Kyi or Megawati, are also illustrious leaders.

According to the United Nations, women do 75 per cent of the world's work but only own 1 per cent of the world's assets. In Malaysia, women make up half our population but form a miserable 10% of the members of parliament. In the Perak State Assembly, the figures are an embarrassing 5%. In Perak, only four represent its 1,002,000 women.

Girls outperform boys in our schools, universities and learning institutions. At university, more girls read technological, scientific and engineering based courses whilst boys prefer ‘softer' subjects like media, religious studies or business. The ranks of professionals, scientists, educationalists, architects and engineers are swelled by women. Medicine and engineering are no longer male dominated.

Women's influence in our workplace and student movement is vast, but they are sometimes excluded in the decision–making process at personal, family, community, or national levels.

For several decades, women battled their way to the top of their professions. Their main obstacles? Prejudice and tradition. But another more damaging block it seems, is another woman. They must double their efforts for half the results. Some may reach the pinnacles of their careers but in politics, women are under-represented. Politics in Malaysia is a male preserve and capable women are held back by family, social and cultural taboos.

The ‘tigress' I alluded to earlier has a tricky task. She must lead in a male dominated society. She must be prepared to go against convention if she detects any injustices. She must fight for the rights of all women – not just of her own race. If brave enough to accept the challenge, she should strive to lead the country, not just the women. But she'll need to surmount all cultural, social and religious prejudices.

Crucially, she needs to reassure the men, (who feel threatened by women but will deny this) that there is nothing to fear BUT all to gain from power-sharing, by working alongside a female colleague. Men must accept that the benefits of working in partnership with women, outweigh the negatives. She must then help other women overcome their traditional tendency of taking the back-seat in decision making. And she must help them conquer their innate fears.

Unresolved Issues

Many issues on women's employment, health, education, personal-welfare, discrimination, immigration and social needs remain unresolved. Some took ages before becoming law: the Domestic Violence Act mooted in 1985, passed in 1994, finally implemented in 1996 (About 40% of Malaysian women are victims of domestic violence.)

But, both the civil and (especially) the syariah systems fail women (and children). It will make a difference if there is a louder collective voice and greater representation in parliament at Cabinet level, and at senior levels of society and industry. However, discussion and interpretation of women's issues are unduly influenced or prevented from being aired.

In an election, women's participation is phenomenal (they mobilise voters and they vote in large numbers), but only at the lowest level of activity. This must change. The anomaly is this: At a moment's notice, the government's powerful election machinery of time, money, manpower and effort, are mobilised readily. Yet resolution's of women's issues such as immediate aid for the single mother, pension for the widow, and assistance for the abandoned wife drag on. So if our votes count, then our issues should take precedence.

When Hamidah says the potential MB has "to meet the Tuanku where protocol is involved and one has to meet religious officers, and in such situations it is not possible for a woman to become the head of a state government", she emits a signal of hesitation and apprehension.

May I suggest that she does the honourable thing and allow someone, preferably a woman of more mettle, to haul Perak out of its political abyss?
Her remark is very important. It is a landmark decision which underlines the feelings of an outdated, archaic form of governance. Her type of progress is one we can discard. The world is changing and we will be left behind. Her words lack spirit, determination and conviction.
As Abdul Aziz Bari, the constitutional law expert said, there is a proviso which allows the sultan or head of state to dispense with restrictions limiting choice of MB to non-Malay or non-Muslim.

We want a just and equal society. Thus merit and ability should determine who leads. Not race. Not religion. Not gender.

It boils down to who the best man or woman is suitable for the job of MB.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real–speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.