When the public reacted with outrage at Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s sexist remarks, his ivory tower came tumbling down. He may have said that women needed make-up to enhance their looks, but it is Tengku Adnan who is left with egg on his face. He is not exactly a matinee idol.

Tengku Adnan is as superficial as the buildings which Umno Baru approves for construction, which despite looking good on the outside, keep collapsing.
 
Good looks are not everything. Umno Baru people should realise that a woman’s beauty is neither to be judged by her painted face nor by her wealth. Character is important and these can be determined by her generosity of spirit, her deeds, her patience and her demeanour.
 
We know that Umno Baru ministers are arrogant beasts, who strut around like peacocks, heads held high, surrounded by their minders who keep them out of reach of the electorate.
 
On Dec 22, Tengku Adnan could not have imagined the humiliating damage to his standing as an Umno Baru secretary-general and senior politician.
 
Days earlier, on Dec 19, he walked into the firing line with his sexist remark equating women with property: “If you enhance your property, it is the same as women...”

Two days later, he was forced to issue an apology, but not before he claimed that the media had misinterpreted his remarks. Making that apology must have hurt him more than having to revise the property assessment fees in Kuala Lumpur.
 
To most people, the Umno Baru minister appears to have everything; the job-for-life, the expense account, overseas travel, the use of a private jet, the dutiful wife, and for some, the glamorous mistress. Home is an expensive mansion, he is driven around in imported cars and his children are educated at international schools or overseas.
 
He dabbles in business, which is almost always invariably run by a proxy. He takes his holidays abroad, far from the prying eyes of the public, so that he is able to let his hair down and do all those things which he and his party have warned the rakyat to avoid.
 
His policies make people of different faiths mistrust one another, and he says things which will divide the nation, but he is comforted by the knowledge that his peers will protect him. Sometimes, it appears they are bound by a secret pact.
 
Tengku Adnan’s “property” remark was insulting to women, but it is his comment, about women wearing makeup being “more expensive”, that raises eyebrows: “...If you don't wear make-up, the price is cheaper, right? ...If you wear make-up, it is pricier.”
 
Was the FT minister referring to ladies of the night? Why did he make those comments? What qualifies him to make such judgments? Does his work as the FT minister bring him into contact with the courtesans?
 
One does not normally look at one’s wife, sister, grandmother or female friend and judge her worth by the amount of make-up plastered on her face. Even if Tengku Adnan had been referring to the fallen women, he had no right to belittle them.
 
In 2007, when he was the Tourism Minister, Tengku Adnan was reported by Sin Chew Daily and The Straits Times (Singapore) to have said, “Bloggers are liars. They use all sorts of ways to cheat others. From what I know, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women...”

Using sexual innuendo to explain serious issues

The world which Umno Baru politicians inhabit is a puerile one. They frequently use sexual innuendo to explain serious issues.
 
At the 60th MCA general assembly, Najib Abdul Razak rose to the occasion and recommended a dose of Viagra to help raise the flaccid support for the party.

Two weeks earlier, at the Umno general assembly, Najib revealed that his wife, the self-styled First Lady” of Malaysia (FLOM) was responsible for “good deeds” in the Middle East, and then joked, “Mungkin malam ini akan dapat bayaran (maybe tonight, I will be rewarded).”

NONEIn 2007, during a parliamentary debate, Bung Moktar Radin (right) told Batu Gajah MP, Fong Po Kuan: “Mana ada bocor? Batu Gajah pun bocor tiap-tiap bulan juga. (Where is the leak? The Batu Gajah MP leaks monthly too.)”
 
On Mother’s Day in 2010, the home minister, at the time, Hishammuddin Hussein, told Malaysian students in London, that women liked to exaggerate the level of street crime in Malaysia and scare the rakyat: “Most victims are women. What do women do? They go to the hairdressers, they chit-chat and suddenly it is everywhere and cause people to fear.”
 
Umno Baru politicians make sexist and racist remarks without realising that they are insulting others. They do not set an example to the rakyat. They already spend taxpayers’ money with careless abandon. They forget that women make up 50 percent of the population, the workforce and also the electorate.
 
Would Tengku Adnan have issued an apology if not for the public condemnation?
 
He said, “Of course, I respect women... I’ve got six daughters, while in Umno itself, half its members are women. If I have hurt their (women’s) feelings, I apologise as I had no intention of hurting them”.
 
Having six daughters does not mean that he respects women. I know a man with three wives and several daughters and he regularly abuses them both physically and mentally.
 
Umno Baru politicians appear to have low morals. For all we know, their behaviour, in the confines of their homes, could be worse; on the other hand, they may be hen-pecked, at home. It has been alleged that one of them has forced his advances onto his maid.
 
This Tengku Adnan episode has exposed the sexist side of Umno Baru politicians, but it is a “wake-up” call for all politicians, that sexism needs to be addressed, now.
 
Malaysian women are frequently the target of sexual harassment and experience a high level of sexism in their daily lives; at home, at school, in the workplace, online and in the media.

Belittled, undermined and curtailed
 
How can women flourish and contribute to society when they are belittled, their confidence undermined and their future aspirations curtailed?
 
Women are shouted at in the streets, at home and in parliament. Their appearance is constantly scrutinised. Their sexual conduct is questioned and yet, the worse sexual behaviour of boys is deemed acceptable.
 
Women are pressured into going on diets to conform to a certain shape, and according to one minister, must wear make-up to look glamorous and “more expensive”. Women are sexually targeted at home, in the playground and at work.
 
Instead of addressing the serious issue of sexual harassment of Malaysian women, MPs like Tengku Adnan and Najib are contributing to the problem and should be ashamed of themselves.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).