Members of parliament (MPs) from both sides of the political divide today were united in backing the inclusion of the word 'gender' to Article 8 (2) of the Federal Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on descent, place of birth and sex.

All 172 MPs present voted in favour of amendments to nine articles or 13 provisions presented by de facto Law Minister Dr Rais Yatim. No one opposed and there was no spoilt vote.

However, a number of opposition MPs complained that they were not allowed to make changes to the proposed amendments.

DAP MP for Kota Melaka Kerk Kim Hock had wanted the clause "there can be no discrimination against citizens on the grounds of religion, race, gender, descent and place of birth" to also include "political affiliation and political ideology".

Meanwhile, DAP MP for Bukit Mertajam Chong Eng queried why Article 14 and 15, which touched on immigration laws, were being left out from the proposed amendments.

Discriminatory laws

Women's organisations have alleged that immigration laws are discriminatory against women - foreign wives, unlike foreign husbands, find it difficult to obtain permanent residency or citizenship.

Other reservations raised by both Barisan Nasional MPs and the opposition concerned pension for wives.

Presently, widows who remarry are not entitled to their deceased husband's pension.

The MPs argued that these women should be entitled to pension as they need to support children from previous marriages who may not be welcomed by their present husbands.

Yesterday, Rais proposed a series of amendments to the Constitution which includes:

- to provide that work or service which is required to be performed in consequence of a conviction in a court of law shall not be taken to be forced labour if carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority (Article 6, clause 3);

- to prohibit discrimination based on gender (Article 8, clause 2);

- the posts of deputy president of the senate and deputy speaker of the house of representatives to be made full-time posts (clause 5 and 6);

- to enable those elected or appointed for senatorship in the event that a senator dies or leaves office to hold office for a period of three years, a senator's full term of service (clause 4 and 13);

- to increase the age of retirement for the House speaker and his deputy from 55 to the compulsory retirement age required by the service (Article 65);

- to validate any action that might have been taken using the title 'Chief of Defence Forces' (Article 137, subclause 10(3);

- to prescribe the national language translation of the Federal Constitution to be the authoritative text (Article 160, clause 11, 12, 14).

- to state that the 'qualifying date' is no longer the date by reference to which the electoral rolls are prepared or revised but instead the date on which a person applies for registration or change of registration as a voter in a constituency (Article 119)

- to increase the number of election commissioners from the present five to seven (Article 114).

'Forever ungrateful'

Rais, who is also minister in the prime minister's department, lambasted the opposition for politicising the amendments.

He said out of 20 MPs who participated in the debate, 20 others had interrupted them.

"It may seem a fun thing to interrupt, but these MPs don't know they are saying the wrong things," he said.

"These amendments are for better administration of the country. Those who are ungrateful seem to be forever ungrateful," he added.