I come from a small town in Penang, a northern state in Malaysia. My father worked in the railways and my mother was a homemaker. I studied law and then joined politics, eventually rising to the party leadership rank. I will be contesting for a Parliament seat in the next general election, which must be held before August 2018. I am a daughter, a mother, a wife, a lawyer and a politician. And I may soon become a Member of Parliament. While mine is considered a success story, the truth remains that both the ruling and opposition political parties in Malaysia only have around 17% of female representation.
Malaysia is ranked 156th out of 190 countries in terms of women’s representation in Parliament, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The number of women elected to the Malaysian Parliament ranged from 1.9% in 1955 to 11.3% in 2008. Currently, only 10.8% of parliamentarians are women, and the federal cabinet has only three female ministers.
Women’s representation in party leadership, according to their websites, is highest within the Opposition National Justice Party (PKR) at 26.7%, followed by the ruling Parti Bersatu Sabah at 21.4%, the Opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) at 12.5% and ruling UMNO at 12.3%.
The lowest spot, with only five per cent of women in its highest governing committee, goes to Parti Gerakan of which I am a member. As I mentioned earlier, I am a lucky exception. Many people believe we can boost gender equality in Malaysia because women can go to university, can work and can vote in the elections. These are important, but there is much more that needs to be done to close the gender equality gap in the country.
Malaysia is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw), which obliges it to set up temporary special measures to accelerate and increase the participation of women in decision-making positions. Evidence suggests empowering women leads to a more efficient use of country’s human capital and that reducing the gender gap enhances economic growth and development, which is why the implementation of this Convention is so important.
The under-representation of women in elected office isn’t just unique to Malaysia. It is a challenge for democratization around the globe. Parliaments, in particular, are designed to represent all sectors of society. However, nearly all of the world’s Parliaments are dominated by men.
The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) organised the Liberal International’s (LI) Women’s Workshop and CALD General Assembly in October 2005. Under the theme “Advancing Women in Politics: the Role of Political Parties.” A first in the history of CALD, the workshop provided the platform and opportunity for women leaders to discuss women’s roles and involvement in the advancement of parties.
The focus of the workshop was also on how to overcome the challenges and constraints women face given complex political environments, and how to find and sustain support within their political parties.
To promote women’s political participation in Asia, CALD and LI could work with individual political parties and lobby for meaningful female representation in the legislatures and cabinets, because women’s empowerment requires policy and legislative reform. This could be done by implementing a voluntary quota list at the party level for internal and external elections, and the fastest strategy would be for CALD and LI to lobby for the enactment of a post-election provision which allows for women-only additional seats (WOAS) at the state assembly.
More political parties across Asia must come forward to break cultural and traditional barriers to welcome women into their party folds, and more importantly, to field them in both party and general elections. Before this could be done however, there must be a campaign to educate the electorate about the significance of women’s participation in politics so that they can question the position of political parties on this issue before casting their votes.
Power at the hands of the people to effect this change coupled with political will by governments across Asia would certainly set the motion in place.
