INROADS

Text Box: Malaysia is abuzz with news about the elections. Women’s groups, always one step ahead, decided that Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) will focus on urging the political parties to keep to their promises to highlight gender equality. JAG has therefore issued letters to the ruling and opposition parties. They have also listed the number of promises that the government has made. But even way before this letter, in 2007, JAG took the initiative of outing sexist MPs through a JAG brochure called “Vote For A Sexism-Free Parliament!”, which was launched in a press conference on 15 May 2007. In essence, we are urging voters, especially women voters that they vote in members of parliament and state assembly representatives who will put women’s agenda on top of the list and we certainly do not believe that sexist MPs can do the job. This time round, Inroads will focus on how women’s groups have responded to Elections fever. We are all looking forward to a more effective Parliament!

Text Box: 18 January 2008 YAB Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Perdana Menteri Malaysia YAB Dato’ Seri, Kotakan Kata (JAG’s General Election Wish) With three years left of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010), the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) is calling on the government to take immediate steps to bridge the gender gap by implementing all the actions identified in Chapter 13 on Women and Development. The commitments made to further advance the status of women were as follows: to promote greater female participation in the labour force to increase education and training opportunities to enhance participation in business and entrepreneur activities to review laws and regulations to promote the status of women to improve further the health status and well being of women to reduce violence against women to reduce incidence of poverty and improve quality of life to strengthen national machinery and institutional capacity to advance issues pertaining to women at the international level In the 2005 Putrajaya Declaration on the Advancement of Women, Malaysia committed itself to: ~“review and amend all laws in order to identify and eliminate negative traditional and customary practices that discriminate against women; … ~educate men and boys to respect women and girls as equal partners in all spheres of life and society; ~encourage and facilitate harmonious partnership and equal sharing of domestic roles and responsibilities for the family by women and men, girls and boys; …” While we recognise that the government has taken

Text Box: steps to fulfill some of the commitments made, a lot more needs to be done. We hope the government will “Kotakan Kata” to achieve his vision of men and women sharing power and responsibility at home, in the workplace and in the community in order to build a more gender responsive and just society. In view of the coming General Elections, JAG urges YAB Dato’ Seri to take concrete actions to: nominate at least 30% women candidates to stand in the next General Elections at the Parliamentary and State levels; achieve the 30% minimum target set for women, including in the public sector, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial arms of government by 2015; implement all the commitments made and to develop an effective monitoring system to evaluate the success of government policies and programmes to advance the status of women; modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women to eliminate prejudices, sexist conduct, customary, and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women; amend all existing laws that discriminate against women and to ensure all new laws adhere to the principles of justice and equality, including all laws made in the name of Islam; enact new laws that will enhance and protect the status of women, including a Sexual Harassment Act and a Gender Discrimination Act; JAG is ready to work together with the government to develop policies and actions needed to advance the status of women in Malaysia. We are reminded of YAB Dato’ Seri’s speech at the 2005 inaugural lecture of the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Women’s Institute of Management (W.I.M) annual lecture series, where YAB Dato Seri said: “When the history of the 21st century is recorded, let Malaysia be mentioned in the context of not only of progress and achievement for the country, but also the advancement and empowerment and emancipation of women.” It is JAG’s fervent hope that this vision will see reality.

VOLUME Q1 / 2008

JANUARY— MARCH 2008

Oval Callout: nominate at least 30% women candidates to stand in the next General Elections at the Parliamentary and State levels;

Oval Callout: enact new laws that will enhance and protect the status of women, including a Sexual Harassment Act and a Gender Discrimination Act;

Sexist comments brochure	2
Sexist comments by MPs	3
Press statement by JAG	4
Women and politics in Malaysia	5
WCI’s manifesto	7
Ongoing and upcoming events	12
Wish list	15

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