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PM, so the Women's Ministry is irrelevant?
Published:  Oct 3, 2012 10:27 AM
Updated: 3:11 AM
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YOURSAY ‘Malaysian women are what they are today because of the women's rights movement. If Najib thinks they are already at par with men, close down the Women's Ministry then.'

PM: No need for women's rights movement in M'sia

your say Changeagent: Seriously, which planet does PM Najib Razak come from? According to an Unicef study conducted in 2009, women only made up 6.1 percent of corporate directors and 7 percent of CEOs (chief executive officers) in Bursa Malaysia's 100 largest companies. This despite making up around half of the local workforce.

Studies have shown that men are twice as likely to get ahead of women in the workforce even if they had the same qualifications, experiences and skill sets.

Our abysmal record in gender inequality continues into the federal government's cabinet ministry where there is only one full-fledged female minister in Ng Yen Yen.

I'm sure many right-thinking people would strongly disagree with Najib that there is no need for women's rights movement in Malaysia. He can really consider himself the worst ever women's minister ever because he had just set women's rights back by several decades with his ill-considered statement.

Why So Sebok Wan: Does this mean that the Wanita and Puteri wings of political parties should be disbanded? And does this mean that the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is irrelevant?

Quigonbond: Wonderful. He's about to court a new controversy. Our constitutional amendment giving gender equality was about a decade ago (2001). Since when did women get equal rights "right from the start"?

Anonymous #13291217: Malaysian women are what they are today because of the women's rights movement. If Najib thinks they are already at par with men, close down the Women's Ministry then.

P Dev Anand Pillai: I wonder what the women will have to say about this? If there is no movement, they would not have reached this level in the first place.

Anonymous #06001393: Our election system is based on the British system, and British women fought for their rights.

There was no way Britain would have given independence to Malaysia and not given women the right to vote in Malaysia. So it was not a Umno-BN fight that gave women the right to vote.

Women are not discriminated in Malaysia? Well, for a start even the Women's Ministry is run by a man, that is you, Mr PM.

So shall we go on? Property rights for Muslim women? Citizenship for spouse married to Malaysian women?

Myop101: Najib, you have yet to appoint a woman for the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry. How is this equality when a man has to occupy a ministry for which a woman would have been more appropriate as head?

Giri: I agree with Najib on this. Our country needs to get racial equality in order first. We are all the same beneath our skin, people.

Jaguh: What women's rights does he know when he himself is ruled by a woman? He has been submitting to women all his life and with that he comes to the conclusion that women has their place from the beginning of 'his' time.

He should ask his fellow men, especially the Muslims, if they allow their women folk to don the scarf or not.

Anti-Umno: For once, you are right. Rosmah Mansor has more power than you.

Yap CS: "No need for a women's rights movement in Malaysia". This is Najib at his hallucinatory best.

It is so good in Bolehland that girls can be raped with impunity. Perhaps to Najib, this is the ultimate achievement women want? And he is the women's affairs minister.

Taylor Uni: Right, nothing was done when Malay rights group Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali went on a tirade about the main reason men cheat on women is because the wives don't ' serve ' their husband.

Nothing was done about the Obedient Wives' Club (OWC) and how the group advocates women as sex objects .

iKick: I cannot comprehend Najib. Is he talking as a PM when he should be speaking like the women's minister?

If there is equality for women, then he should not be the minister. Let a woman take up this position, as we have many women who are well-qualified, even in BN.

How much does he know about women's feelings, or on their gender, whose emotions and sentiments on many matters differ from men.

Anonymous_4196: Yes, right! Just like how he boasted that his country has the best democracy in the world. He must be living in the land of 1Malaysia and the rest of us in (the real) Malaysia.

Dood: Wow. Just wow. If a politician in some other country said this, it would be political suicide. But in Malaysia, Umno-BN's followers just smile and nod their head on command.

Anonymous #46632038: I admit that we, women in Malaysia, have more rights than women of other Muslim countries and other Asian countries.

But we are most certainly not way ahead of developed countries. Muslim women who have to abide by syariah law are worst off.

YHJ: I want a woman prime minister and a woman finance minister. If women can manage their household finances in these trying times, they will surely do a good job at the cabinet level.


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