Rohani’s statement on figures draws flak
KUCHING: The statement of Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim that about 34 per cent of Malaysian women hold high ranking positions such as chief executive officers and directors in the country has drawn flak from an opposition leader.
PKR women national vicepresident Voon Shiak Ni said the figures quoted by Rohani when launching the International Women’s Day on Sunday, were not supported by statistics from other sources.
“She was only referring to Hays Asia Salary Guide 2015. Being the minister in- charge of women, she should be more passionate and sensitive in seeing to the uplifting of the social status of women in the country, rather than quoting a good figure from a source to send a message to everyone that ‘ women in Malaysia are doing well’.
“We would like to remind her that we (women) are still not okay in Malaysia. We are still facing an uphill task in fighting for things like gender equality and justice,” she said in a press statement.
Voon, who is also PKR Stampin branch vicechairperson, said there was only a little improvement in women representation such as in politics and the fact could be supported by the present relatively low number of lawmakers in the country - only 10.4 per cent – lower than the world average of 22.4 per cent.
“And we only have you (Rohani) and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri as the only two full ministers in the federal cabinet. In Sarawak, only seven out of 71 lawmakers are women.”
Besides high unemployment rate among female university graduates, Voon said women’s participation in the country's labour market was still very low at 52.4 per cent – lower than most middle-income countries.
“According to the Gender Gap Report 2014 released by World Economic Forum, Malaysia was ranked 107th, trailing behind most of Southeast Asian countries including Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Brunei.
“In fact, the situation is worrying as the country’s ranking is only better than Cambodia.”
Therefore, she said Rohani should take up more effort to pressure for more opportunities and women representation in all contexts of life to facilitate gender issues to be more effectively addressed and heard, instead of comfortably plucking a figure from a source and tell women in the country that they were doing well.
“We would like to remind her that, despite the Federal Constitution prohibiting gender discrimination, Malaysia is not making much progress in closing the gender gap in all aspects, be it politically and economically.
“There is still a long journey for women in Malaysia to add to the strides of what their sisters had done for the past one century to lift the social status of women and the call for gender equality and justice.”