While around the world women's achievements in fields such as medicine, the arts, politics and film are celebrated, in Malaysia women are apparently a problem for men.

Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Service (Cuepacs) secretary-general Ahmad Shah Mohd Zin complained recently that too many women were in decision-making roles in the administrative and diplomatic service.

Is Ahmad Shah afraid his own job might be taken over by the fairer sex?

Incredibly, the National Population and Family Development Board's message, reported in mainstream papers on March 11, was to make more babies and not put off marriage. Apparently, fertility rates had dropped from 3.4 in 1995 to 2.2 in 2007. Why is Malaysia obsessed with quantity and not quality? Are women only good for procreating?