I read with great amusement Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s pathetic attempts at defending herself in the face of the National Feedlot fiasco as reported in the article, ‘ Shahrizat: My family doesn't deserve the attacks ’. Her statements are cunningly designed to obfuscate the issues at hand which are abuse of power and corruption by a public official, a minister at that!

A seasoned politician caught with her hand in the cookie jar (ie. our collective tax ringgits), she pulled out the gender card to waylay the issue at hand. She is making a great show of being targeted by the unscrupulous opposition because she is a woman.

On record, BN/Umno politicians with dubious links to lucrative government contracts and guilty of mismanaging public funds have been named and shamed by the opposition before; Khir Toyo’s antics come to mind. Why should she feel that she is being targeted specifically as a woman?

In fact, she should resign in shame for being implicated in such a controversy. Any decent politician worth his/her weight in gold would submit a resignation for decency’s sake. This is a common deflection ploy used to detract attention from the wrong doing, the oldest trick in the book.

It is highly unlikely that the present criticism levelled against her would affect the already waning influence of Umno Wanita. Umno Wanita has always been relegated to the periphery of power and influence in the party.  In addition to this, Shahrizat has always exploited her gender to her political advantage and unfortunately, to the detriment of other women.

She unashamedly demonised Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan for the latter’s principled stand to push for electoral reform. In addition to this, Shahrizat has done a miserable job in pressuring the government to fulfill its obligation to Malaysian women in ensuring at least 30 percent representation in decision making process.

To date, women are still poorly represented in the decision making positions in both the public and private sector. We have one of the lowest representation of women in parliament in the region.

Shahrizat resorted to her usual modus operandi of blaming Zuraida Kamaruddin for the former’s blatant abuse of power and corruption. We are not duped by her shenanigans of pulling wool over our eyes.

Shahrizat should stop making these unfounded attacks on her opposition counterparts in a feeble attempt to cover her dirt. As a Malaysian woman, I am disgusted by Shahrizat’s  filthy tactics and unethical conduct. She would do us a great favour by resigning immediately!