A women’s group today slammed political parties for not making enough effort to achieve the 30 percent representation of women in the coming Sarawak state election.

Empower executive director Maria Chin Abdullah said out of the 213 candidates contesting for 71 seats in Saturday’s polls, women account for only 15 of the candidates from the various political parties in the fray.

“... even if all the women candidates, regardless of which political divide, win, women will only make up seven percent of the state assembly representatives. It still falls short of the 30 percent mark of the government’s commitment for women in decision-making positions,” she said in a statement.

Maria acknowledged that there has been an improvement in the number of women candidates contesting in the polls, compared to just 10 women who contested in the 2006 election.

azlan She also commended Pakatan Rakyat parties for increasing the number of women candidates, with DAP doubling their numbers to four - two of whom are incumbents - while both PKR and PAS each put up two candidates for Saturday’s contest.

Maria said however that Empower is disappointed with BN for not fielding any new women candidates, sticking only to their incumbents.

“The BN manifesto for Sarawak takes a generic approach toward(s) issues in Sarawak and has not risen to the occasion regarding women’s rights. This is surprising, especially when a fact-finding mission was conducted in 2008 by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to investigate alleged rape cases of Penan women.”

Despite the positive moves by the opposition to increase women representation in politics, Maria said they believe much more needs to be done before women’s interests can be “truly and effectively represented” in decision-making processes and politics at all levels.

'Throw out sexist behaviour'

Taking a swipe at Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin and Pasir Mas MP Ibrahim Ali, she said Malaysians still face the “harsh realities” of sexist behaviour as reflected by comments made by the pair during the recently concluded Parliamentary meeting.

azlan Bung Moktar had on March 28 insinuated that women were poor drivers, claiming they were slow and oblivious to others around them, while Ibrahim accused women of contributing to their husbands’ extra-marital affairs by “neglecting their responsibilities” to their husbands.

“Yet both MPs were not suspended. Neither (was) any disciplinary action ( sic ) taken against them for their sexist remarks.

“Such behaviour does not help to build a conducive environment for women politicians as politics and power in Parliament are still dictated by male dominance. This certainly adds on to the multiple discrimination faced by women politicians and potential women who want to take up leadership,” she said.

Maria said Empower is hopeful that the coming Sarawak state election will mark a turning point where voters will cast out “lip service promises” and bring in “the real change that Sarawakians are looking forward to”.

“In (2006), six women won as state assembly representatives, (who) make ( sic ) a total of only 8.45 percent of women elected representatives. We are looking forward to (more) women state assembly representatives in 2011.”