Two Umno MPs are in the running for the ‘Aiyo... What Lah?!’ award by the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) for contributing prominent sexist quotes in the Malaysian political scene.

One of them is Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who is also Putrajaya MP, for likening women to property; and another is Umno’s Tanah Merah MP Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz for his aversion to ‘sexy’ AirAsia stewardess uniforms.

Members of the public are again invited to pick their favourite sexist remark in the third series of the annual awards organised to highlight and shame the shameless politicians.

Demeaning or valuing women based on looks and fashion sense, plus the use of religion to justify discrimination, are utterances up for a hammering.

"What we’d like to do is get the rakyat involved, in a constructive way, to hold public figures and institutions accountable for what they say or do.

"If you’ve ever been frustrated with sexist comments or unjust policies, get involved and vote!” said All Women’s Action Society (Awam) spokesperson Ameirunaisyah Ismail.

Selected  from  media  reports  in  2013,  the  seven  categories  include “Foot  in  Mouth”,  “Insulting Intelligence”, “Policy Fail”, “Cannot Ignore”, “Least Helpful to the Sisterhood”, “Enough Already!” and “Right on Track”.  

Tengku Adnan earned his nomination for equating women with property when pushing for the new Kuala Lumpur City Hall property assessment hike.

Tengku Adnan apologised later, but this was no better, JAG said. He was quoted saying “I did not mean that women are property. What I meant was, if we build a house and want it to appear nice, it needs to have make-up, like (how) women (put on make-up).”

Umno’s Tanah Merah MP Ikmal Hisham was nominated for pointing out that “AirAsia uniforms are sexy and they do  not reflect the nation’s identity.”

'Indecent dressing invites harassment'

PAS-ruled Kelantan seems the most singled-out nominee. The party’s Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff made the list for saying women invited harassment with their indecent dressing.

The Kota Bahru Municipal Council was nominated for issuing warnings to hair salons to remove posters deemed “too  sexy”, including posters featuring models who did not cover their heads.

The whole state of Kelantan was nominated for trying to find the “ideal polygamous husband” in a bid to prove that Muslim men with several wives could still keep harmony at home.

This irked NGO Sisters in Islam, which cited its own research that showed it was extremely rare that a polygamous marriage could be fair, especially to the first wife and her children.

“Instead of glorifying men who are in polygamous marriages, laws should be tightened and better enforced to increase chances of fairness,” said Ratna Osman of Sisters in Islam.

The winners of the "Aiyoh... What Lah?!" Awards will be crowned at a public ceremony on June 1. Ribena Berry, a character played by actor and writer Jo Kukathas ( left ), will host the awards again this year.

"Laughs aside, I think these awards do a great deal in paving the way towards a more equal society. If you've said or done something sexist last year, watch this space - you could just be one of our winners this year!" Kukathas said.

Members  of  the  public  are  encouraged  to  visit aiyohwatlah.tumblr.com/vote to see the  full list of nominees and to vote for the most ridiculous, cringe-worthy and nasty displays of sexism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.

Voting ends on May 15.