Malaysia should follow Indonesia's example in appointing a record eight women ministers, as in President Joko Widodo's 34-member cabinet, says Penang executive councillor Chong Eng.

Chong said Malaysia was far behind, in both the executive and legislative levels.

"To add salt to injury, Malaysia's ranking in the recently released World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2014 confirms our worsening international record," said the Penang Women's Development Corporation (PWDC) chairperson.

Accompanying Chong at a press conference in Komtar today were PWDC chief executive officer Aloyah Bakar and her Women's Empowerment and Leadership programme manager Karen Lai.

Chong noted that Malaysia's Political Empowerment Index is an embarrassing 132 out of 142 countries, second worst in Asean, before Brunei, which occupies the bottom ranking and holds no elections.

Indonesia, on the other hand, is far ahead of Malaysia, at 86 out of 142, she pointed out.

Why has M’sia remained stagnant?

"Why has Indonesia overtaken us so drastically? Why is women's political representation in Indonesia on the increase while it has remained stagnant in Malaysia?" asked Chong, who oversees the state youth and sports, women, family and community development portfolio.

"The answers lie in Indonesia's electoral reforms made since its democratisation in 1999, especially the 30 percent quota for women canidates and its proportional representation system," added the Padang Lalang asemblyperson.

If the country wants to catch up with Indonesia and other maturing democracies, there should be commitment to pushing up women’s political representation through concrete action, she stressed.

 

Chong was referring to Malaysia's current cabinet of 35 ministers, where only two are women.

In the 2013 parliamentary elections, only 10.7 percent or 56 of 523 candidates from all parties were women, she added.

At present, women now hold only 10.4 percent or 23 seats in Parliament, a percentage that has been stagnant since 1999.

Chong urged the BN government  to table amendments to the Election Act to adopt a 30 percent women candidates quota for all political parties contesting parliamentary and state elections.

"As in the Indonesian case, the Election Commission must also seriously consider reforming our existing first-past-the-post system to a proportional representation system,” she added.