Women's empowerment agenda suffers setback due to fall of Harapan

MP SPEAKS | Happy International Women’s Day. 

Former US president Barack Obama said: “You can judge a nation, and how successful it will be, based on how it treats its women and girls."

Based on this, I can say Malaysia is left trailing behind. We just need to look at the lack of institutionalised support for poor women, indigenous women, single mothers and single mothers with cancer, and HIV positive plus refugee women to understand how badly we have failed all women who need empowerment and assistance.

But I take comfort in the fact that Pakatan Harapan was seriously looking at some pertinent issues pushed by women rights activists and groups including trade unions.

The Sexual Harassment Act and anti-stalking laws were scheduled to be tabled in this session of Parliament. However, this will not happen due to the change in government.

The Gender Equality Act was also in the process of being drafted by the then-government, together with the civil society.

The women rights groups were also working on protection against discrimination in the workplace and lobbying for a seven-day paternity leave.

Besides this, there were five women in Harapan’s cabinet, a step forward although it couldn’t uphold a 30 percent quota of female representation in federal and state governments.

Malaysia also saw Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as its first female deputy prime minister, first female chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and first female anti-corruption chief commissioner Latheefa Koya.

But all these reforms, made possible through decades of activism, are now in limbo with the toppling of a legitimately elected government via a coup.

There is also a lingering fear that there would be a rollback on these hard-earned feminist gains, especially with PAS and their equally regressive coalition partners in the government.

As it is, real progress has been slow for women in Malaysia and in particular for those from the B40 economic rung and other disenfranchised communities.

Empowering these women is key to sustainable development as poverty and gender equality are intrinsically linked.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that in Malaysia and everywhere else in the world, women work harder but earn less and experience heightened violence both at home and in public spaces.

As such, we need to remove all barriers that affect women disproportionately and ensure they have equal access to education, employment and healthcare.

It’s important to honour, protect and promote the rights and interests of all women in the country.

We are also bound by our commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030, where Goal 5 looks at achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls.

Malaysia is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is "I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights".

As women flood our country in purple today, I stand in solidarity with them but only time will tell if the reform agenda towards gender equality and empowerment of women could be realised, given that this is a government without the mandate of the people.

CHARLES SANTIAGO is Klang MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.