YB Tan Lian Hoe calls for quota to broaden women’s political participation

Despite certain advances in the cause of women’s political participation, YB Tan stated that men and women are still not equally situated and that quota can serve as a mechanism to overcome imbalanced representation of women and men. According to YB Tan, quotas actually work in making women visible in the public domain and they are a first step to create a critical mass of women that constitute change.

While the Inter-Parliamentary Union has counted 56 political parties for which a quota system has raised women’s participation, in Malaysia, where there are no quotas in place, only 11% of the Members of the National Parliament, i.e. 22 out of all 219, are female. Also in her own party she lamented a low participation of women. Only 1 out of 10 Gerakan MPs is female, which is actually herself. There are additional 2 women among the 31 Gerakan deputies in the State Assemblies and there is one female among the 2 Gerakan Senators.

Quotas set by the parties themselves as well as by national legislation were identified as one effective counterstrategy. The second strategy requires parties to put more women in leadership positions of the party on the national, regional and also local level. Women must also receive sufficient resources to arrange courses for the development of political and management skills. For this the parties need to allocate the necessary resources to the parties’ women wings. Finally, YB Tan called for a reorientation of the outdated mindset of parties, which still discriminates against women.

YB Tan Lian Hoe was speaking in a panel discussion on political party regulations and legal mechanisms as core components of a strategy for broadening women’s political participation. Other panel members were Prof. Krishna Bose, Trinamool Congress Party India, Hon. Anisah Mahfudz, Nation Awakening Party Indonesia, and Hon. Chinami Nishimura, Democratic Party of Japan.

[ Back ]