/INT’L WOMEN’S DAY/MALAYSIA: Women Create Space in Coming Polls

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia, Mar 8 2004 (IPS) - – I am a most reluctant candidate,” laughs former academic and women’s activist Rohana Ariffin from Malaysia. ‘‘I got pushed and dragged into it.”

Frustrated with the lack of broad participation and representation of women in political decision-making process, the Penang-based Rohana is one of a handful of prominent women activists who are plunging into the electoral fray and running for parliament under an opposition banner.

With Malaysia’s general election set for Mar. 21, International Women’s Day on Monday has added significance for these women who want to raise their profile in the political decision-making process.

A former associate professor in anthropology and sociology, Rohana was vice president of the academic and administrative association of the Penang-based Science University of Malaysia. She specialised in trade unions, industrial relations and gender studies, especially violence against women.

The lecturer-turned-politician says she is ‘‘not a person of many words” and is finding her new path tough going. ‘‘It’s not easy being a politician. You got to be able to move the crowd (with your speeches) and sway emotions,” she muses. ‘‘I am like a normal lecturer and may sound boring at times.”

Despite such modest talk, Rohana has a distinguished background in non-government circles. She was a founder member of the Women’s Crisis Centre in Penang, serving as its president for a few terms. She is now president of the Men-to-Men (M2M) initiative, aimed at enlisting men’s participation in the campaign against violence against women.

In the 1999 general election, a woman activist, Zaitun Kassim, stood as a ‘Women’s Candidacy Initiative’ candidate and used an opposition party ticket to champion issues advancing the cause of women. She performed creditably despite losing, drastically reducing the ruling coalition’s winning majority.

This time, several other women activists including Rohana are entering the electoral fray under the banner of another opposition party: the small, left-leaning Parti Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People’s Party or PRM), which has a long history of struggle for progressive issues.

In the wake of the 1998 clamour for reforms or ‘reformasi’, the PRM eventually merged with the opposition Parti Keadilan Nasional, the party of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, to form Parti Keadilan Rakyat or the People’s Justice Party. But Malaysia’s Registrar of Societies has delayed approval of the merger. Thus, candidates from the two opposition parties are likely to have no choice but to contest the general election under their separate party banners.

Instead of a specific slate of – women’s issues”, these women are taking a broader view to public office as they seek an overall improvement in human rights and social justice.

Nearer the capital, another Muslim woman, lawyer Lateefa Koya, will be the campaign manager for prominent human rights lawyer Sivarasa Rasiah, a PRM vice president, who is likely to contest for the parliamentary seat of Petaling Jaya South near Kuala Lumpur.

‘‘The most obvious thing you need to have is change,” Lateefa says in explaining her participation in the election campaign. ‘‘You need to have the political will.”

Right now, women’s groups are not directly involved in the elections, she observes. ‘‘Most of the time they lobby their MPs on various issues, but most of the time they only get piecemeal results.”

She pointed out that individual ruling-coalition MPs might be willing to help NGOs lobby certain issues. But when it comes to sensitive issues touching on race or human rights, such as the draconian Internal Security Act that allows indefinite detention without trial, these same MPs are likely to toe the party line and preserve repressive legislation.

‘‘We don’t have a system in which MPs can act independently of their parties,” Lateefa Koya points out.

If the women’s groups were to criticise these MPs on repressive laws and other issues, observed Lateefa, their future working relationship with members of parliament on issues affecting women would be jeopardised. Thus, the NGOs’ principles on broader human rights issues could get compromised..

‘‘I find that a lot of women’s NGO groups feel that taking part in elections is wrong,” she reflects. ‘‘They feel you have to be objective and neutral.”

But this makes it difficult to create the political will to address many issues, Lateefa believes. ‘‘You have got to take sides,” she says.. ‘‘Even if you didn’t win anything, you can go on with your lobbying (after the election).”

Rohana agrees with the need to take an active role in elections. ‘‘In NGOs, your voice can be heard but there is more effectiveness in politics,” she says. ‘‘It took us 10 years to bring up the Domestic Violence Act. It would have been faster if we had representation in parliament, which would have provided wider coverage in the media.”

Rohana says her party in the opposition has always been complaining about a lack of women’s representation, but the women themselves were reluctant to go into leadership. ‘‘Now is the time to have more women representation in parliament as well as decision-making.”

‘‘Although we may have women in government, we still need other representation for our voices to be heard,” she asserts. ‘‘We need to provide check and balance. I don’t agree with any form of totalitarianism..”

Some 10 percent of members of Parliament are women and Rohana hopes to add to their voice if elected. Her views as a Muslim woman activist in a generally conservative Islamic political culture that pits the ruling United Malays National Organisation and the opposition Islamic Party (PAS) should widen the scope of debate.

‘‘In Parliament I would push for gender-just laws,” she says. ‘‘People should enjoy equal rights before the law. There are many cases where women are subjected to patriarchal control and violence. I will speak out for women’s rights.”

But that’s not all, says Rohana. ‘‘It’s time we concentrate on social values and humane values as our society becomes more and more capitalistic and globalised.” Malaysian society is ageing rapidly and in four or five years, some 15 percent of people will be older than 65 – ‘‘including me,” she adds, with a laugh.

Among the things the country needs are affordable housing, parks, and cheaper medical supplies, she notes.

All of this fires her interest in seeking office: ‘‘I want to give myself a better channel to speak up on humane values that are being eroded in the name of development.”