‘Give women chance to be leaders’ call

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah PKR Women’s Chief cum Housing and Local Government Ministry Special Officer urged women to be given the chance to become leaders in all available avenue in order to promote balance in the social structures.

“Women’s voices are still missing from the executive branches of governments and parliaments worldwide, slowing achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” said Rahimah Majid.

She added that the advent of the Information Age has created radical changes, with access to knowledge and information equal to both men and women, and knowledge and information spells power.

She said the economic indication for at least the next two decades is that Asia, which includes China, will become the domination region of the world – economically, politically and culturally, and this will include exciting opportunities for women and women’s leadership.

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CHIEF Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor’s 2021 Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya Plan and the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (SEDIA) have laid out a road map to an exciting future for all Sabahans, with a target of increasing Sabah’s income levels and GDP per capita from about RM 23,000 to about RM 40,000 by 2030.

Rahimah said this in her speech in a special invitation to speak at the “Women in Law: Challenges and Perspective” talk held Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

The event was organised by Lee Hishamuddin Allen and Gledhill advocates and solicitors in conjunction with the Womens Day 2019 celebration.

Rahimah gave the speech on behalf of Minister Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin and also mentioned that Zuraida herself has spoken many times on the issue of participation of women not only in the professional fields, but also in decision making positions.

Previously, before becoming the government of the day, Zuraida led the Wanita Keadilan (later known as the Chief of Wanita Pakatan Harapan) on the pursuit of making all the political parties in Malaysia to have at least 30 per cent representation as candidates in the General Elections.

“In Sabah, we have six women State Assemblymen but only three Parliamentary Assemblymen, which is a good and steady development in the acceptance of women as leaders in the State Government, our people are matured in voting candidates with potential rather than discriminating gender,” Rahimah pointed out during an interview after the speech.

She added, even though women have won the hearts of the rakyat, it’s still saddening that there are no women nominated state assemblymen.

In the Sabah state constitution, there is a provision for the Chief Minister to nominate any six persons as assemblymen, which will mean his party automatically gets an extra six seats in the assembly. So far out of six , five have been nominated and they are all men.

On another point, Rahimah said here are only three women chairman in the state GLC’s and only two women chairman hold high level management posts in the private sector.

Malaysia is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw), which obliges it to set up temporary special measures to accelerate and increase the participation of women in decision-making positions.

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“In this regard, women’s political representation is too important to be left to the unmediated forces of electoral competition for their numbers to increase,” she said.

Rahimah urged everyone to participate in the country’s sustainability movement in all areas, especially in promoting women’s participation in leadership positions.

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