KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir has proposed for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to carry out a campaign to address cyberbullying against women and sexual minorities in the country.         

She said with the advent of technology, bullying had gone digital whereby perpetrators could hide behind anonymous accounts when using their mobile phone or their personal computer to attack women in terms of their personalities and sexual orientation.

"MCMC should start a campaign (to address the issue of cyberbullying against women) which might open doors for (the drawing up of) the Gender Equality Act (in Malaysia).         

"Someone from the authority, hopefully, a man comes and says this (cyberbullying against women) is objectionable and unacceptable and people who do this should be ashamed of themselves. This is becoming rampant and horrible,” she told Bernama.

She said this after appearing as a panellist in a forum entitled ‘Women Conquering the World: The case of Malaysia and Germany, moderated by media personality, Tehmina Kaoosji at the official residence of the German Ambassador to Malaysia here last night.

National sports icon Datuk Nicol David also attended the forum.         

On another note, Marina described the decision of 18 female members of the British Parliament who would not seek re-election due to abuse threats and culture of intimidation as something ‘tragic’ to women in general.         

She said the decision would somehow deplete the number of women MPs in the British Parliament.

"This is something annoying as these are ostensibly powerful people who can speak up in a group,” she said.     

Meanwhile, another panellist, Tanja Brandes, a journalist from Germany, said there was an improvement in terms of gender equality in view of the 30th anniversary of the reunification of Germany.

However, she said there were some of eastern Germany women who felt that there was more gender equality before the fall of the Berlin wall.         

"In general, almost no women say I have less value than men. The (gender equality) is improving slowly but not fast enough,” she said, adding that currently, there was about 30 per cent women representation in the German Parliament. — Bernama