When will Malaysia get her own Hillary Clinton?

APRIL 24 ― Hillary Clinton recently announced that she’s running for president of the United States in 2016, the second time after she lost the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama in 2008.

The Guardian reported that Clinton will put women and children first in her campaign, noting that as secretary of state, she had championed initiatives like fighting domestic violence and promoting women’s corporate leadership.

The New York Times reported that Clinton plans to campaign on wage equality, paid family and medical leave, affordable child care and a higher minimum wage.

In Malaysia, however, we don’t seem to be anywhere closer to getting our first female prime minister.

As it is, only one out of 10 MPs in Malaysia is a woman. There are only two women ministers, one of whom heads the women, family and community development portfolio.

Umno, which has been the ruling party since independence, only has two women in its 25-seat supreme council.

The country seems destined, as it were, to be governed by old Malay men, even during this Lean In age when it’s not surprising to see women in leadership roles in business and other fields.

In Malaysia, unlike the US, the head of state is appointed, not elected.

Let’s have a look at women’s representation in Malaysia’s major political parties.

Umno, the dominant party in Barisan Nasional (BN), does not have female vice-presidents. Neither does MIC. MCA has two female vice-presidents out of six. The deputy presidencies and presidencies are all dominated by men.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is somewhat similar.

The DAP has one woman in the five-member vice-chairman line-up, the second-highest positions after the national chairman post which is currently held by a man in an acting capacity.

PAS does not have any women in their vice-presidential seats, with the top two posts of president and deputy president are taken up by men too.

PKR, the most multi-racial party of the lot, is unique because the high-ranking women in the party, namely Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Nurul Izzah Anwar, are from the powerful Anwar family. So it’s more of a family political dynasty in PKR’s case.

It must be noted, however, that there are more women in PKR’s central leadership council (MPP) than in other parties. Five women were elected or appointed as ordinary members of the MPP out of 26 posts, excluding other positions. Compare that to two women as ordinary members in PAS’ central working committee, three in DAP’s, three in MIC’s, one in MCA’s, and two in Umno’s supreme council.

The DAP has moved to implement a 30 per cent quota for women in its central executive committee, where currently three out of 30 seats are held by women.

I’m not a fan of quotas, but the DAP pushing for it would mean that they would have to go about encouraging more women to join the party so as to have a sizable pool of candidates.

If Malaysian women are to ever break the highest glass ceiling in politics, we must allow women to speak up, to lean in and to treat them as equals to their male counterparts with policy ideas of their own, instead of constantly asking them how they’ll balance work and family if they win elections. We should provide support structures for women so that they can rise to the top.

In Malaysia, race plays a dominant role in politics. So it’s unlikely that we will have an ethnic Chinese prime minister, even if the non-Malay/ Islamic parties appear to be slightly more egalitarian and women-friendly.

At PAS’ annual congress last September, PAS Muslimat representative Norhayati Bidin had questioned if women would forever remain as “eye candy”, restricted to just serving tea.

No, women in Malaysia cannot remain as “eye candy” who serve tea to men who blindly make policies, clueless to the many issues that women here face like wage inequality, sexual violence and poor access to birth control.

I want us women to shatter that “highest, hardest glass ceiling”, to quote Clinton’s 2008 concession speech.

I’m tired of old men running the country.

It’s time for women to lean in and take a stab at shattering that glass ceiling. 

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.