GEORGE TOWN – Family courts may be the answer to resolving domestic violence and family issues, and it must be implemented soon, says Chong Eng, Penang exco for social development.
In conjunction with the International Women’s Day 2021 state campaign held today, Chong highlighted that fights within a marriage or a family is different from violence outside of one as it involves children and other family members.
“We need to understand that when there is domestic violence, it affects everyone in the family, not only the victim.
“If we have a family court, we can solve issues within families with the hope that it will not lead to more divorce cases and broken families,” she said, adding that having even more broken families will affect the health of society at large.
She believes that by having more female representatives in society or organisations, this idea can take flight.
“The 30% figure (of female participation in organisations) is the critical mass or benchmark for women to affect change at the decision-making and policymaking levels.
Besides, she said, there is a wealth of evidence, including studies conducted by the United Nations (UN) that show that female representatives can better voice women’s and family issues, such as domestic violence and sexual harassment.
“UN studies have shown that domestic violence will cause an economic downturn of 2% of gross domestic product, or RM7.3 billion in revenue loss, for our country,” she said.
She believes that if there are more female representatives in the community, solutions to domestic violence can be found, and steps for recovery and rehabilitation processes can be established. To this end, she hopes that all men will also support this cause.
“This is why the Penang government has set the quota for a minimum of 30% of women’s representatives in every Village Community Management Council (MPKK) in Penang, and is in the process of increasing (female) representation in the state assembly through the Top-up Women-Only Additional Seats, of which if (the ratio of female-to-male reps) is below the 30% mark, more women will be elected to meet the targeted 30%.”
“We must remember that if there is no gender equality, there is no social equality,” she said. – The Vibes, March 27, 2021
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