BUTTERWORTH – Penang government is in the midst of training and grooming more female political leaders to address the gender inequality found in the country’s legislative body.
Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abdul Rahman said that there is still a need for more political participation and representation among women, seeing that the state has not hit its 30% quota for women in political leadership positions.
Therefore, the state administration aims at creating sufficient women leaders to lead the state in the future through its programme organised by Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC), which will nurture leadership qualities.
At the launch of PWDC’s two-day capacity development programme today, Zakiyuddin said that the corporation has become a role model to the nation as its activities have started to bear fruits following several of its leadership training programmes.
“Negri Sembilan has launched the Power House Wanita Gemilang, a similar programme as the Penang’s Sidang Wanita, and their reference was Penang’s module as they have sought its advice and invited us to share our ideas.
“The reason we need to increase the number of women in politics is because out of the total 40 state legislative assembly seats, only 15% is represented by women and men hold 85% of the seats.
“Also, with its 14.9% representation in parliament and 50-50 proportion in population, the state wants to adjust the imbalance in gender inequality,” Zakiyuddin said.
Also present were state Social Development and Non-Islamic Affairs Committee chairman and PWDC chairperson Chong Eng, organising chairman and Sg Pinang assemblyman Lim Siew Khim and Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto.
Chong said the state is grooming women in community and political leadership as it wants women empowerment and representation at all levels from the village committees, local councils, state legislative assembly until the parliament.
“In the past, we have had problems in qualifying women to sit in the local councils. Many have been disqualified due to many reasons.
“We are addressing them and grooming women for future leadership.
“We have, however, improved on the matter over the last two years but the reasons (they were disqualified) could be because those screening the women on the compliance all this while were men. So, we are looking into it.
“We want women, whether they are in or outside a political party, or in the non-governmental organisations, to submit their names for those posts for political representation and government-linked companies for women representation,” Chong added. – The Vibes, October 23, 2021
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