Category: Parliament

The Barisan Nasional (BN) Member of Parliament for Kinabatangan Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin is trying to jump out of the burning quagmire which he found himself in together with the BN MP for Jasin, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof as a result of their unrepentant and recalcitrant sexism in Parliament more than a fortnight ago.

He thinks that he has found a very smart exit strategy for his predicament by challenging me to contest against him in his Kinabatangan constituency in the next general election and even offering 1,000 votes free — which was given front-page treatment in Sabah newspapers yesterday.

He cannot be more wrong or naive to think that he could distract or deflect national and international attention from his unrepentant and unpunished male chauvinism in Parliament on May 9, 2007.

Clearly, Bung Mohtar just don’t get it — that there is no way he could extricate himself from the quagmire and the furore he and Mohd Said had created would go away by just turning it into a cheap farce, such as challenging me to contest against him in Kinabatangan.

The issue at stake has nothing to do with him and me, and that is why my answer is a definitive negative when a reporter asked whether I would counter-challenge Bung Mokhtar to contest against me in Ipoh Timur parliamentary constituency.

The question is solely about Bung Mohktar himself Bung Mohtar’s greatest enemy is not any third party but his own self and he must wrestle with his own soul and devil as well as his own sense of decency, as he and Mohd Said have become the worst examples of “Ugly Malaysians” on the occasion of the 50th Merdeka anniversary, bringing shame and dishonour to Parliament, the nation and women in Malaysia, ASEAN and the world. Continue reading “MPs Bung Mokhtar/Mohd Said – the “Ugly Malaysians””

RESPECT WOMEN AND END ALL SEXIST COMMENTS
by Loh Cheng Kooi

Barely has the dust of the “bocor incident” settled in the House of Parliament when we are jolted with yet another gender insensitive statement. It is outrageous that the Works Minister, Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu finds it necessary to draw a parallel between the dilapidated state of the 43 year old Parliament House which is in need of maintenance and renovation to the looks of a woman of 50 years. This is not the first time the Minister has made such statements. In October 2005, he was quoted to have compared “toilets to new brides”.

The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) finds it is inexcusable that one of the longest serving Cabinet Ministers in the country chose a sexist comment to make his point on the need for renovation works on the Parliament House. His remarks reinforce the gender stereotype that a woman’s worth lies with her extrinsic attributes (looks) and not with her intrinsic qualities as a human being. His statement and comparison are demeaning and an affront to women of all ages as they reduce women to objects of beauty, depreciating in value over time.

The Works Minister’s comment taken together with the recent ‘bocor’ remark, also makes a mockery of the role and function of the Gender Cabinet Committee on Gender Equality and the government’s ratification of the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as well as the Federal Constitution which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender. Continue reading “Samy Vellu sexist – comparing dilapidated 43-yr-old Parliament with 50 yr-old woman”

The Cabinet tomorrow must step in to make clear that the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan)’s fake apologies are unacceptable and support civil society’s demand for six-month suspension as MP and community service with women groups as punishment for the duo, with parliamentary allowances for this period donated in their entirely to women organizations.

It will be a most adverse reflection on the Cabinet and government if Cabinet Ministers endorse the fake apologies by the duo, including accepting the report of the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who had clearly failed to stand up for gender respect, sensitivity and equality in her eagerness to resolve the controversy — even if it was in the form of fake, insincere and dishonest “apologies”.

If Shahrizat had not realized that she had been bamboozled by the two BN MPs with their fake apologies, she should have realized it by now in the face of very critical and even hostile public comments at her failure to do justice to repair the grave wrong done in Parliament by the sexism of the two BN MPs — bringing shame and dishonour to DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan, Malaysian women, Parliament and the nation’s international reputation — as well as women in ASEAN and the world!

In the mishandling of the latest instance of sexist and male-chauvinist outbursts by the two BN MPs in Parliament, Shahrizat is becoming an even bigger issue than Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar. Continue reading “Two sexist BN MPs – Cabinet must step in tomorrow to reject their fake apologies”

Of Repentance and Penitence

by Dr. Oh Ei Sun
Sabah Times

These few weeks were indeed packed with events and commemorative days. Last week we celebrated, among other’s, Teacher’s Day, which has become a national occasion when we pay tribute to not only teachers, but indeed all those who undertake the tough and often thankless job of educating the precious minds of the country.

As the son of a teacher (my mom was a school teacher for 34 years), and as a teacher myself, Teacher’s Day is for me a day of reflection on the state and future of education, not so much for the much-vaunted national development effort, but in developing wholesome characters in millions of precious young minds. And perhaps a brief lesson in history from another part of the world could help.

In 1957, just a few weeks after Malaya attained its independence, another smaller-scale, but no less momentous event took place in the provincial town of Little Rock, the capital of the state of Arkansas in the United States. Nine young black men and women were escorted by US Army personnel to attend Little Rock Central High, a hitherto all-white school.

The past entrenched racism of the American South would be a subject for future writing. It suffices to mention here that for almost a century after the liberation of black slaves in the US, officially sanctioned racist treatments abounded primarily in the American South. The images of separate toilets for “White” and “Colored” still haunt us today. Most schools there were either exclusively white or black, with far superior teaching resources reserved for the former. Continue reading “Of Repentance and Penitence”

Gerakan Secretary-General and Deputy Information Minister, Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye, should not condone the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) for their incorrigible sexism in Parliament if he dare not openly castigate the duo for their dishonesty and fake apologies to bring about a dishonourable closure to the nation-wide furore over their crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks in Parliament last week.

Chia said yesterday that as Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar have apologized, everybody should stop raising the issue anymore. (Guanming).

This is most shocking and shows that one of the problems of Barisan Nasional leaders when they become Ministers or Deputy Ministers is their surrender of the sense of justice and their faculties to differentiate between right from wrong.

Surely, Chia is aware of the patent dishonesty of the duo in making fake apologies which compounded the original offence they committed, and which cannot be accepted at all by right-thinking and justice-loving Malaysians.

I would urge Chia to reconsider what he said yesterday and openly withdraw his statement asking everyone to stop pursuing the issue purportedly on the ground that the apologies of the two are acceptable.

Just imagine what would have happened if it was a DAP MP who made the crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks against a woman BN MP. There is no doubt that he would have been referred immediately to the Committee of Privileges and a severe punishment of one to two years suspension without allowance would have been meted out unless a full, unconditional and acceptable apology is tendered — and I would say, rightly too! Continue reading “Chia Kwang Chye should not condone the sexism of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar”

Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil yesterday accepted the apologies of the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) for their crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks in Parliament last week, saying that it was the “closure” her Ministry wanted.

All Malaysians also want a “closure” to the 10-day parliamentary scandal and national shame precipitated by two BN MPs who were guilty of sexual harassment of DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan with their sexist and male-chauvinist remarks, which also brought shame and dishonour to Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation.

However, it must be a honourable closure and not the most shameful and dishonourable closure orchestrated by Shahrizat yesterday, where both Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar went through another farce of proferring an apology which on examination was really no apology at all — a counterfeit coin or a fake apology!

Firstly, both the duo flaunted their lack of sincerity in wanting to make any apology. They pointedly refused to offer a personal apology to Po Kuan, even a fake one!

When he returned to Kota Kinabalu yesterday, Bung Mokhtar said he had been directed by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to apologise to Malaysian women, conspicuously omitting reference to Po Kuan.

Secondly, there was no remorse or contrition in making the apology, even to Malaysian women. Both tendered their apology “if women were offended” — implying that there was nothing wrong with their remarks but with women if they were offended!

Thirdly, they justified their sexist and male-chauvinist attacks at Po Kuan on the ground that they were necessary to defend the government during debates.

Mohd Said said in his prepared statement that the duo “were only defending Barisan Nasional because the Opposition had belittled, and intentionally made unfounded, baselss claims”.

He declared: “In that situation, it is the responsibility of Barisan representatives and government supporters to defend the leadership and the Government”. Continue reading “Six reasons why fake apologies and “dishonourable closure” by two sexist BN MPs must be rejected”

For the past fortnight, Malaysians have been treated as suckers by Cabinet Ministers — the most outrageous case being the demand by the Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for RM22 million to inspect new government buildings in Putrajaya for defects, which did not include a subsequent and lengthening list of government building mishaps, such as the spanking new RM290 million court complex in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur and now Parliament House which has become a “HOUSE OF LEAKS” barely two years after a RM100 million renovation.

Today, even the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan), are treating Malaysians as suckers with their “apology” which is really no apology over their gender-offensive male-chauvinist remarks in Parliament last week, directed at DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan, but which brought shame and dishonour to Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation.

I had not wanted to comment on the case of the two sexist BN MPs today, but when I read Malaysiakini news reports of the alleged “apology” of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar which the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jali had described as a “closure”, I cannot contain my outrage and wrath.

This is because the so-called “apology” of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar orchestrated by Shahrizat was not only no “closure” of the abominable case of sexual harassment and gender abuse in Parliament last week, but had added “salt to the wound” of Po Kuan, as well as all women and men who want proper closure with justice done to all aggrieved parties.

After their 45-minute meeting with Shahrizat, Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar said they would like to tender their apologies, if “women were offended”.

However, they destroyed all meaning in their apologies when they defended their words used in Parliament as necessary to defend the government during debates.

They also did not issue a personal apology to Po Kuan. Continue reading “Two sexist BN MPs – treating Malaysians as suckers with “apology” which is really no apology”