The lack of female participation in Malaysian politics has likely caused the years of neglect over issues of concern to women although the gender makes up half the country’s 13 million-strong electorate, analysts have said.
According to statistics from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, only 10.4 per cent of the country’s 222 federal lawmakers and eight per cent of the 576 assemblymen in state assemblies nationwide are women.
With the lack of female presence in politics, even the country’s women affairs ministerial portfolio is currently handled by a man — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, no less.
The BN chairman had taken over the post from Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil earlier this year when the latter’s senatorship was not renewed during the height of the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal.
Noting the trend, Prof Dr Jayum A. Jawan, a professor of politics and government with Universiti Putra Malaysia, said women wanted to participate in the country’s development but political parties have not been treating them “seriously”.
Read more at The Malaysian Insider, published 24 September 2012.
The lack of female participation in Malaysian politics has likely caused the years of neglect over issues of concern to women although the gender makes up half the country’s 13 million-strong electorate, analysts have said.
According to statistics from the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, only 10.4 per cent of the country’s 222 federal lawmakers and eight per cent of the 576 assemblymen in state assemblies nationwide are women.
With the lack of female presence in politics, even the country’s women affairs ministerial portfolio is currently handled by a man — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, no less.
The BN chairman had taken over the post from Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil earlier this year when the latter’s senatorship was not renewed during the height of the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal.
Noting the trend, Prof Dr Jayum A. Jawan, a professor of politics and government with Universiti Putra Malaysia, said women wanted to participate in the country’s development but political parties have not been treating them “seriously”.
Read more at The Malaysian Insider, published 24 September 2012.