KUALA LUMPUR: Project Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Projek SAMA) has called on The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to present a white paper on enhancing the proportion of women in the Malaysian parliament.
The group highlighted Malaysia's low ranking, placed 150th out of 190 countries, in the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) survey.
Thus, they told the Minister, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, to pledge to produce a white paper addressing women's political representation.
"We only have 30 (13.51 per cent) out of 222 women parliamentarians. Alternatively, we have less than one woman for every seven members of parliament (MPs).
"The situation is worse at the state level, with only 12.17 per cent of elected state assemblywomen, or less than one woman for every eight ADUNs.
"Across the 13 state legislatures, this percentage ranges from 3.13 per cent (Terengganu) to 26.79 per cent (Johor)," the statement read.
The white paper, they said, can be referred to as the Top-up Women-Only Additional Seats (TWOAS), which is a Penang state government white paper.
"While the TWOAS project was unfortunately blocked by intra-party power struggle, it is still
relevant for the debate, and the ministry can use the white paper as an entry point to
resume the discussion."
The group added that the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (PSSC) on Women,
Children and Social Development, consisting of Puchong MP Yeo Bee Yi, who chairs the committee, and eight other MPs, should pursue this matter in parliament.
"While the call for a minimum 30 per cent women representation had been made since the
Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, little progress had been made in Malaysia.
"When the IPU first compiled the data on the percentage of women parliamentarians
in January 1997, Malaysia then ranked 60th with 15 (7.8 per cent) out of 192 parliamentarians
being women.
"Over time, other countries have progressed much and left us behind."
