KUALA LUMPUR: Younger Malaysian men are embracing fatherhood better and are stepping up to the plate to support and help their wives to care for their newborn babies, says Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Ministry Hannah Yeoh.
She said there was an encouraging trend where younger fathers were not just providing for the family, but were coming forward and doing basic duties like taking care of their children, including preparing meals, bathing and changing their diapers.
“We want to provide the ecosystem for people to be good mothers and fathers.
“To that end, we need to start changing how people think about men.
“Good fathers are strong men, and we need to start pushing that agenda forward until we see this become a norm in our community.
“If we don’t help this core institution called family, every other reform that we talk of, be it legislative reform, parliamentary reform, MACC reform, etc, is meaningless if the family institution is not being supported,” she said, after launching “Partners in Parenting”, an educational platform that brings together parents and experts to share knowledge and insights, while providing a parent support network to help young parents in parenting.
The platform is a collaborative effort of Tollyjoy Corporation, Perpustakaan Awam Selangor, Jaya One and Orphan Care Foundation.
Yeoh said her ministry was pushing very hard for the family institution to be strengthened and for children to have access to tax payer money.
“Family issues are important, and we have to start discussing these in Parliament.
“Until then, we are never going to get this right.”
Yeoh said establishing child care centres at work places was another issue that her ministry was pushing for.
“Currently, 540 government agencies have no childcare facilities for staff, which include frontliners in uniformed services like nurses, police and people doing shift duties.
“With an increase of allocation from RM10 milion in the 2019 to RM30 milion in the recently announced 2020 Budget, we hope to build at least 180-200 childcare centres at hospitals and schools next year.”
