Women's Political Participation II

I keep waiting until I finish some projects before posting, but there is always one more thing to complete.

On 5 May the election for the 13th Malaysian Parliament (GE13) was held. Twenty-three women were elected to Parliament. The same number as in the 12th Parliament. Post-election the legitimacy of the outcome was questioned and malapportionment attacked; even if the election was fairer and cleaner women Members of Parliament (MPs) would still be few in number.

In June Empower sponsored a forum, "Post-General Election Analysis: Where are the Women" to launch the map Doug and I worked on. We had lots of help from others, especially a lawyer who works at Sisters in Islam. She found the software, Tableau, and uploaded the first versions of the map. With Tableau we created maps showing the MPs for each constituency in the 12th and 13th Parliament along with relevant data; we also created a map showing the GE13 candidates for each constituency and information about the candidates and their constituency. The most recent map is posted on Equality Under Construction. The site is interactive and allows users to view MPs who meet specified criteria, e.g., gender or political party. We are cleaning the database, which I hope will be done within a week. We also plan to learn about other ways to present the data in graphics.

MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, Jenifer Lasimbang (Sabah) and Honey Tan (Moderator)

The panel consisted of  included an. MP, a party activist from Sabah; Kamilia Ibraham, a defeated independent candidate, the executive director of the Centre for Independent Journalism, and a political scientist at the Nat'l University of Singapore (NUS) (The links are for the presentations that are on youtube.) Kamila Ibraham, the defeated candidate, was fierce in voicing her displeasure at being nominated for the state assembly and not parliament. She was deputy chief of the Women's Wing on UMNO, the dominate political party in government. She resigned from the party and ran as an independent. She noted that to run successfully as an independent took time to organize a campaign - something that she did not have for GE13. She pointed out parties' organization into four wings - including a women's wing and a women's youth wing - weakened the opportunities for women leaders to emerge. Her comments complimented Bridget Welch (from NUS) that the parties were less relevant to the nation's youth. It is too soon to tell what is next for political parties in Malaysian - there may be a realignment going one as the opposition parties become more multi-racial, but we are too far removed to have an informed opinion.

Honey Tan; Kamilia Ibraham; Masjaliza Hamzah, CIJ Executive Director

Bridget also noted that single mothers were important in influencing the election's outcomes. These women benefited from targeted government programs, thus their support for continuing the government and its programs was assured.

The Centre for Independent Journalism has partnered with Nottingham University to study the media's coverage of GE13. The data showed no matter the type of media and its political links the women got little coverage. Probably too little to note trends in what was written about them. This article looks at the gender content of the findings and description of the media project is found on youtube.

Currently I have started studying the questions women MPs ask during the "Questions for Oral Answers." Women members of the governing parties and opposing parties consistently ask about projects in their constituency. The opposition women act like the opposition - questioning how the election was held (the major controversy is the non-indelible indelible ink) and how the government spends it money. This project has helped me learn who the women politicians are and their interests.