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Sunday June 24, 2007

Need for more women reps

KUALA LUMPUR: Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil will push for more women candidates in the next general election.

“I will make a presentation to the Prime Minister asking for women to be given more seats for the next general election,” she said.

Shahrizat, who is Wanita Umno deputy chairman, said women representation at decision-making level was extremely unsatisfactory.

She noted that 9.6% of members in Parliament were women, 25% in the Dewan Negara, 6.9% in state assemblies, 12.5% in local authorities while 7.6% were board members of companies in Bursa Malaysia.

Point made, visually: Shahrizat stressing the statistics of women in Cabinet during a briefing on current issues pertaining to women organised by Umno at PWTC in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
“We have a government policy (that 30% of decision-making positions comprised women).

“We must remind them (the Government) and talk about it so that they won't forget. There must be an increase in the percentage from time to time,” she said at a briefing for some 700 participants, including Umno information chiefs.

Asked whether the current state of affairs was because of discrimination, she said: “I don't think so. There must be affirmative action by those in power.”

Earlier, Shahrizat pointed out that the Government under Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sensitive to women's issues.

“Requests concerning women have never been dismissed. For instance, the proposal to increase maternity leave was never rejected. The Prime Minister asked us to re-look at the figure so that it will not affect productivity.”

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