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MP Writes: Burning desire to promote gender equality

by: Chong Eng (DAP - Bukit Mertajam)

I CAME into politics with one main objective -- to promote gender equality.

I joined the DAP in 1991 after spending a year as a fulltime research officer for Penang DAP.

When I was invited to be a candidate in the 1995 elections, I took that as a chance to further promote the issue to a bigger audience.

Then in 1999, I contested a parliamentary seat and won.

In Malaysia, the progress in promoting gender equality is very slow. In my village, both men and women go out to work in the morning, but when they get home in the evening, the men get to relax while the women have to continue doing house chores without help from the men.
We have to wash our clothes and also our brothers' clothes, clean the dishes, cook and do all sorts of house work while men do not have to do that.

I have been talking about this issue even before I entered politics.

I was with the Women Crisis Centre, a non-governmental organisation in Penang, for more than five years and from what I see, there is not much difference in the situation now.

That is the reason I decided to be involved in politics as I want to increase the representation of women in the lawmaking process. I want the government not only to come up with good policies but also to focus on the implementation of those policies.

For almost 20 years, I have been pushing for the government to provide childcare centres to help single and poor mothers.

These mothers need to work to feed the children and to go to work, they need to have someone to take care of the children.

But until now, nothing much has been done by the government to help these mothers.

I want more women to go into politics if they want this situation to change. As can be seen, those in politics are mostly men and they do not really see our needs. Unfortunately, most women do not realise their ability to become leaders and perceive politics as "dirty".

I think this is related to how women are traditionally brought up. They used to be overly protected by their families -- their fathers, brothers, husbands. They are not used to being independent individuals or to be in the forefront.