The Dewan Rakyat is an amazing institution when compared to other similar legislative bodies around the globe, where lawmaking and policy shaping are serious business complemented with sober proceedings and protocols. The Dewan Rakyat instead every now and then becomes a circus, with some of its backbenchers transforming themselves into monkeys, donkeys, clowns and other sort of apes breaking into verbal purging flaunting their superiorly low intellects and other ape like tendencies such as thumping tables and the sort.
But the recent incident where two BN MP's , Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) and Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) made crude sexist remarks towards Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) regarding her menstrual cycles ("mana ada bocor? Batu Gajah pun tiap tiap bulan bocor") is a step to far and totally unacceptable in a modern day society. To add to my disgust is that the Speaker of Dewan Rakyat refused to take action against the duo, and the top echelons of UMNO and the government are ignoring the issue and refusing to punish the duo. Even the minister of in charge of womens affairs , Sharizat Jalil has refused to condemn the incident, merely stating it'll be brought up to the cabinet which in my view just shows her double standards and hypocrisy in dealing with this issue. In the past she has condemned without hesitation PAS politicians for sexist remarks which are nowhere as crude as those uttered by the two UMNO MP's , but now she just shies away with nothing much to say.
The due will most likely get away again, and the "esteemed" UMNO leadership will just close an eye on this matter as they always have done. Having said that, the electorate must ensure that these rogue MP's and others similar to them do not get reelected come next elections. The parliament is the highest elected legislative body in the land, and as such must maintain its dignity and credibility in the course of performing its functions. Having loose mouthed racist louts will not contribute anything towards its functions of state. Secondly BN must be denied a 2/3rds majority, the current 92% majority they now enjoy leads to a sense of invincibility which helps the get away with anything. A stronger opposition will keep them in check, and they will be more mindful of their actions. The ball is now in our court, what are we gonna do about that?
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2 comments:
We must also stop making sexist jokes in our daily life!!
I think one should know the distinction between wat's witty, and wat's just plain kurang ajar..
Najib said stop making a big deal about it. I'm guessing that Nazri Aziz would term the remarks by the Jasin and Kinabatangan MPs as another play of words.. but what was most nauseous was the female (shamefully) leading the Women's Affairs Ministry asking the pple to take a chill pill.
If only someone could literally shove a chill pill up her high haughtiness... Pardon my crudeness.
The fact that this is not something new (there have been sexist remarks and personal verbal attacks against Lady MPs over the span for about what, 5 years now??) goes to show the true malaysian spirit : when it happens, create all the hype you can about it, wait for 2 weeks and then who gives 2 flying hoots about what happened?
Had the MPs said this to the face of a malay female MP, would this still be the outcome??
Maybe its time the true colours of this harmonious country comes out.
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