MORE WOMEN TO AIM FOR PARLIAMENT In Asia Pacific Region

November 13th, 2008 by Chong Eng

A Woman’s Place is in the House – of Parliament 

Asia Pacific Region, including Malaysia, will have more women aspiring to join men in parliament following a training course for campaigners, party officials, candidates and MPs held in Australia last week.

Five participants from Malaysia were Chong Eng , MP for Bukit Mertajam, Carol Lim, Chief of Staff to MP Bukit Bendera, Sarah Devaraj, Personal Assistant to MP for Klang, Dr. Zaliha Mustafa, Vice President of Women’s Wing of Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Cheryl Lee, Pulicity Executive.

They were one of 23 successful applicants, from over 700 applications for the course, who came from Burma, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Timor Leste, Vanuatu and Tonga. The program was held from the 26^th of October to 1^st November 2008.

The six days Campaign School for Women was funded by the Australian Political Parties for Democracy Program and delivered by the Australian Labor’s International Projects Unit. The course presenters were all experienced public policy practitioners at State and Federal levels, including several members of the Queensland Parliament.

The training course provided participants with the knowledge and skills to tackle the current barriers women faced, encouraging them to run for and get elected into office in the Asia Pacific region. Participants also attended the regional sitting of the Queensland Parliament in Cairns; this was only the third time in 150 years that the parliament has sat outside Brisbane.,

 “The course was really valuable to us because we learnt so much at the Campaign School about the affirmative action to fast track women into elected office, gender equality at the national decision making level and sharing experience and knowledge from participants of other countries.” Said Chong Eng, on behalf of participants from Malaysia.

She further added that she will lobby with her party leaders to adopt a 30% women quota as a temporary special measure to increase political representation of women in all levels of party structures and in elected offices. She will do the same together with Dr. Zaliha in the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat.

The proportion of Women in Parliament in the Asia Pacific region ranges from zero to about 30% but is generally still very low. There are 23 women MP out of 222 in the Malaysia Parliament which was than 10%.

According to Dr. Michael Morgan, Director of International Projects at Australian Labor’s NationalSecretariat: “We believe the best way to achieve policy outcomes for women in our region is to encourage women to participate in political party structures at all levels, to use these as platforms to fight for government positions and to take an active part in public life.”

Dr. Lesley Clark, Course Director for the Campaign School for Women shared her 20 years experience in public office at the local and State level with women participants: “The use of gender quotas in the Australian Labor Party which has resulted in the ALP having the highest proportion of women in all Australian parliaments at 37% is a powerful lesson for women from other countries and parties that have yet to adopt temporary special measures like gender quotas.”

All participants were also provided with the Campaign School for Women Trainers’ Guide which was launched during the course by Dr. Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, and Dame Carol Kidu, Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Community Development, Women, Religion and Sports.

“We hope that women will use these materials to train more women in their respective countries torun for public office” said Dr. Clark.

For further information, please contact Ms Carol Lim on telephone number 0122326101.

PRESS RELEASE – 5^th November 2008, by Chong Eng, MP for Bukit Mertajam and Chairperson for DAP Women’s Wing 

[Photos later...]

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