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 ©The Nut Graph
(Used by permission)
by Marina Mahathir
IN October, I had posted on my blog my thoughts on Datuk Chamil Wariya's
despicable short story based on a character very similar to DAP Member of
Parliament (MP) for Seputeh, Teresa Kok. I had wondered aloud whether there was
a sexist element to recent incidents involving opposition MPs. Most of my
commenters opined that there was nothing sexist about it, just the same old
politics, and that indeed I was imagining things.
Still, I have to wonder. Since when have firebombs been thrown into anybody's
garden in this country, regardless of their political beliefs? If this is a new
phenomenon, how is it that in both cases they were aimed at women — Datuk Ambiga
Sreenivasan, Chair of the Bar Council (albeit they got her address wrong), and
Kok?
Has there ever been a case where a short story based on a character, so closely
resembling a real-life person that there is no mistaking who she is, ended so
violently? I don't recall any in recent memory. Would it have attracted the same
attention had the lead protagonist been a man?
Even more recently, Datuk Tan Lian Hoe, Gerakan Wanita chief, was attacked by
male MPs for some remarks she made about the New Economic Policy (NEP). The
substance of her remarks aside, the attacks upon her seemed particularly
vicious, as evidenced by the televised proceedings of Parliament that day. The
man doing the attacking looked like he was ready to physically attack her, not
just to dress her down verbally.
Not really an apology
Not that attacks on female MPs are anything new in Parliament. Most people can
vividly recall the lewd remarks made by some male MPs aimed at their female
counterparts. After public outcry, the male MPs only grudgingly apologised, if
their utterances could even be called an "apology". Few other male MPs said much
in defense of their female counterparts. The impression is that Parliament is
full of braying hounds, laughing at women who squirm in a space the men
obviously think of as only theirs.
Perhaps that is the core of the issue — men still think that politics is not
really the place for women. If they have to be there at all, female politicians
should be seen and not heard, and even then, only spouting sweet flatteries to
their male leaders.
Exclusive boys' club
Crude jokes and leery one-liners are thus a form of sexual harassment. They are
aimed at making the work environment so uncomfortable and hostile that women
will be deterred from any ambitions to participate, or will be forced to quit.
Thus will the boys' club of politics remain exclusively testosterone-powered.
Not only is the form of politics sexist in nature — it could be argued that even
when politics does not relate directly to women, an element of machismo alien to
female discourse is evident. It is surely no coincidence that incidences of
keris-waving and other supremacist postures occur in male-dominated fora.
The person who called non-Malays pendatang and who then launched a
whole chain of unsavoury events was certainly a strutting rooster of the worst
kind. The fact that two of the "beneficiaries" of his strutting were a young
female reporter and Kok is not coincidental.
Neither was the paternalistic excuse given by the minister in charge of
arresting them under the Internal Security Act (ISA) that it was "for their
protection". The protection excuse had never been used when men were arrested
under the ISA. Whether it is merely a slip of the tongue in the case of the
arrested women or underlying patriarchy at work is up for discussion.
But it must be said that within female political circles, supremacist talk is
minimal, if it exists at all. Perhaps women are by necessity more concerned with
the difficulties of gaining even the slightest smidgen of power — a result of
male supremacy — that talking about racial supremacies seems irrelevant.
When women succumb
It is worthwhile to note, however, the case of the Perak state assemblywoman who
caught people's attention by making a racist joke about Indians. Women will
succumb to the temptations of race-baiting when in the company of men. One could
postulate that this is merely to gain the attention of the men in order to
advance one's own position. To join the braying hounds, one needs to bray as
well.
Which leads us to muse on whether our political environment would be different
if women ruled the roost. Trying to imagine the Malaysian political scene
differently is hard — it is so dominated by both men and racial politics.
Unfortunately women in politics have only kowtowed to the system and have
steadfastly refused to buck it. In the recent MCA elections, Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen
was elected the party's first female vice-president in its history. It was
undoubtedly a remarkable achievement.
Nevertheless, in the early days of nominations, Ng still felt the need to talk
about canvassing the grassroots membership for their views on having a woman
leader. Men never feel the need to ask if their sex matters because they know
that being male is what gives them political currency.
But then Malaysia is not alone in this. In the recent US elections, the question
in people's minds was whether Americans had any problem electing a black or a
woman as president. We know the answer now but some people still feel that they
would rather elect a man of any colour than a woman.
Others may point to the elevation of an unknown woman candidate for
vice-president as proof that Americans, even Republicans, are making progress.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Sarah Palin got her chance because
she was a man's ideal female candidate — good looking, motherly, and untainted
by modern feminist ideas.
When she became more assertive and therefore veered from the feminine, the
carpet was pulled from under her. If Senator John McCain's campaign still
thought Palin could offer a winning chance, women refused to fall for it, seeing
the whole charade for what it was.
Maybe the sexism in Malaysian politics is all in my head. Maybe I am just
imagining it. But I prefer to call it intuition.
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