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Don’t blame female students for effeminate male students and don’t use that as an excuse to cut the intake of female students   Press Statement by Chong Eng (Bukit Mertajam, Wednesday): DAP challenges National Unity and Social Development Minister Datuk Dr. Siti Zaharah to provide statistics to prove that there is an increase in the number of effeminate male students in the universities and more female students compared to male is a cause of it. Siti Zaharah claimed that there is a tendency for boys to be effeminate in the universities and the number is growing due to male-female imbalance. She further remarked that the gender disparity would also cause problems for women when choosing their spouse, as most of them would be more successful than the men. Therefore, she suggested the need to increase the intake of male students in order to strike a gender balance. DAP is of the opinion that firstly, Siti Zaharah would have to provide the statistics to prove there is an increase in the number of effeminate male students in the universities. She must further prove that the higher number of female students in the campuses had caused the increase in the number of effeminate male students. Even though environment is a factor in influencing a person’s character and sexual orientation, this happens in the early stages of life and not when he or she is studying in the university. The environment in the campus may make it easier for males to manifest their character and sexual orientation but they cannot simply become effeminate just because there are more females than males in the campus. If Zaharah’s deduction is acceptable, than female students in engineering faculties would become masculine and Zaharah herself too, since the number of men overwhelms the women in the Cabinet. We think that as a woman minister, Zaharah should be more concerned about the increase in sex-crimes and violence against women and the under representation of women in many fields, rather than the issue of there being too many female students in the universities. (16/7/2003) *  Chong Eng, DAP deputy secretary general, Women National Executive Committee chairwoman and Bukit  Mertajam MP