It has been 12 days since amendments to Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code 1993 were passed unamiously by Kelantan State Legislative Assembly. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has yet to make any final decision on whether to back hudud.
Differences can be seemed within both the coalitions. DAP and PKR have made it clear that we won’t support the private member’s bill tabled by PAS President Hadi Awang. As for BN, even though Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan claimed that their default position is no to hudud, but Minister in PM’s Department Jamil Khir has formed a Hudud Technical Committee with PAS Kelantan and even drawn a roadmap to implement hudud. On the other hand, Tourism Minister Nazri Aziz has said it is stupid to discuss hudud.
Since both BN and PR are divided on hudud, a new coalition that are determined to defend the Federal Constitution and uphold the rule of law will be a solution to bring us out from the current no man land, as proposed by Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang.
Lim Kit Siang has named a few as the potential Prime Minister under the new “Save Malaysia Coalition”. DAP Wanita is excited to see that among the names, there are 4 female MPs, ie de facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri, Deputy Works Minister Datuk Rosnah Rashid Shirlin, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.
Currently there are 22 female heads of Government. Many of our neighboring countries in Asia such as India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines, have had been led by female President or Prime Minister, however chances for Malaysia to have our first female PM is slim as only 10% MPs are female while the global average is 22.1%.
DAP Wanite embraces the idea to have a female PM for new Malaysia. And if a “Save Malaysia Coalition” is formed, the PM candidate must be gender-issue sensitive and vow to continue empowering women in Malaysia.