PAS Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor should be condemned by all Malaysians for his extremist and misogynistic attitude towards women. Not only does Muhammad Sanusi not respect women, he even insults and ridicules them as unfit for higher office or being elected as a Member of Parliament.
The New Straits Times had reported today that the Kedah Menteri Besar has questioned the ability of women to become an elected people’s representative in Sik. Sanusi had said, “In Sik, the candidates (from BN and PH) are women. It is not that I’m demeaning women. (But) in Sik, a rural area with many people in need, they would seek help from the ‘wakil rakyat’ at all kinds of times. Will they be able to do so (if the elected representative is a woman)? I don’t think so. At 3am (if they’re woken up by constituents seeking their help), we can imagine their hair would be messy. How are they going to help victims of floods, for instance? It would take them more than two hours just to get ready”.
For PAS to adopt such a hard-line extremist position against women, negates and ignores the critical role played by women in our country’s national development. What is worse, is that Perikatan Nasional including Bersatu and Gerakan as well as STAR and SAPP from Sabah supports such PAS leaders. Not just women, but men should reject such political dinosaurs like the PN, who divide the people and want to bring the country back to the primitive era.
Such irrational and perverted statements continue a long line of extremist and racist statements by PAS leaders including its President Abdul Hadi Awang. Pas Sik youth chief Mohd Shahiful has also been condemned for warning that those voters who choose BN and PH will end up in hell. This is clearly misusing religion irresponsibly for political advantage.
Apart from Hadi’s racist statements, all these extremist statements appear to originate from PAS leaders who were campaigning in Sik. PAS and PN should be rejected in the coming general election for reaching a new low by using not only race and religion but also now throwing in misogyny to try to win the coming general elections.