Friday, September 18, 2009

Shahrizat and the Penan women

Shahrizat did not do the right thing by not coming out to meet with the NGO protesters who were highlighting the outrage felt by Malaysians at the plight of those Penan women who were violated.

protest-3.jpgpix from here.

It may be a reflection of her "fair weather friend" attitude that under pressure she chose to withdraw into her cave and mutter sulky statements against the very same NGOs that she was purportedly courting.

By her sulk and, worse still, her criticism of the NGOs, which were mainly NGOs for the welfare of women, Shahrizat has lost any iota of pretended goodwill that she and her Ministry has made with the NGOs.

How can she lose the plot? The answer may well be that she does not and, perhaps never did, believe in the cause of women in Malaysia. It may all have been mere lip-service.

This debacle by Shahrizat may make many Malaysians wonder how a Malaysian woman leader like Rafidah Aziz or, even Ng Yen Yen, may have handled the situation.

One thing is for certain, Shahrizat missed a great opportunity to score one for UMNO and BN. By her act of shrinking away from the NGO protesters and worse, she aggravated the situation by criticising the protesters, she did a disservice to herself and the ruling coalition. The worst of it was when she turned on Ivy Josiah who was, in many ways, her bridge to the NGOs.

What Shahrizat should have done as a human being and someone who purports to be a woman political leader was to empathise with the Penan women who were violated. After all, she would have been on very safe grounds. There was already an official report that confirmed the allegations of Penan women being violated.

She should have expressed outrage that such an inhuman and criminal act had taken place. But by not so doing she has invited Malaysians to infer that she lacks sincerity and may even have an absent heart and emotion when it mattered most.

2 comments:

chapchai said...

One reason why Shahrizat did nothing to help the Penans. In fact, not a single BN minister has condemned this outrage. Jabu, the deputy CM of Sarawak even went so far as to imply that Penans are liars and went on to accuse "foreigners" of influencing this report. Sarawak is a kingmaker. It, together with Sabah, delivered the required number of seats to keep UMNO in power. In return the Sarawak government is allowed to do anything, literally anything it wants. Alas, this is our style of politics.

Donplaypuks® said...

Don't expect sympathetic compassion from most BN Ministers.

Only 2 days ago Kerismudin expressed sadness that Nordin Top's death meant that he could not be brought back to M'sia for "rehabilitation" while saying nothing about the hundreds who were killed by the terrorists bombings in Bali and Jakarta!

They still don't realise that its mostly their arrogant disdain is what cost them the thrashing at GE 2008!!

dpp
We are all of 1 race, the Human Race