Women to be ‘eyes and ears of government’, says Najib

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the 1 Million Women Purple Walk 2013 at Dataran Putrajaya today.

PUTRAJAYA, March 17 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched a women community group programme today to enable women to report crime and threats to national security.

The 1 Malaysia Perwani Community programme, which aims to set up 100,000 Perwani groups throughout Malaysia comprising 10 to 20 women each, will be linked to organisations like the Police Families Association (Perkep), the Malaysian Armed Forces Family Welfare Association (Bakat) and the Wives of Civil Servants and Women Civil Servants Association (Puspanita).

“The role of the Perwani group is to be the eyes and ears of the government in fighting crime and threats to national security,” said Najib in a speech at the One Million Women Purple Walk event at Dataran Putrajaya here today.


“This can be achieved through current organisations like residents’ associations, Puspanita, Perkep, Bakat, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs), and other NGOs like women’s and single mothers’ groups,” he added.

Najib also stressed to the crowd of thousands of women dressed in purple that the government wanted to empower women and include them in the mainstream of the country’s development process.

“In our struggle to realise our country’s vision, women play an important role,” he said at the event celebrating International Women’s Day 2013.

Najib pointed out that 30 out of 62 High Court judges are women.

He also urged government-linked corporations to appoint at least one woman in their boards.

However, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) latest Gender Inequality Index released last week showed that Malaysia ranked 42 out of 148 countries surveyed last year.

While Malaysia performed better than Thailand (66), the Philippines (77) and Indonesia (106), the country again trailed Singapore, which placed 13 in the chart that graded countries based on the level of women’s empowerment, their economic activity and their reproductive health.

While women make up half of Malaysia’s 13.1 million-strong registered voters, the UNDP noted that women formed only 13.2 per cent of the elected lawmakers in Parliament.

Political analysts and observers have said that women and young voters form a significant voting bloc that could decide which party wins the 13th general elections due just weeks away.

Najib said today that women made up 62 per cent of university graduates.

The UNDP, however, reported last Friday that women comprised only 43.8 per cent of the Malaysian workforce, showing men still dominated the labour market.

According to the UNDP, 29 Malaysian women died from pregnancy-related problems for every 100,000 who delivered their babies safely.

The global theme for International Women’s Day this year is ending violence against women.

Domestic violence, however, has been on the rise in Malaysia for the past three years, from 3,173 cases in 2010 to 3,488 cases last year, based on police and government statistics provided by NGO Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO).

But rape has declined steadily over the years from 3,626 cases in 2009 to 2,998 cases in 2012.

(Source: The Malaysian Insider)