Now Wanita Umno wants VP post
Azman Ujang
UMNO, in power continuously since the country’s independence, is now abuzz with polemics sparked off by its women wing chief’s proposal for a fourth vice presidential post exclusively for a woman.
Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil told me the proposal was her attempt to mainstream Wanita Umno without upsetting the apple-cart.
The reaction so far, according to her, has been quite encouraging but with a mixed bag of opinions that is only to be expected.
“But this is only the first step. There is plenty of time for the dust to settle. I am a realisitc and pragmatic Wanita Umno leader. My aim is to lay the political highway for Wanita Umno to be mainstreamed into the body politic at all levels and it’s more of an affirmative action,” she said via WhatsApp.
According to her, if this proposal is adopted by the party, the women will be contesting in the main arena with the men and it’s time for Wanita Umno to be involved in meaningful decision-making at all levels.
“I am keeping my fingers crossed that this historic move will happen,” she told me.
The reaction from the three incumbent vice-presidents has been one of support but this is their way of being diplomatic and courteous over the issue involving a wing in the party which Shahrizat herself likes to describe as its backbone.
At the Wanita Umno general assembly last December, she sprang a surprise by warning party leaders that if not for the support of the women’s wing, Umno will “close shop”.
She argued that many of the party’s divisions and branches would have to close down due to insufficient membership if not for the participation of Wanita Umno members.
And she gave a piece of her mind to the party’s male-dominated supreme council, its highest policy-making body, when she said to loud cheers from the floor: “Let me tell the supreme council. If not for the Wanita, don’t think you could get all this. The support will be scattered”.
One can split hair with her over her contention that it’s time for the women to be contesting with the men in the mainstream and to be involved in meaningful decision-making at all levels.
The point is, what is there to stop the party’s women leaders from doing so all this while given the reality that it’s the women who really pushed the Umno apple-carts, so to speak, especially during campaigning in general elections and by-elections, too. It’s a well-known fact that in Umno, the women canvass for votes much harder than the men.
So far the vice-president posts have never been held by women despite so many strong personalities including of the Iron Lady mould over the years and this phenomenon can be likened to an “unwritten mystery”.
At the Umno general assembly where the party election takes place, at least 40% of those who cast their votes are female delegates.
Even the much lesser influential Barisan Nasional component parties like MCA and Gerakan have had their women VPs as well as fairly new parties like PKR.
A few years ago, Tan Sri Ng Yen Yen broke tradition at MCA, touted as very male-dominated like Umno at the top, by winning a VP post. And Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun maintained this winning streak at the last party election.
And that’s because they dared to take on the men and won.
