I am very disappointed with the decision made by the Cabinet yesterday over the ‘bocor statement’ uttered by the MPs of Kinabatangan dan Jasin. The Cabinet not only has failed to reprimand the two MPs but passed the buck to Minister of Women, Family and Community Development.
This has become a fracas instead of the two MPs apologising to YB Fong Po Kuan and all Malaysian women retract their statements of apology, they have gone into another round of games.
The Minister of PM’s Department who in charge of Parliament, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, has said he disagreed with the two MPs having to apologise to Fong, because this is part of parliamentary debates.
It is very regrettable that the Parliamentary whip of Barisan Nasional MPs cum Deputy Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib also has defended the pair after the Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The stand taken by Najib and Nazri show that both the UMNO Ministers taken this issue very lightly and it will even be seen as green light for the BN male MPs to utter unparliamentary and sexist remarks in the parliament.
Since the ball is now in the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development court, I urge Shahrizat to use the authority given by the Cabinet to reprimand these pair and order them to apologise to YB Fong Po Kuan and all women in Malaysia, in the same forum they made the insulting remarks, the Dewan Rakyat.
This issue should be approached in a bipartisan manner since the remarks hurt the feelings of women and have tarnished the image of BN MPs and the Parliament.
We hope Shahrizat goes the extra mile to defend women’s dignity.
Jia you!