PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Teresa Kok today defended her stance on gender segregation in buses, saying she supported it for women’s safety, but not as a form of moral policing.
“This topic deserves more discussion before implementation. I support allowing women to travel at ease in long-distance buses.
“But I don’t support moral policing by the bus conductor or the bus company,” she said in a Facebook post.
Yesterday, Kok had on Facebook said: “I tend to agree with such a move from bus companies. When I travel in long-distance buses, I always hope to be able to sit with a lady rather than a man.”
Her remarks drew fire from netizens, some of whom pointed out that gender segregation in buses would lead people down a “slippery slope”.
Kok’s initial post had been in response to a Malay Mail Online article reporting the move by long-distance bus operator TransMalaya Ekspres to segregate its bus passengers according to gender.
Kok told FMT she had been in a hurry when she read the news report and had posted what she thought without explaining why.
“I was running around so I didn’t have the time to write out a few paragraphs to explain.
“But let people discuss. This topic deserves some discussion, after all.”
Kok, who is Seputeh MP, said there were valid arguments for gender segregation in buses, including the fact that some women were not comfortable sitting beside men over long distances.
“Long-distance buses tend to travel at midnight and arrive early in the morning. Passengers tend to fall asleep in these buses.
“If you are sitting with a decent man, then it’s fine. But, sometimes, you have to be on guard all the time because you don’t know what will happen if you fall asleep.
“If the bus company can be thoughtful and reserve seats for women who prefer to sit with the same sex, now that would be a good policy.”
Kok said breastfeeding mothers should also be given the choice of sitting with other women as it was uncomfortable breastfeeding a baby next to a man.
“What if your baby is crying because it wants milk when you are sitting beside a man?
“Breastfeeding is something very embarrassing and uncomfortable for a woman to do in front of a man.”