Assess the status of women in Malaysia in 2006.

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Government to update the mechanism for assessing and eradicating gender discrimination in Malaysia.

Is the Human Rights Commission up to the job? Do we require a Gender Commission?

Since the amendment of the Article Eight of the Federal Constitution on 1 August, 2001, to add gender to an anti-discrimination list, what progress has been made? Hitherto, the list only included religion, race, descent and place of birth.

Dr Tan will continue to raise the issue of gender discrimination within and outside Parliament in 2006 which will be the fifth year of the constitutional amendment to ban gender discrimination.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stresses the appointment of women on merit. The former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad set up the Women Affairs Ministry. Very few women have been appointed to key government posts. The governor of the Central Bank is a woman. So are the ministers on Women Affairs as well as International Trade and Industry

We would like to know the progress in the campaign to achieve gender equality and to ban discrimination in the past five years such as in top management, legal profession, school heads, members of parliament and employment. Is there any change in the culture of gender discrimination? Women teachers dominate primary and secondary schools. How many school heads are women? Over 60 %of students in higher education are women? How many professors are women? None of the vice-chancellors in 18 public universities is a woman.

The Prime Minister has expressed his desire to see woman judges in syariah courts. We have raised this repeatedly. No woman has been appointed to these courts. However, the relative reticence of the Women Affairs Minister on this issue is astounding. Her follow-up to Malaysia's ratification of the United Nations Conventions on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is unconvincing.

Amending the constitution to ban gender discrimination is one thing. Constant campaign to achieve gender equality is another. We need a regular and transparent assessment of the status of women in the country. Malaysia has the Human Rights Commission. UK has the Equal Opportunity Commission and Australia the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. These commissions have their assessment of the status of women in the respective countries.
How effective is the Malaysian Human Rights Commission in the campaign against gender discrimination?

Tan Seng Giaw