Bung Moktar riles women, told to quit

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KOTA KINABALU: Angry women in Sabah have called for the resignation of Kinabatangan member of parliament Datuk Bung Moktar Radin following his latest sexist remarks.

“He should resign. His unspeakable shameless conduct brings embarrassment to the nation. He has no right to put women down to his level,” said Parti Keadilan Rakyat Kota Kinabalu division chief Christina Liew.

Women, she said, make up 51 per cent of the country’s population, therefore they play an important role in nation building,

“It is a shame to have a MP like him who is a loose canon that doesn’t know how to respect women. He is still behaving like he is living in the stone age. We demand an apology from this MP or all Malaysian women must raise up to boycott him,” she said.

“We, therefore, ask the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) and his wife to review this man’s position in the government. He should not even be appointed to any position or fielded to contest in any elections,” said Liew.

Christina’s sentiments were echoed by social activist Anne Keyworth, who is better known as Mama Anne.

She described Bung Moktar as a MP who has no respect for women.

“He seems to enjoy degrading women. He should not be a MP at all. He should learn to stop discriminating against women,” she said, adding that both Najib and Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman should, as she puts it, “get rid of him immediately”.

After the much publicised sexist remarks, Bung Moktar claimed that he has been harassed by women and that his words were taken out of context and was misquoted in the media reports.

“He is always cooking up excuses,” said Mama Anne, adding: “We do not need a politician like him and it is a shame that this kind of person is representing the people of Sabah in the Parliament.”

A retired school teacher, Litty J Anthony, also expressed her disappointment and wants Bung Mokhtar to retract his statement.

“I have been a driver for decades. I would say that I am a careful driver. I have never been involved in any accident or pose danger to other road users.

“So for him to make such remarks is bad. It is hurting and shows his disrespect towards the women in the country. We abide by the traffic laws. We are as responsible as our male counterparts when it comes to driving,” she said.

Bung Mokhtar irked Malaysian women with his sexist remarks, saying that they do not know how to drive and are posing danger to other road users.

Last year, he drew flak from various quarters when he likened the leak at the Parliament House to the women’s monthly menses.

In Tawau, a former teacher, Lee Chye Ewe, said making sexist remarks like what the Member of Parliament from Kinabatangan had done is downright rude and degrading, especially when it was made in Parliament

Lee said it did not count how knowledgeable or how high a position one held, as long as he or she would not respect fellow human beings, he or she should not be respected.

This was not the first time the Kinabatangan MP had made such remarks against women and he had been condemned by everyone from both sexes. Though he had offered his apologies but his repeated remarks showed that he had never learnt his lesson and had never learnt to respect women in particular.

“Making a blanket remark towards all women drivers is uncalled for. They are reckless drivers among men and women. It is just because the MP could not tolerate women drivers and could not hold his patience that he made such remarks. However he has forgotten that his own mother had patiently carried him for nine months before giving birth to him and patiently brought him up for numerous years without any complain.

“This is certainly not the way to show gratitude to women who have given birth to both men and women and took care of them patiently. If he continues to get away with whatever sexist remarks, he is setting a very dangerous example for the younger generation as if men are like him. For a person who respects both men and women, I certainly do not condone what he has said.

“He might think it is fun to make such a remark as if he was talking in a coffee shop. Or he might think he is getting cheap publicity and attention but he is causing anger not only among women but men are equally annoyed by his irresponsible remarks,” Lee expressed.

Meanwhile, Tawau Member of Parliament Datuk Chua Soon Bui also commented that MP’s sexist remark was uncalled for. Worst still, he was shouting angrily at a fellow female MP who demanded him to apologize for his sexist remarks.

Chua said the ill-behaviour has brought shame and was not a good example in front of the many students who were present that day.

“He should not generalize his statements as many of the female drivers are careful drivers; that is why there are slow lanes to cater for slow drivers. He should be reminded that most of the reported hazardous vehicle accidents and deaths on the roads are mostly committed by men.

“ I am not saying that most men are careless or reckless drivers. He should ask the ministry to conduct the root causes of the many accidents, especially the fatal traffic accidents, rather than just pointing fingers ignorantly at female drivers making it a gender issue. I am surprised why no action has been taken by the Speaker as he got away with it every time he made these sexist remarks,” she said.

SAPP Tawau Administration Division Sri Tanjung Liaison committee chairman C.K Yong said obviously, Bung Moktar’s remark was highly bias.

“There is no statistics in the whole world indicating women are lousy or incompetent drivers compared to men.”

Yong noted that the general feeling quite agreed that more women drivers lacked driving etiquette because most of the time they do not give way to others. Some of them appeared to be clumsy in their driving which may cause hazards to others on the roads, be it pedestrians or motorcyclists.

He also said this phenomenon was mainly the fault of the JPJ driving instructors and driving school instructors, coupled with certain element of corruption where vehicle drivers may pass their driving test pre-maturely before they can actually handle the vehicle confidently on the road, whether they are men or women.

Clerk Masja Hussin, also said she did not agree that women are reckless drivers.

Men were the ones that overtook the most and were involved in fatal accidents, she said. By saying women are reckless drivers, is Bung Moktar also saying his wife is a reckless driver too? He should apologize to all women in Malaysia for saying so in Parliament.

“Now he said he is being sexually harassed by women groups– he doesn’t even know what sexual harassment means. He is making a fool of himself,” Masja concluded.

Personal assistant Jenny Lau said: “Don’t say women are bad drivers as men are also the same, and maybe even worst. I have been driving for years and I noticed that most reckless drivers are men; speeding, cutting lanes and so on. Not so much as women drivers.

“Most fatal accidents reported involved men. However, you cannot blame new drivers because they are new,” she said.

Pang Siau Mee, a clerk, said most Malaysian drivers are reckless. “I do encounter reckless women drivers but there are men too who drive as reckless. It is not fair to accuse only women.”

In Sandakan, motorists too agreed that not all women were slow drivers as there were men too who were bad drivers.

Chan Ah KAW, Chin Soo Lan and Lye said they found both sexes to be slow drivers.

“It is not true that only women are slow drivers; we find that we have male slow drivers as well. Let’s put it this way, maybe, Bung happened to notice that female drivers are slow on the road. We think he has no intention to hurt the feelings of the opposite sex. Maybe he was rather too honest and pointed out the mistake with the intention to draw a clearer picture about reckless drivers,” said Chan, Chin and Lye.

Meanwhile, Rossa, Tasya and Sida advised Bung to be more careful with his statements in future. Mentioning the gender in any argument invites disputes and misunderstanding.

“Please just leave the sex alone. Let’s cool down and do not go overboard. Bung’s intention is for the police to carry out their duty to summon those who are too slow and too fast on the slow and fast lanes. There are certain speed limits at both the slow and fast lanes,” said Rossa.

“Sometimes, it is rather annoying to find motorists traveling at the same speed making it difficult to overcome when their cars block the whole road,” said Tasya.

Bung explained that he was merely talking about those who had just passed their driving tests.

“May be the police should pay more attention to those cars having the ‘P’ stickers. Warning should be given to these new drivers to remind them not to block the flow of traffic on the road,” said Sida.