More rantings from Marina...

Friday, November 9, 2007
Young Women Deserve Better, Don't They?

Hat-tip to Nuraina Samad for alerting us on Puteri UMNO chief Noraini Ahmad's dimwit speech at the UMNO GA.

At a time when young women are more than 60% of university students and are facing all sorts of challenges, what they need most are good leaders and examples. That means women who care about them and who inspire them with their intelligence and ideas. Noraini unfortunately is not it. Which disappoints me greatly because I have met her before and she seemed like a bright enough spark.

One thing I do know about leadership is that you can't come to the table with absolutely no ideas yourself. You have to have the ideas, you must be able to articulate and persuade people why you think they are good ideas and you must be open to criticism on them and work out some solution to those. You cannot simply repeat what has been said before and even then with the shallowest of introspection of whether those ideas are worth anything or not.

I happen to believe that the future of this country belongs to young women and will be driven by young women. In them I have seen the most eagerness and enthusiasm to do something good. None of the complacency that you find in many young men who think that the world owes them a living. There are many young women who have so much talent, creativity and drive...all they need is the opportunity to fulfil that potential.

What Puteri UMNO and other organisations should be doing is ensuring that the space that young women have to achieve their ambitions is constantly enlarged and made safe. That means ensuring that laws that discriminate against women are repealed, that violence against women is an issue that is taken very seriously as a blight on society, that women's voices are heard in every arena that affects them. Which is pretty much everywhere, including in politics.

But when a little girl is killed, what does Puteri do but blame the parents? How simplistic is that, not to mention insensitive?

When many women are bloggers, why does Puteri call on the government to come down hard on blogging as in this report in The Sun: She said the Sedition Act, Internal Security Act, Officials Secrets Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act must be enforced to the fullest as irresponsible acts by bloggers caused tension among people of different races and religions. Oh my, my! I'm surprised she didn't mention bloggers causing tension between the sexes (with her flag firmly planted on the male side of the fence!).

And how's this for a simpleton's analysis? On the brain drain experienced by Malaysia, Noraini said if students fail to come back and serve the country once they completed their studies, they should be penalised with higher interest on her loans.
"To avoid brain drain, local universities must be strengthened to be on par with international standards."

My dear, firstly, the brain drain is not caused by people not coming back. It's caused by people leaving. There is a subtle difference. You have to look at what's making them leave, not just not wanting to come back. And how do you even collect repayment of loans with higher interest (eh, isn't that unIslamic?) from people who aren't here?

Secondly, yes I do agree that local universities need to be strengthened and be on par with international standards. After all, most university students are young women and we should expect high standards from them. But that's not going to be enough to stop people leaving. We need academic freedom, we need a university environment that supports and celebrates diversity, we need wholistic university experiences that encourages students to participate in many activities and sports and one that that does not segregate by race. What is the point of having students who graduate with the inability to adapt themselves in a society that is socially diverse and competitive? One way to make sure there is no 'brain drain' is of course to make sure that nobody speaks English well. Then there is absolutely no hope of them leaving the country for greener pastures. Hey, how's that for a Puteri-worthy solution?

Read the blogs by young women, Noraini. There you will find a whole slew of different opinions and ideas, not just the type that your pink ladies will eagerly tell you. There are young women who are keen to change the world, and not in the Puteri way (not that Puteri wants to change the world anytime soon by the looks of it.). They are sharp and smart and they don't need the approval of men to affirm them.

(Marina Mahathir is getting very popular (unpopular to Umno) for being critical. My wife likes her objectivity and style. Don't we?)