S’gor aims for 30% women representation

SHAH ALAM, 30 April 2009: The Selangor government is aiming for better gender representation in leadership positions through a soon-to-be-launched youth movement known as Penggerak Belia Negeri Selangor.

“To ensure that young women are not marginalised from this programme, the movement’s zone-level committees must comprise a minimum of 30% women. If the chairperson is a man, then the deputy must be a woman and vice versa,” Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said in a statement today.

The movement will be launched on 6 June in conjunction with Selangor Youth Day.

Khalid said he would chair the movement at the state level while the respective local council presidents or mayor would head the movement at the local council level.

“The local youth leader and his/her committee members, aged between 16 and 35, from different races, would lead the movement at the zone level,” Khalid said.

He said the movement was established to produce young leaders who would become agents of change in Selangor.

He said various programmes and activities would be implemented to ensure the young people’s involvement in the community.

In 1995, Malaysia ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw).

Under Cedaw, the state has an obligation, among others, to ensure equal gender representation at all decision-making levels of government.

The government’s target under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006 – 2010) is to have women’s participation of at least 30% in political and public life. The target is nowhere close to being met.