04/04/11 BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia,…

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Bung Moktar riles women, told to quit

Posted By emmor On April 2, 2011 @ 2:04 PM In Sabah | Comments Disabled

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

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

W omen, 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 w ho is a loose canon that doesn’t know how to respect
w omen. He is still behaving like he is living in the stone age. W e demand an apology from
this MP or all Malaysian w omen must raise up to boycott him,” she said.

“W e, 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 w ere echoed by social activist Anne Keyw orth, who is better know n as
Mama Anne.

She described Bung Moktar as a MP w ho has no respect for w omen.

“He seems to enjoy degrading w omen. He should not be a MP at all. He should learn to stop
discriminating against w omen,” 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
w omen and that his words were taken out of context and was misquoted in the media
reports.

“He is alw ays cooking up excuses,” said Mama Anne, adding: “W e 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 w ould 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 tow ards the
w omen in the country. W e abide by the traffic law s. W e are as responsible as our male
counterparts w hen it comes to driving,” she said.

Bung Mokhtar irked Malaysian w omen w ith 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 Ew e, said making sexist remarks like w hat the Member
of Parliament from Kinabatangan had done is downright rude and degrading, especially
w hen it w as 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
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he had been condemned by everyone from both sexes. Though he had offered his apologies
but his repeated remarks show ed that he had never learnt his lesson and had never learnt
to respect women in particular.

“Making a blanket remark towards all w omen 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. How ever he has forgotten that his
ow n 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 w ay to show gratitude to women w ho have given birth to both men
and women and took care of them patiently. If he continues to get aw ay w ith w hatever
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
w hat he has said.

“He might think it is fun to make such a remark as if he w as 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. W orst still, he w as shouting angrily at a fellow female MP
w ho demanded him to apologize for his sexist remarks.

Chua said the ill-behaviour has brought shame and w as not a good example in front of the
many students w ho 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 Taw au Administration Division Sri Tanjung Liaison committee chairman C.K Yong said
obviously, Bung Moktar’s remark w as highly bias.

“There is no statistics in the w hole world indicating w omen are lousy or incompetent drivers
compared to men.”

Yong noted that the general feeling quite agreed that more w omen drivers lacked driving
etiquette because most of the time they do not give w ay to others. Some of them appeared
to be clumsy in their driving w hich 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 w here 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 w omen.

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

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

“Now he said he is being sexually harassed by women groups– he doesn’t even know w hat
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.

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“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
w omen drivers but there are men too w ho drive as reckless. It is not fair to accuse only
w omen.”

In Sandakan, motorists too agreed that not all women were slow drivers as there w ere 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; w e find that w e have male slow drivers as
w ell. Let’s put it this w ay, maybe, Bung happened to notice that female drivers are slow on
the road. W e think he has no intention to hurt the feelings of the opposite sex. Maybe he
w as 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 w ith his statements in
future. Mentioning the gender in any argument invites disputes and misunderstanding.

“Please just leave the sex alone. Let’s cool dow n 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.

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