THE Penang government is calling for aspiring women to step forward and join the first ever assembly sitting in the state for women participants only.
The special platform, which is known as Penang Women’s Assembly 2020, is slated to convene for one day on Oct 17 at Dewan Sri Pinang.
State executive councillor for Women & Family Development, Gender Inclusiveness & Non-Islamic Religious Affairs Chong Eng said the programme is a joint collaboration between her office and Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC) to inspire women to venture into politics and expose them to the roles of elected representatives.
“We can see nowadays that there are not enough women representatives in politics even though our country’s population has reached 50:50 ratio for men and women.
“As a matter of fact, only 14.9% of the Members of Parliament are women and 15% of our state representatives are women.
“Thus, much needs to be done to encourage women to venture into politics so that their voices can be heard. One of the ways is through this special platform,” she told a press conference at Komtar today.
Also present were Batu Kawan MP Kasthuriraani Patto, Sungai Pinang assemblyman Lim Siew Khim, Bukit Tambun assemblyman Goh Choon Aik, Teluk Ayer Tawar assemblyman Mustafa Kamal Ahmad and PWDC chief executive officer Ong Bee Leng.
According to Chong Eng, the Penang Women’s Assembly 2020 programme would resemble the Penang Legislative Assembly sitting with 40 elected representatives.
“The sitting will be moderated by State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang.
“We also have appointed Batu Kawan MP Kasthuriraani Patto as the committee chairman for the programme.
“The registration phase has started since July and is open until Sept 1.
“Currently, we have received 422 applications and those interested applicants can still do so through PWDC Facebook page without any registration fee,” she added.
Kasthuriraani said the successful applicants would have to go through three phases of the selection process.
“For phase one, they will join the mini roadshow to all five districts in Penang that will be conducted on Sept 5 and 6 and they will be evaluated based on their engagement with the local community.
“Each roadshow will be led by selected state assemblyman and Member of Parliament.
“And those who are successful will go into the second phase which is to attend a two-day preparation workshop.
“In this workshop, they will be equipped with political education, the roles of an elected representative, policy making process and others. The second phase also is the last phase to choose only 40 participants to take part in the assembly sitting.
“Lastly in the third phase, the final 40 participants will be chosen to represent each constituency in Penang.
“When the assembly session starts, they will play a crucial role to table a motion, debate and discuss the issues that they are facing in their respective constituency.
“The result from this assembly session will be documented for further action by the state government,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ong said those who did not reach the last stage would be reserved by PWDC for future programmes.
“We will include them in our future programmes because we know that they are already interested in this matter.
“So, we will not leave them out. We will get in touch with them and encourage them,” she said.
Story by Riadz Akmal
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi