PENANG’s 30% target for women’s representation had a more specific objective of promoting gender equality in the state legislative assembly, unlike other states, says Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.
He said the state government’s previous proposal for appointed state assembly members was not aimed at creating additional political positions but at increasing women’s participation in politics and ensuring that women made up at least 30% of the state assembly.
Chow said the proposal was based on recommendations by the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC) and various non-governmental organisations, which had advocated for greater female representation in decision-making platforms.
However, he said the initiative was eventually shelved after the state government found that the mechanism would be difficult to implement due to the changing number of assembly members required to achieve the 30% target.
“The 30% is not a fixed percentage; it changes over time. For example, Penang has 40 state seats. One-third would be about 14 seats. If only four women are elected as state assembly members, another 10 female appointed assembly members would be needed to achieve the 30% target,” he said.
He was speaking at a press conference today when asked about Penang’s previous proposal for appointed state assembly members, similar to the system proposed by Melaka.
Chow explained that if the 40 elected assembly members were joined by 10 appointed members, the total number of state assembly members would increase to 50. The 30% target would then have to be recalculated based on the new total in the following term.
“Based on 50 assembly members, 30% would mean 17 women representatives. Therefore, achieving this target would become an endless cycle that could not be fulfilled,” he said.
Chow said the state government subsequently decided that the proposal was not practical to pursue further.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Muhammad Iqbal Hamdan
Video by Law Suun Ting