theSun, Malaysia
October 6th, 2010
Every century has been marred by ghastly injustices that perhaps today make little sense why they were even allowed to occur. Slavery in America, ethnic cleansing in Nazi camps, Pol Pot’s regime, genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda – this list sadly has too many entries. One of the 20th century’s moral challenges was battling totalitarianism that saw the falling of dictatorships and the rising of democracy – a challenge that continues into the 21st century. However, this century though working on the challenges of the past, has its own challenge – battling inequality.
A book I’ve been reading entitled after the Chinese proverb "Women hold up half the sky", talks about the injustices endured by women. For more developed countries it may be unequal pay, while for countries struggling to develop, these injustices might mean, honour killings, or not having the same access to medication or education because they are girls.
Malaysia has its share of gender inequalities. However, according to the New York Times Malaysia has made inroads in enabling women to progress particularly in financial sectors citing examples such as Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, governor of Bank Negara, while Jamelah Jamaludin can boast of being the first woman to head an Islamic bank. The list for Malaysia in this sector is extensive including Fozia Amanulla who heads Eoncap Islamic Bank and Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, Bursa Malaysia’s global head in Islamic markets.
So maybe for Malaysia, gender equality is not our biggest moral challenge. Perhaps our half of the sky is segregated more by race and less by gender.
Countries such as India have recognised one main contributing factor to China’s economic boom has been a shift in gender inequality and providing opportunity by merit. China has realised the benefits of educating females and giving them the autonomy to run businesses instead of the suppression faced in the past where babies were not favoured to say the least. India is trying to follow suit admitting their shortcomings in not using their half of the sky sooner.
If the problem in Malaysia is race-based inequality, perhaps we should shift our mentality as these countries are trying to and work towards equality in providing education based on merit not race, create job opportunities based on capability not race, construct and review policies based on value not race. Perhaps then we would be able to increase our growth while enticing qualified Malaysians thriving in foreign lands to contribute to the country that raised them. Right now, we have little with which to entice them to return and much pushing them further away.
What we offer are racist comments allowed to be uttered in school corridors right to the corridors of Parliament, a rapidly segmented mono-cultural social strata and elite race-based organisations that occasionally leak how deep the reaches of racism in this country truly are. The excuse that racism is an anomaly is far from the truth especially when most things are divided by race. Why then would one stay knowing there is a limit to what they can achieve no matter how good they are or how hard they work?
Just like gender inequality impedes economic growth, using half the Malaysian sky only damages Malaysia’s own growth in the long run. As it is, our foreign direct investment has plummeted rapidly while international figures such as Sir Richard Branson and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales have identified stumbling blocks hindering our country’s progress.
The question then is can we afford to ignore half the Malaysian sky? I believe the answer is a strong NO.
Natalie has been moved after reading Half the Sky – How to Change the World by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn.
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