Senators Should Be Allowed to Vote According to Conscience
Thursday, 22-12-2005I feel a bit disturbed to read about the response of Nazri towards 16 women senators who want to oppose to the Islamic Family Law (FT)(Amendment) Bill 2005, where he said he has directed the women senators to pass the bill in the senate, which means they cannot use the Senate to force the bill to be retracted.
I have issued a statement today on this matter to urge the government to allow senators to vote on the bill according to their conscience.
Press statement of Teresa Kok, Member of Parliament for Seputeh and Publicity Secretary of Democratic Action Party (DAP) on 22nd December 2005
The Cabinet must consider the views of women’s groups and review the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2005. The Cabinet must also allow Senators to vote on the Bill according to their conscience.
I regret deeply to learn that 16 women senators who oppose the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2005 were directed by the Cabinet and the Minister to vote for the Bill in the Senate today.
Although the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said yesterday that the Government will take the senators’ views and study their objections, it is regrettable that the Minister and the Cabinet will not allow senators to exercise conscience voting on this issue.
I hereby urge the Cabinet to take cognisance of the strong views expressed by the 16 women senators and allow them to exercise conscience voting on the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2005 as this is a critical aspect of the democratic legislative process.
The Joint Action Group on Gender Equality (“JAG”) composed of Sisters in Islam (SIS), All Women’s Action Society (AWAM), Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), Women’s Centre for Change (WCC), Women’s Development Collective (WDC) and the Women’s Section of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) have expressed grave concern and objections over this bill.
They see the Senate as the last bastion to hold back this bill for a review and not be passed hastily as was the case in the Dewan Rakyat.
In September 2005, MPs in the Dewan Rakyat were given less than a week to study the bill before it was debated and passed hastily by the Dewan Rakyat.
In fact, the bill has a few questionable clauses that will have far-stretching implications on Muslim women, particularly section 23(9)(b) and sections 23(3) and 23(4)(a) as stated in my speech in the Dewan Rakyat on 27th September 2005.
Section 23(9)(b) will allow a Muslim man about to marry another woman to claim part of his incumbent wife’s assets or to apply for their matrimonial home to be sold and the proceeds divided.
Sections 23(3) and 23(4)(a) of the bill may make it easier for men to practice polygamy as the proposed marriage no longer needs to be “just and necessary” but “just or necessary”.
Although I am not Muslim, as a woman, I understand the plight of Muslim women when faced with divorce action. It is important for the Cabinet which propagates the concept of Islam Hadhari to consider the views of the women’s groups, women MPs and women Senators, and view seriously the negative and far-reaching implications of passing the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2005.
I strongly urge the Government to withdraw the Bill from the Senate and have it reviewed by a Parliamentary Select Committee before it is re-tabled next year.
I also strongly urge the Government to allow the Senators to express themselves on this Bill freely and according to their conscience and remove the direction to vote according to party directions.
Teresa Kok
MP for Seputeh
Thanks for speaking up against this. I think DAP MPs should support the women senators in their fight against the unjust family law. I hope DAP MPs will give as much attention to this issue as they do in the squatgate scandal. This will strengthen the image that DAP is fighting for Malaysians, justice and truth regardless of race, religion, and even political affiliation.
Comment by Lee Wang Yen — Thursday, 22-12-2005 @ 16: 37.25
Did you say conscience? Since when did Barisan MPs and Senators voted with their conscience?
The government can table a bill to paint the Malaysian sky yellow and they will vote for it.
There will be hope for democracy to funstion when a Barisan MP is prepared to resign than to vote against his conscience. But will these cari makan MPs do that?
Comment by tony — Thursday, 22-12-2005 @ 20: 15.14
Like cows being led to the slaughter house,the vote will be a resounding “yes”
Comment by hawk — Thursday, 22-12-2005 @ 21: 23.05
Interesting that it’s a true rubber-stamp entity. Why vote then? Why not make the Cabinet all-powerful?
Comment by riversandlakes — Friday, 23-12-2005 @ 01: 48.59
The bill makes me want to convert!!. Incredible, its literally legalizing gigolo. I can be jobless and marry one woman after another, have tons of babies without being responsible again and again and make money doing it.
Comment by Bigjoe — Friday, 23-12-2005 @ 07: 26.13
Whether under protest or not, these 16 women senators condemned all Muslim women to a miserable life.
Haven’t they heard of being “a conscientious objector”? Did Nazri put a gun to their heads to make them agreed? No, right? So just tell him to his face that “over our dead
bodies if you force us to pass the bill”.
What could he do to 16 women senators? Like tony said, they could always resign en-bloc & not bow to pressure. This way they could hold their heads high & say no way they were going to betray their sisters.
Now, I hope Muslim women don’t gather to spit at them. As a non-Muslim, I find this bill terribly unfair to all Muslim women.
Comment by cashanson — Friday, 23-12-2005 @ 15: 33.19
I thought earler, there was a call from the PM or someone at the BN leadership for the back benchers to ct as an “internal opposite” to assist in the check and balance in the parliement as there is an overwhelming majority.
Now, when the crunch comes, the WHIP is invoked. This unfortunately is not democracy at work. We need healthy disagreement, even amongst the ruling party so that we can objectively and intelligently argue facts and matters, right and wrong when we make laws that affect the daily lives of 25 million people.
Dear YB. You concern shows that DAP is trans-racial in seeking truth and justice. Perhaps the link to your BLOG should be published in Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian and KOSMO! Hahahaha…Merry X’mas and may God be with you, Uncle Lim and gang…...
Comment by lee wee tak — Saturday, 24-12-2005 @ 10: 08.18
Merry Christmas to Teresa & to all Malaysians!
Thanks for the good work.
Comment by cashanson — Saturday, 24-12-2005 @ 11: 04.22
This thing sounds like a deal for the personal interest of the Sultan and the administration. Was a deal cut for political sake?
Comment by Bigjoe — Sunday, 25-12-2005 @ 08: 56.54
I always why bother maintaining these senators when all they do is rubber stamping. A waste of tax payer money. Any trained monkey can do the job.
Comment by blur! — Friday, 30-12-2005 @ 18: 15.43
the islamic law bill 2005 is gonna create havoc in muslim families.the bill is… created by greedy and weak muslim men out to rob the muslim women of their properties.eg if shahrizat or rafidah gets divorced, their husbands get half of their wives properties.is that what they want?
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Comment by pri — Friday, 27-01-2006 @ 19: 37.11