Exploring the influence of dominant masculinity on women political leadership in political parties

The study investigates the continuous domination of masculine traits in political institutions, specifically political parties in Malaysia, to understand how masculinity is constructed and perpetuated within political parties. This study undertook a content analysis of political parties’ constitutions and interviewed 30 politicians representing different demographic groups such as political parties, gender, and age. The study expects that dominant masculinity in political parties influences the low rate of female political leadership through 1) the formal political structure that divides men and women through the creation of women’s wings and 2) the informal rules which hinder women from being politically active at higher levels such as the patronage system. This study indicates that female political leadership could be improved by reforming political parties’ culture and structures to be more friendly and inclusive towards women

Where were the Women in GE15?

Malaysian women were severely underrepresented in the 15th General Election despite the increasing number of female candidates fielded. This presentation seeks to analyse the representation of women candidates during the 15th General Election and identify the issues related to women representation in the public space

Covid-19 pandemic: breaking a new path for women political representation or business as usual?

Gender equality is a part of the UN’s championed Sustainable Development Goal which reflects the global policy priority of bringing women to the table as decision-makers. The year 2021 has seen the highest record of women serving as the Heads of State and/or Government at and political representation at national parliaments. However, there seems to be a greater challenge for women to achieve equal political representation as COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world in 2020 has slowed down women political progress at global level. Until April 2021, COVID-19 has resulted into more than six million casualties and many countries have resorted to take strict measures to contain the widespread of the virus especially prior to the administration of the vaccines. The strict measures taken by governments worldwide include border closures, extensive contact tracing, physical distancing, and restriction of movements. The pandemic is proven to be precarious not only to public health but also to democracy around the world as governments are given ‘free pass’ to silence protests, clamp down oppositions and critics as well as greater control over public movements by using COVID-19 management as a justification. This also has halted the progress made by women movements and political activists in championing women political representation. Malaysia is one of the countries that imposed long and strict COVID-19 related security and safety measures. On top of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world in 2020, Malaysia also faced another crisis in the form of political uncertainty as the Pakatan Harapan that won the historical 2018 election was toppled down by its own allies through a soft coup by Muhyiddin Yassin and his team. Shortly after his appointment as Malaysia’s new prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin announced the strictest lockdown ever experienced by Malaysia which lasted until May 2020. This was followed by a series of lockdowns which lasted for almost two years before Malaysia officially announced that it entered the endemic phase in April 2022. With COVID-19 in the background, the country has experienced four state elections (Sabah, Sarawak, Melaka, and Johor) with three of them (Sabah, Melaka, and Johor) were due to the dissolution of state assemblies as the struggle for political power remain. The country also sees the changes of political leadership from Mahathir Mohammad (2018-2020) to Muhyiddin Yassin (2020-2021), and Ismail Sabri (2021-current). The combination of political and health crises is potent to the progress of women political empowerment in Malaysia as it further slips away in Global Gender Gap Index’s ranking in 2021 at 112th out of 156 countries measured. In 2020, Malaysia was at the 104th out of 153 countries. Despite scoring well in two out of four indicators used (educational attainment and health survival), Malaysia still falls behind for economic participation and opportunity (at 97th) and political empowerment (at 117th). According to the statistics produced by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, women representation in parliament is only at 10.8% which is lower than the global average of 21.8% and regional average of 18.4%. There have been various factors that hamper women’s active participation in politics such as socio-cultural values, public perception, and economic constraints. One of the the most critical institution that influences women’s political participation is political parties and the state that act as gatekeepers to the democratic process in society. This paper seeks to analyse how COVID-19 is utilised by political institutions specifically the state and the political parties to embrace changes as it is a possible critical juncture that provides opportunities for the state and political parties to renegotiate their structures, values, and positions in society to accommodate women. To explore the effects of COVID-19 towards women political representation in the state institution and political process, this paper identifies two areas to be examined: 1) political representation in the four state elections that took place during COVID-19, 2) gendered changes in state structures due to political instability during COVID-19. The paper aims to utilise feminist institutionalism to analyse the gendered consequences of COVID-19 on women political representation by using data on political parties’ selection of state electoral candidates and women representation in the cabinet and ministries at each point of political leadership’s change as Malaysia has had three different prime ministers since 2018 to 2022. This paper extends to the growing studies on the impacts of gendered political institutions to female political representation using COVID-19 pandemic and political instability as the research setting. The results of this study will provide useful insights on the important factors that influence the utilisation of critical juncture either to break a new path or maintain the existing path-dependency of women’s status in politics

Treat our medical workers better or risk a collapsed healthcare system

A nationwide strike among government medical contract doctors on July 26 exposed the “dark side” of the contract doctor profession in Malaysia. Introduced in 2016, the contract healthcare workers’ system was meant to limit housemanships and provisionally registered pharmacists due to excessive supply of medical and pharmacy graduates. A new contract imposed on junior healthcare workers, especially doctors has led to an unprecedented dispute

The Factors Contributing to The Rise of Religious Extremism in Malaysia

This paper aims at analysing the factors contributing to the rise of religious extremism in Malaysia based on a quali-quantitative method using survey data gathered in KL, expert interviews, and secondary literature. It identifies two classes of factors, external and internal, which are contributing to the spread of extremist understanding of religion, including the impact of colonial rule, foreign invasions, politicisation of religion, globalisation, and the consequences of  9/11. It finds that extremism destroys societal wellbeing and national security; thus, any type of extremist ideas and behaviour should be eradicated. It concludes with the recommendations to improve social harmony in Malaysia

Going to hell or heaven? an analysis of Malaysian Muslims’ perspectives on extremism in religion

Religion has long been the focus of research looking into terrorism and extremism. However, previous researches tend to focus heavily on terrorist and extremist groups who have committed acts of terrorism. This study further expands the literature by analysing how the public perceive extreme elements in their daily religious routines in a multicultural society in Malaysia, employing four dimensions of religiosity, namely, physical, social, cognitive, and spiritual. This research utilised a survey method and distributed it to 497 Malay Malaysian Muslims in 2019. Using descriptive statistical analysis, it was found that there is a tendency for Malaysian Muslims to be more perceptive towards religious extremism, as the majority of the sampling population showed strong support towards the visible aspects of religiosity indicators, such as strict adherence to religious dress code and physical rituals that can be managed and administered through the establishment of a legal institution and can reinforce their status quo as the majority group in society, rather than intangible aspects of extreme religiosity, such as cognitive and spiritual aspects. However, this study also found that extreme religiosity in religious practices is not necessarily an indicator for society to support extremist religious ideologies, as the Malaysian Muslims also showed positive tendencies of living in a multi-faith society. This finding provides insights into how the prevention of religious extremism should address social elements of religiosity and should not be taken care of in isolation, as well as should consider the complex historical and social dimensions of society. As such, this paper contributes to the understanding of Malaysian Muslims’ perceptions of religious extremism in their daily religious practices in a multicultural society. *************************************************************************** Agama merupakan salah satu tumpuan utama penyelidikan berkaitan isu keganasan dan ektremisme. Walau bagaimanapun, penyelidikan terdahulu lebih cenderung mengkaji kumpulan pengganas dan pelampau yang telah melakukan keganasan. Oleh yang sedemikian, kajian ini dihasilkan bertujuan untuk menganalisis pendapat orang awam mengenai unsur-unsur kegiatan melampau yang melibatkan agama dalam masyarakat pelbagai budaya di Malaysia. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah kaji selidik yang menggariskan empat dimensi dalam beragama sebagai penanda aras; fizikal, sosial, kognitif, dan rohani. Soal selidik kajian ini telah diedarkan kepada 497 responden yang terdiri daripada individu berbangsa Melayu dan beragama Islam di Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia pada tahun 2019. Dengan menggunakan analisis statistik deskriptif, kajian ini mendapati bahawa terdapat kecenderungan umat Islam Malaysia terhadap elemen fahaman melampau agama. Sampel majoriti penduduk menunjukkan sokongan yang tinggi terhadap aspek fizikal keagamaan seperti pematuhan kod pakaian agama yang ketat dan pentadbiran institusi undang-undang mengikut undang-undang Islam kerana ini dapat mengukuhkan status quo mereka sebagai kumpulan majoriti dalam masyarakat. Kajian ini mendapati responden mempunyai toleransi agama yang lebih tinggi dalam aspek yang tidak ketara dalam keagamaan seperti aspek kognitif dan rohani. Namun begitu, kajian ini juga menunjukkan bahawa kecenderungan terhadap aspek esktrem dalam beragama tidak semestinya menjadi kayu ukur sokongan sesebuah masyarakat kepada ideologi ekstremisme agama. Analisis mendapati umat Islam Malaysia menunjukkan kecenderungan positif untuk hidup secara harmoni dalam masyarakat berbilang agama dan menerima hak penganut agama lain untuk mengamalkan agama mereka secara terbuka di Malaysia. Hasil kajian ini memberi gambaran bahawa aspek kemasyarakatan agama, sejarah dan latar belakang sosial perlu diambil kira dalam mencegah kegiatan ekstremisme agama. Oleh itu, penyelidikan ini menyumbang kepada pemahaman persepsi umat Islam Malaysia terhadap aspek ekstrem beragama dalam masyarakat berbilang budaya

Towards developing an integrity framework in Performance Appraisal System (PAS) in the Malaysian public sector: a preliminary analysis from justice and ethical perspectives

The implementation of Performance Appraisal System (PAS) is seen as a strategic move to foster performance-based work culture in the Malaysia’s public sector. Embedded in pay-for performance system, the new appraisal system which was first introduced in 1992 establishes linkage between pay system, performance and competencies development. However, the chain tying pay to performance appears to be weak. Massive disappointment signals poor implementation as the appraisal system was overshadowed by inappropriate instrument design, rater error, inaccurate rating, bias assessment, etc. These major setbacks have evoked concern over ethical and fairness in the practices of PAS. Occurrence of problems in the implementation of PAS signified erosion of justice and ethics in the practices of PAS, thus lead to growing demand for integrity-based performance assessment system. This preliminary analysis therefore seeks to examine the relationship between ethic, justice and the practices of PAS in the Malaysia’s public sector. Correlation coefficient results disclosed positive association between variables as the instrument used, process employed are moderately associated with ethics and justice dimensions. The appraisal system is likely perceived to be good if fair assessment and ethical supervision were present and vice versa. This study deliberately discusses the aforementioned issues through integrated framework based on organizational justice and work character ethics theories and proposed framework for integrity enhancement in the implementation of PAS. Significantly, this article makes a theoretical contribution towards developing higher integrity capacity which often requires in HRM practice

A facade or sincere efforts? a case study of political parties' female empowerment agenda in GE 14

This study identifies the role of political institution namely political parties in Malaysia that play a crucial role in women's political empowerment. In addition to that, there is a need to analyse Malaysia’s abysmal performance in women's political empowerment which is illustrated in female political representation in political leadership position as well as in legislature and executive organs of government. Malaysia is lagging behind its gender empowerment policies despite the existence of a dedicated ministry to focus on women affairs namely the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development established in 2001. Based on the Global Gap Index 2018, Malaysia was ranked at 101st place out of 149 countries which further slips from the 70th out of 144 countries in 2017. This study explores the representation of gender agendas and female candidates in the last General Election in 2018. This paper contributes to understanding the pattern of political parties’ responses towards the demands of female empowerment and inclusion in political processes. It identifies that there has been significant shifts of political parties’ responses towards gender agendas by looking into the electoral manifestos provided by all three coalitions in the last GE 14

Emotional experiences and psychological well-being in 51 countries during the covid-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges to psychological well-being, but how can we predict when people suffer or cope during sustained stress? Here, we test the prediction that specific types of momentary emotional experiences are differently linked to psychological well-being during the pandemic. Study 1 used survey data collected from 24,221 participants in 51 countries during the COVID-19 outbreak. We show that, across countries, well-being is linked to individuals’ recent emotional experiences, including calm, hope, anxiety, loneliness, and sadness. Consistent results are found in two age, sex, and ethnicity-representative samples in the United Kingdom (n = 971) and the United States (n = 961) with preregistered analyses (Study 2). A prospective 30-day daily diary study conducted in the United Kingdom (n = 110) confirms the key role of these five emotions and demonstrates that emotional experiences precede changes in well-being (Study 3). Our findings highlight differential relationships between specific types of momentary emotional experiences and well-being and point to the cultivation of calm and hope as candidate routes for well-being interventions during periods of sustained stress

The invisible intellectuals : Female academics in security and international politics

Female academics are visibly absent in the discussion of international politics and security. This put Malaysia at a disadvantaged position as women academics have different research interests and perspectives in the discussion of international politics compared with their male counterparts. Female scholars are prone to explore and discuss non-governmental organisations, transnational actors, and international organisations and adopt a more constructivist approach