Apology eh? Not good enough. I just had to write a follow up letter to the editor. Hopefully he doesn't ignore it.
The apology has been made and for those who were outraged by the sexist remarks made by the two MPs in parliament, it might seem like a victory. But is it really? Have things really been set right?
Sadly, no. There are so many things wrong with the apology. First, it took them seven days to make the apology, only to retract it. When the official apology finally came after day nine, half the apology was about alleged opposition provocation. One can't help but to wonder if the MPs really are sorry for saying what they did. If it really was a slip of tongue caused by opposition provocation, then the apology would have come on the very next day. It doesn't a person nine days to figure out that he or she has been blinded by rage and done something wrong. Unless that person actually believes that no wrong has been committed. Watching the whole saga, one cannot help but to get the impression that the apology was somewhat forced and done grudgingly.
The problems don't stop there. The MP from Kinabatangan has a history of making such remarks. This isn't the first time that he has stirred controversy. It is becoming apparent that there is no changing this mindset that such people have. It is bad enough to have sexist MPs in our parliament, but to have MPs who flaunt their sexist views openly and then expect to get away with it is unacceptable in any democracy.
Datuk Sharizat might think that the two MPs have been punished enough due to the media attention that this issue has generated. To me it looks like they got away with it. It is an unequivocal defeat for those who believe in and fight for women's rights.
3 comments:
The delay is just pure politics, even though its negative publicity , its still publicity :) Did you know that the fighting stunts pulled off in the Taiwanese parliament are all choreographed before hand? They just wanted the attention of the people, the wrong way of course.
I can see how negative publicity works for people in Hollywood, but in politics?
I disagree that this is a political stunt. The man is too consistent with his stand. This is not a one off thing that he did. He is as sexist as Bush is conservative.
And besides, I'm not sure if he is going to get any political leverage from any group of people for doing what he did.
Then you'll be underestimating the number of sexists out there. Obviously not all (I'll venture to say even the minority) will be overtly showing sexism, but these are the people who will vote in the new guys in the next election.
Somehow conventional wisdom now is that "no publicity is bad publicity". So they'd rather be notorious compared to unknown?
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