April 15, 2012
KUALA
LUMPUR April 15 — A tweet a few weeks back remarked on how rallies and
activism in Malaysia were always about the same issues, and the same
faces. The tweet referred to the recent Wanita Suara Perubahan Rally
held on March 18, 2012 which saw NGOs, men and women march for six
demands, such as clean government, an end to gender violence, a decent
wage and quality of life, to name a few.
Women’s activism in Malaysia is
quite lively, but to keen observers of feminism, still very new in its
approach towards causes. Third and fourth wave feminism have yet to
reach our shores, they say, but would be a welcome change to the current
feminist movement in Malaysia. [1a & b] A dipstick survey among
acquaintances on the writer’s Facebook, revealed that many Malaysian
women felt (a) intimidated by the ‘girl gangs’ and cliques, and segan
by the imposing personalities who champion their causes, (b) the causes
did not really address their needs and demands and that bread and
butter issues as well as peer pressure to not join the bandwagon compel
them not to be involved in such matters.
For the most part, bread and
butter issues are the main reason for women not participating. There are
just too many things to do: work, run a household, and struggling to
maintain a healthy social life, as well as the bane of almost everyone
on earth, exercise. Activism, volunteerism, politics — these take up so
much time and effort, and not to mention the emotional involvement.
However, another reason that could be why many women stay away is peer
pressure. Being perceived as a feminist may be misconstrued, and trite
as it is, may lower their social ranking. Men may be intimidated by this
aspect, and find them romantically repugnant. Even women friends shrink
back from having to entertain a rabid feminist friend at school
reunions. Being a feminist could turn a woman into a social pariah, and
even more so in a conservative environment like Malaysia.
Is there space for a newer breed of women activists then? Will women of all ages be welcomed by the current sororities?
Who are Kakak Killjoy?
Kakak Killjoy represents a
smaller subset of younger Malaysian feminists (in their twenties and
those who’ve just turned 30) who are contributing to the Malaysian
feminist discourse during a time when too few people are. They’re not so
much ‘fed-up’ with the older generation of feminists but rather want to
add and hopefully transform how we talk about gender and how it
intersects with other social categories in Malaysia into a way that is
more critical and intellectually-engaging.
When Alicia (picture left) started
writing about feminism nearly 4 years ago on her blog, virtually no one
was doing it. Sadly, the numbers have not grown much, but she is
grateful to have discovered her team of writers who were the rare
Malaysians expressing themselves about gender, ethnicity, class,
sexualities, disabilities, and the current state of Politics in Malaysia
from a feminist perspective. “We’re still small to represent anything
bigger than what we are and what we do, but I sincerely hope that we’re
inspiring younger writers and critical commentators to come forward and
do the same.”
Kat Laut Bulan, in a brief email
correspondence, sees Kakak Killjoy as a collective which speaks ‘with’
people, and not ‘for’ anyone in particular. “The only people we
represent are ourselves, and we are young Malaysian feminists/womanists
who are adding to the Malaysian feminist/womanist discourse. We want to
inspire everyone to talk about hot button issues in Malaysia not only
from the usual racial or class perspectives, but also from a
feminist/womanist perspective. This is not being done enough. After all,
all the ‘isms’ are interrelated, and we can’t sweep feminist/womanist
issues under the carpet when they’re costing us greatly.”
Munira Mustaffa, Kat Laut Bulan
and Alicia Izharuddin are Malaysian professionals in various fields who
write thought provoking and very lively essays for the webzine Kakak
Killjoy.
Alicia, when asked whether the
NGO scene can be intimidating to women, replied, “I get the sense that
some women’s NGOs can be cliquish and intimidating to outsiders, even to
people who may be interested in their cause. Not all NGOs are
well-funded, the amount of work can be a strain, a lot of work
organising events, among other things, is done voluntarily, and reaching
a consensus in decision-making processes is often a touchy occasion.
Thus I am aware that given these circumstances, women’s NGOs can be
defensive of criticisms that emerge from outside the NGO circle. There
are subtle means through which inter-NGO cliques are continually
reinforced, mainly through making the default assumption that anyone
present at NGO-organised events, formal or otherwise, is a member of
one. During such moments, it makes me wonder whether not representing an
NGO makes me less of a citizen participant in creating change for a
more egalitarian Malaysia?”
Has feminism and women’s activism really excluded women?
Shrewd, observant Munira’s take
on the whole issue is that the absence “… of stronger participation by
women in Malaysian politics because let’s face it — there is no safe
space for us. Wanita Umno is hardly exemplary. The Parliament is a
perfect example of how unsafe a space it is for women, what with the
inherent and active sexism and chauvinism. … Women make up a large
percentage in universities, academia and work force, yet why are we
still treated like our worth is lesser than a cattle? It’s a joke when
the politicians guilty of slipping these words just apologise and grin.
No hard feelings, hun. Jangan merajuk. Right? It’s despicable.
Politicians need to be accountable for their actions and for what they
say instead of being allowed to skip free. “Sorry” is not going to cut
it. Apology is not a policy.”
She doesn’t see how feminism
should exclude Malaysians. Malaysians probably feel excluded only
because of the common misconception with regards to feminism. “To me,
feminism is about addressing gender issues. We’re not about upstaging
men - we just want to establish our rights. Is it too much to ask for a
bit of justice? What we have here in Malaysia is definitely a gender
issue. A huge one. The problem is, I think people are too focused on
racial politics. Everyone’s always saying that ‘Okay, we’ll be fairer to
people from this race/community/etc’. What they neglect to understand
is that you can’t be fair if you can’t even grasp the importance of
gender equality. If you can’t understand why gender equality is
important, then how are you going to engage yourselves in a serious
dialogue about equality in other aspects.”
She admits that she is somewhat
disdainful, contemptuous of the scene. There needs to be more action
than just talk. “Just because you marched in a protest doesn’t mean
that you’re involved. Activism is not just a label, it’s not for show.
There is a reason why there’s the word “active” in it. There is no hope
in action which power is only wielded so superficially. If we want to
talk about change, we need to check our own privileges. By that, I mean
we should try seeing things through a different lens, different
perspectives. People come from different levels of socio-economics
status and class. We all have varying life stories, different
experiences. That’s probably what is dragging all of us down because our
privileges are our main deterrent. Don’t talk about wanting to change
the nation if you’re going to wave your iPad in my face. To get things
done, it seems to me that we need to know the right people. Again,
pandering. From that aspect, yeah, activism is pretty cliquish in
Malaysia. If we want change, then all of us need to sit down and engage.
Really engage. And that means broaching a lot of subjects that many of
us may find uncomfortable with. Probably challenging, even. But that is
the whole point. If we can’t begin by seeking and identifying our
weakness, what can we achieve? Therefore, in order to engage, the first
step involves listening.”
Alicia is respectful of the
women who have fought for the rights of Malaysian women longer than she
and her generation. “I have plenty of respect and admiration for them,
particularly since they’ve been in activism for much longer, have
experienced much more, and with that have much to share with younger
women. However, I worry that older generations of feminists may not see
the importance of mentoring younger women feminists into one day taking
their place, and as a result in only ten years time we might end up
having a power vacuum. I only notice that older feminists seem less keen
on speaking about/engaging with issues that younger feminists are
talking about. For example, Malaysia’s complete silence on the global
movement which was Slutwalk perhaps underscores some unsaid ambivalence
and prudishness concerning female sexuality and the refusal to
participate in the transformation around the discourse of sexual
violence i.e. not on women’s responsibility to prevent rape, but to tell
men to rape and society to stop blaming survivors and victims of sexual
violence. “
However, she maintains that she
is one of the many younger women who are still intimidated by, while
maintaining plenty of admiration for, women’s NGOs. “I’m not certain if
much of feminist activism in Malaysia is glamorous, although I will say
events that take place in very nice 4-star hotels are glamorous and have
the tendency to intimidate,” she says.
And who are the women Malaysia
should watch out for now? “Wei San from AWAM, Ren Chung from WAO, and
I’d like to self-promote and say the Kakak Killjoy collective are
definitely up there in ‘faces to look out for’!”
What Other Young Women Say
Social worker Petra Gimbad. - Picture by Lareina Tan
She continued with a tinge of
regret, “… we have lipstick feminism, which is popularised by Sex And
the City/Spice Girls/rahrah Girl Power type depictions in the movies and
on TV. But not always with the awareness of what women had to give up
for women now to experience freedom and equality. And not always,
unfortunately, with the desire to better life for other women in this
lifetime.”
“I’ve experienced other girls riding the Fourth
Wave who believe in gender equality, and create spaces for this via art
and spirituality. My girlfriends and I used to pray at temples and
churches and eat vegetarian food together (we very the muhibah) before
teaching art, dance and yoga to kids as part of our weekend volunteer
work. It was a welcome antidote to our day jobs (some of us were daytime
NGO workers and others, corporate high-flyers) and a lovely way to
create energy as a group to do humanitarian work from a place of love.”
She doesn’t think that it is a matter of whether
the causes resonate or not, because they do. It is a matter of whether
young women can relate, she said. “The divide can be due to various
factors - language, class, geography, cultural understanding (PLEASE
don’t say race, malas) and unfortunately sheer inexperience and
unawareness. A lot of women I know simply don’t care because they’ve not
been exposed to violence or even when they are aware, been not been
brought up to care about the welfare of others. We are Malaysians after
all.”
Who does she think are the new leaders of women’s
activism? “Janarthani Arumugam! June Rubis! They work on-the-ground so I
have a soft spot for them. They have great stories which are easy to
relate to and therefore speak to the heart.”
Jaymee Goh, a freelancer & PhD Student, who
also writes for Kakak Killjoy, sees that women’s participation looks
limited to only certain tiers of politics, never to the extent of
policy, unless it serves the larger (male-led) status quo. “NGOs are a
double-edged sword. They must operate autonomously of the government,
yet they must also challenge the government. However, because the
government resists challenges, NGOs are forced to dance delicately to
avoid bans on their activities. This does mean that many groups of
Malaysians cannot participate, as their concerns are too “out of the
way” or too radical. I get no sense that NGOs understand the necessity
of taking the needs of several different groups into account at once,
which means that any given NGO will inevitably be exclusive to the one
group they claim to represent, often at great expense of all others.”
NGOs are like any other kind of organization or
institution: until its members recognize gender equality as a necessity,
there will be none, Jaymee says.
Jaymee is very intrigued and
interested in the activist movements happening in Malaysia--who’s
leading them, what their supposed agendas are, how they are operating,
how they intend to sustain their work. It’s hard and
under-appreciated work, and for all my criticisms of NGOs, not enough
Malaysians appreciate them for their effort, if not effect.
Dahlia Martin who is pursuing postgraduate studies
abroad, does not agree with the fact that Third and FourthWave of
Feminism has not arrived in Malaysia. “ Many Malaysian women have access
to the internet, and are at least through that abreast of global
developments. They can and do “organise” themselves on issues they are
concerned about. Many KL women would also argue that they do actively
reconstruct feminine beauty for themselves as subjects, with some Muslim
women using their tudung to do so. “
On how young women feel
intimidated by the activist scene, Dahlia replies, “It’s funny you
mentioned this, just today I was trying to convince someone, a young
woman, here in Australia to nominate herself for the board of NGO X, and
she squirmed saying something along the lines of, but I don’t have an
NGO X pedigree. She’s right to feel intimidated, NGO X has no young
women on its board; I’m about to propose they have a young persons
quota, if you will, for the board. A diversity of women on the team
means an organisation will be able to better represent women from a
range of backgrounds. I should also mention that when I talk to some
people about activism, I often feel as though they’ve very narrow
definitions of the term. Like you’ve got to be out there, lobbying some
politician or organising a protest, or “established” to have an opinion.
Women absolutely have a range of lived experiences, and there’s no one
which categorically tops another.”
[1a] Third-Wave
feminism seeks to challenge or avoid what it deems the second wave’s
“essentialist” definitions of femininity, which often assumed a
universal female identity and over-emphasized the experiences of
upper-middle-class white women. The shift from Second Wave feminism came
about with many of the legal and institutional rights that were given
to women. However, the Third Wave believed there needed to be further
changes in stereotypes of women and in the media portrayals of women as
well as in the language that has been used to define women. Therefore, a
more Post-Structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is
central to Third Wave ideology. Post-Structuralism emphasizes discursive
power and the ambiguity of gender and the power of language. In
“Deconstruction Equality Versus-Differences; or, the Uses of
Poststructuralist Theory for Feminism” Joan W. Scott describes how
language has been used as a way to understand the world, however,
“post-structuralist insist that words and texts have no fixed or
intrinsic meanings, that there is no transparent or self-evident
relationship between them and either ideas or things, no basic or
ultimate correspondence between language and the world” Wikipedia
[1b] Fourth wave feminism: http://journal.equip.org/articles/fourth-wave-feminists-stress-action-over-doctrine
Part 2
Hijacked by politics
Activism
and politics in Malaysia would seem to centre around Bangsar and
suburbia. One may argue that one’s middle class tendencies should not
be a deterrent towards the cause, and that everyone, whatever
backgrounds they come from, are all for similar causes. Activism sees no
colour, they say. We’re all in this together!
But
dig, and needle more, and murmurs, voices of dissention come out.
Unfortunately, activism can be like a high school playground, with its
cliques and sensitivities. And for many who work in grassroots activism,
it is all about one’s class and economic status. The trend of having
celebrity activists is also not a welcome one.
An
observer who wishes to remain unnamed, spoke out about the injustices
she saw in Malaysian women’s activism. One, again, like the other women
interviewed for the feature, she had utmost respect for the older, more
experienced women activists. However, how they approach activism may
need to be changed. There’s too much emphasis on advocacy. “Not everyone
sees activism as ever-evolving, and dynamic. Hence the rigidity.”
Sure,
the lack of resources dampens the work NGOs do, but surely they can
change the way they work and approach issues, she said. Because of this
rigidity, and how advocacy is communicated, grassroots women still do
not grasp the issues that are integral in their lives. There is a huge
gap when it comes to meeting the needs of women. Sadly, many women do
not go on the ground enough. “How you then relate to your audience? If
the people you fight for, don’t benefit, what is the use of activism?”
Middle
class arrogance has also come into play when dealing with the
grassroots. Citing language barriers for one. “How can someone who is
Malaysian, gone to local schools, not be able to speak in Bahasa and the
mother tongue of her people? Or at least bahasa pasar?” She shrugs.
There is no space for grassroots women to participate.
Empower’s
Janarthani Arumugam is a calm but realistic voice. Empower has been
conducting an extensive programme to increase women’s political
participation in the country. They see the direct implications when
women fail to see the connections between political power and demanding
for their rights. Getting more women represented in decision making
powers and accessing their political power will provide the critical
mass to push for change.
“The
women who have attended the rally are those who have been part of our
political network. We train and provide enough skills to women leaders
to promote the cause. Each individual woman we train becomes an advocate
for the cause, she in turn works with her community (multiplier
effect). We encourage the women we have trained to be part of the
process as potential candidates, campaign managers and grassroots
mobilizers. The women have been trained and are able to participate in
an empowered and meaningful manner. (However) as much as these cadre of
women have been trained and are ready, it would all depend on the
political parties to actually nominate them. “
To the layman, this may sound pathetic. Oh my, is it any wonder why women of Malaysia are in a mess?
One
cannot say or assume that. The truth is that for many women’s
organisations and politics, financial and human resources run thin. The
employees and volunteers are overworked and fatigued. And yes, again
bread and butter issues, as well as societal pressure may hinder
Malaysian women from being active participants.
As
Alicia recapitulates what she had discussed in Kakak Killjoy, “… the
discourse of women’s issues in Malaysia is very much rights-based and
hinges greatly on statistics, on ensuring that the law further protects
those who continue to be marginalised on the basis of gender, and
pressuring the state to put gender equality as an important political
agenda. What seems to be lacking when we read and talk about
feminist issues in the public sphere is ordinary people, non-NGO people
articulating their thoughts and experiences of gender-based injustice
and taken just as seriously as when a female politician talks about it.
It seems as if we are reproducing the feudalistic mentality of seeking
legitimacy and endorsement of those with political capital when, for
example, sexual and domestic violence, needs national attention.
Creating new laws and enforcing others is not enough to ensure a safer,
more equal society. We need to get ourselves into the act as well,
recognising injustice whenever we see it, and not only wait for others;
the police, NGOs, and our leaders to step up.”
Perhaps one reason why Malaysian women are not responding to the call is because women are really critical of each other (http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2008/06/why_are_women_s.)
In a mostly patriarchal society like ours, and whereby polygamy (hidden
or not), glass ceilings are practised, the competition is high. Also,
it would seem that the matter is worsened when politicians leverage on
the cause, harming both women and issue. The issues tabled in this
feature should be discussed further among women. This is at the end of
the day, their country.
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