Rosmah and Najib are known to work as a team. — File pic
Speaking at the third Asean Women Leaders Forum in Singapore, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor mused that the crisis might have been averted if women had been in charge.
The feisty speaker, known as a force to be reckoned with in Malaysian politics, made the statement to drive home her point: women should be seated at the tables of power, whether corporate or political.
This is because they possess “intrinsic” leadership qualities, such as the power to persuade and the willingness to rethink arcane rules, that men do not, she argued.
The keynote speaker at the forum, Rosmah took the opportunity to issue a rousing call to arms to the 150-strong audience of mostly women.
“We must stop waiting for opportunities to fall into our laps. We must seize opportunities with our own hard work, ideas and drive,” she asserted.
The patriarchal institutions and culture of Southeast Asia have not stopped women from “infiltrating” male-dominated governments and corporate arenas, she noted, citing as examples Corazon Aquino and Megawati Sukarnoputri.
The former was president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, and the latter president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004.
Even when men control the levers of power, “there will be a woman or two who play pivotal roles in making that male leader excel”, said Rosmah, to appreciative laughter.
Najib and his wife are known to work as a team.
Rosmah also noted that while women's leadership abilities come from their role as caregivers, the same responsibilities can also prevent them from taking up the gauntlet of governance.
This was a point emphasised by her fellow keynote speaker, Lim Hwee Hua, Singapore Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport, who was the first woman to become a full Cabinet minister in Singapore.
Persuading women to enter politics is especially difficult, she said, because “women juggle a whole lot more than men”.
The loss of privacy as a politician is hard to bear for women, she said, more so because the scrutiny women in power are subjected to is often worse than what their male counterparts face.
“You get people asking women leaders questions about (their) children and families that they will never ask the men,” she said.
This double standard was also decried by Rosmah.
“If a woman works hard to succeed, she is often said to be pushy and bossy. The same characteristic in a man is determination and drive,” she observed.
Both women emphasised the role of policy in smashing glass ceilings for women. Childcare facilities at the workplace and the flexibility to work from home are measures both the Malaysian and Singapore governments have encouraged companies to take up, they noted.
But the ultimate driver of change must be women themselves. Women must “cease and desist” to be one another's worst enemies, said Rosmah.
Instead of competing, women must show solidarity and support one another.
In this spirit, she called for a global summit of First Ladies to be held in Kuala Lumpur in the middle of next year.
No formal invitations have been issued yet, but when she brought up the idea to fellow First Ladies during last month's meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Trinidad and Tobago, “they were very excited”, she said.
Asked if Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, would be attending, Rosmah said that she had not spoken to Ho at length about the event.
“But knowing her, I'm sure she would be very supportive.”
The one-day forum was organised by the Asean Business Forum and the Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute.
Among the other speakers were Jannie Tay, executive vice-chairman of luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass, and Singapore's Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Yu-Foo Yee Shoon.
Another speaker was Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who is also head of Wanita Umno. — The Straits Times
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