We, the undersigned civil society organisations working on gender inclusion, urge Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi to modify his proposal of adding a maximum of five “appointed state assemblypersons” to the existing 56 elected assembly members to increase women’s representation in the Johor State Legislature.
The proposed amendment bill to the Johor State Constitution should be modified to the effect that “if the percentage of women amongst elected state assemblypersons is below 30%, the appointment of additional members shall prioritise women”.
Currently, 14 (25%) out of 56 assembly members in Johor are women. If all the five appointed assembly members were men, the representation of women would drop to 14 out of 61, or 23%. With a new total of 61, the 30% benchmark would be reached with 19 women assembly members.
Our proposed clause would ensure that if the appointment was to take effect now, all the five new appointees would have to be women, and Johor would immediately become Malaysia’s first legislature that achieves the 30% minimum goal of women’s representation.
We believe that ‘appointed assembly members’ that represent specific statewide interests or communities can complement existing constituency assembly members.
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However, these appointments must not be made “bonus seats” to boost the government’s majority. Instead, they should function as top-up seats for women when necessary and should be proportionally distributed across parties based on their vote share in state elections.
Of the existing three states with ‘appointed assembly members’, Sabah and Pahang adopt a ‘bonus seat’ design, which largely becomes a means of patronage and control.
Introduced under Pas in 2003, Terengganu’s model is currently the most progressive, stipulating that four women or non-Muslims may be appointed to the state legislature if none are elected.
We urge Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz to introduce an ‘appointed assembly members’ design that is more progressive in Johor than Terengganu’s.
Project Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Projek Sama)
Endorsed by:
- All Women’s Action Society (Awam)
- Bukit Mertajam Women’s Rights Awareness Association (WRAA)
- Justice for Sisters
- Penang Women Development Corporation (PWDC)
- Sabah Women’s Action-Resource Group (Sawo)
- SIS Forum (Malaysia)
- Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM)
- Wanita Berdaya Selangor (WBS)
- Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO)
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