Gerakan man Baljit Singh found this out the hard way when he proposed, supposedly tongue-in-cheek, during the party’s annual general assembly that the party field “beautiful, sweet, energetic, sexy” young women to win elections. “If you can put in young girls, beliawanis, even better. The ripple effect is there,” he said.
What really kicked the hornet’s nest that night was the example he gave of the Teluk Intan by-election in 2014, which Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong won against DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.
“They put a young Malay girl there,” he said. “I saw her as a young Malay girl. I didn’t see anything else.”
That line is telling.
Dyana clearly thought so as well, since she responded nearly immediately with a statement chastising Baljit for his speech.
“In Pakatan Harapan,” she said, “we encourage intelligent, dedicated and brave young women to join politics because they are capable, patriotic and hard working, making them winnable despite their physical attributes.
“Meanwhile, the Gerakan leader and many others who are on his side of the fence prefer to sexually objectify women in politics with cheap rhetoric as if Malaysian voters vote according to their sexual urges instead of their brains.”
Baljit has since tried to defend himself, and several of his colleagues in Gerakan have come to his defence. He said he used the word “sexy” as a reference to Wanita Gerakan vice-chief Azmar Md Alias, and that he had discussed the reference with her before he made his speech.
“For those who do not know her, especially the reporter, she is a grandmother,” he said. “I spoke to her earlier and she was okay with it.”
That line is another that is unjustifiable. Should a person’s old age make it alright to use “beautiful, sweet, energetic and sexy” as markers of political success? Such a comment, as well-intentioned as it may have been, only serves to undermine female politicians who have worked for years to be recognised only for their accomplishments.
Baljit also went to religion for shelter, saying that he had, as a God-fearing Sikh, adhered to the tenets of his religion that call for the appreciation of women. “In my religion, there is a passage that reads, “If a woman can give birth to kings, she can never be second to anyone’ and another that says, ‘Without women, there would be no one at all,’” he said, going on to add that he has a wife, two daughters and that his mother is still around.
So, yes, by now we’ve established that Baljit is a good person who went into his speech with the best of intentions to uphold his party’s struggle. But his defence isn’t good enough.
Sexism does not have to be blatantly intended to be apparent. Baljit’s bald admission that he saw Dyana as nothing else but a “young Malay girl,” especially taken in the context of his earlier comments, only serves to reinforce damaging stereotypes.
If we are to take his lines of defence into account and retain the apparent meat of his statements, i.e. appearances and youth count a lot towards political success, one wonders why Baljit didn’t just save himself the trouble and say that Gerakan needs more good-looking and young politicians, period.