Women not only born to be leaders, but should also be raised to be one - Amira Aisya

SHAH ALAM - Women are not just born to be leaders, but they should also be raised to be a leader and empowered by the community, says Puteri Wangsa assemblyman Amira Aisya Abd Aziz.

She said looking at the existing female politicians, Malaysia was not short of people who could become the leader of the country.

“Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail did a splendid job as the deputy prime minister, also Teresa Kok, Hannah Yeoh (as ministers), and all these people have served their duties excellently and we could actually say that they had served (the country) even better than some of the men who have held those positions.

“Looking at the leaders that we have, we are more than ready to have a female Prime Minister,” she said.

However, she said a lot of work needed to be done first on that front as it was important for female leaders to be responsible for whatever they were to say or write in order to take the society forward rather than backwards.

“Whatever they say or write could influence the people and we would not want them to say something that would take the society back rather than forward.

“We need to do a lot of work, we need to word things the right way to inspire more women that women are not just born to be leaders, but we should also raise women to be leaders,” she said.

Amira was speaking as a panelist on Sinar Daily's talk show Wacana English Edition entitled “Women: Not Born To Be Leaders?”, today.

She also pointed out that politics in general was very much a ‘gentlemen’s club’ due to the significant involvement of men in politics, adding that the progress of women in politics was very slow.

She noted that although in may other sectors, there were huge numbers of participation of women in leadership, it was the opposite in politics.

This, she said could be seen through the Johor state election in which there were 239 candidates in total and only 37 of the them were women.

“It is very important to look at the culture practice in your own political party first and see if it accommodates women.

"It is a crucial matter when we talk about having a female representative in politics,” said the Muda secretary-general.

On Wednesday a Politically Frank clip of Datuk Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid had gone viral sparking anger and confusion when she said “women are not born to be a leader [sic]”.

It had garnered responses not only from female users but also the opposite gender including comedians Dr Jason Leong and Harith Iskander.

Amidst the massive backlash, Nurul had responded the next day with a Quranic verse and clarified that she only meant it for top leadership positions such as the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Menteri Besar and others in the same rank.

She said parliamentarians, state assemblymen or even a company owner were a non-issue for women.

The next day after the episode was aired, MQ Technology Bhd announced that Nurul was now its new vice chairman effective immediately.

The 44-year old is also the daughter of Umno president and former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

She has contested for various party positions in the past but lost.