Wanita Gerakan Secretary General, Jayanthi today clarified that, to all members of Wanita Gerakan who were present at the conference, Lim Si Pin and Teng Hock Nan did not mean to discriminate women in their speeches during the Penang States Delegates Conference last week. Wanita Gerakan would like to remind all Gerakan leaders that the party is alive and as relevant as during its’ establishment in 1968 and the party is being monitored by the public.

Jayanthi as Secretary General of Wanita Gerakan in her speech in the Penang Wanita & Pemuda Delegates Conference on Saturday night did stress that, to Wanita Gerakan and Malaysian women, they believe in gender equality. If, men do not understand the dilemmas women face every day, men will never have wives, daughters and to begin with mothers. And, she invited the men present to listen.

She further stressed that Wanita Gerakan has continuously challenged for improved living conditions for single parents, programs to assist and enable single parents to become more independent and self-reliant, Wife’s Provident Fund to ensure timely maintenance payments for divorced wives, amend laws that discriminates and humiliates human rights and dignity especially those of women, human trafficking and domestic violence and abuse of women and children.

Sharing the same platform was Lim Si Pin, Chairman of Pemuda Gerakan who gave the speech after her did not in any manner make any disrespectful statements against women or discriminate them. Jayanthi also said that his statement with reference to the first wife and the new wife was made with reference to preference of something that is new.

“I am sure that all listening that night understood the context of the meaning likewise Teng Hock Nan, Penang Gerakan State Chairman’s speech the next morning too. It was not in any way derogatory or discrimating nor meant to belittle women,” said Jayanthi.

“It is always the choice of a speaker to quote examples to relate to issues he or she makes. Hence, if Teng Hock Nan decided to draw an analogy to wooing a woman and she becoming pregnant, it was his choice of illustration. This was not meant to be understood the way YB Chong Eng and YB Gan Pei Nei have understood it. It was purely for men to bear responsibility for their actions. The message was simple and that was it, nothing more and nothing less,” she added.

“Surely the leaders of DAP and PKR must have better things to do than pick on non-issues and make them issues for the sake of publicity. Please, lift the veil that clouds your understanding. Just remember, that we are all sisters in the same cause and we too do not tolerate any form of discrimination against women,” said Jayanthi.