A White Paper on Women’s Development was passed unanimously in Parliament on Tuesday (Apr 5). Forty-one MPs participated in the debate, which lasted a total of nine and a half hours.
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam discussed the Government’s approach to addressing violence against women in the family context, saying that the authorities will do more to protect women in such situations.
He emphasised how far Singapore has come in offering equality, support, and opportunities for women, in comparison with other countries, including the United States, Australia and Malaysia.
Mr Shanmugam said he was not making such comparisons for the sake of criticism, but only to look at them “as illustrations which can remind us of the choices we have made or can make, on the journey we have travelled, or can travel”.
Of Malaysia, he said, “We were part of the same country until 1965. Our cultures are largely similar”, adding that the roads the two countries took diverged afterwards.
“These were deliberate choices, and they’ve led to very different results, and that is worth reflecting on to consider carefully… and we can do to strengthen respect and equality for women.”
He then offered two specific examples, one from early in the Covid-19 pandemic, and a more recent one.
In March 2020, after the Movement Control Order had been implemented, Malaysia’s Ministry for Women, Family, and Community Development Department put up infographic posters on social media that included advice such as wearing make-up at home, not nagging their husbands or being sarcastic with them when it comes to getting chores done, or speaking in a voice like Doraemon.
“As I understand it,” Mr Shanmugam said, “Doraemon is a male robot cat, so not quite sure why women should speak like a male robot cat.” He then played a sample of responses to the poster, which included a recording of a woman mimicking Doraemon’s voice.
Then in February this year, Malaysia’s Deputy Minister for Women Family and Community Development advised husbands to use “a gentle but firm physical touch” to reprimand their “undisciplined and stubborn wives” if they do not stop their “unruly behaviour”.
The deputy minister, who is a woman, added that wives should seek their husbands’ permission before speaking, and only speak to their husbands when the husbands are “calm and relaxed” after they’ve eaten and prayed.
Mr Shanmugam said, “In Singapore, let me tell you, if you beat your wives or vice versa, the police will come looking for you.
“Members would not even consider it possible for MCCY or MCF to issue such statements,” he added.
And while he acknowledged that the examples could be taken as a joke, he underlined the following “serious point”.
“The path taken in 1961… has led us to a very different place in terms of how in Singapore we view women and what we consider acceptable to say to women about how women should behave.
“Our cultural norms are now different from Malaysia, and we have, as opinion leaders, the power to strengthen and solidify those norms with more action,” he told the House. /TISG