WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT

Dr Kanwaljit Soin asked the Prime Minister why gender is not considered as important as ethnicity in the composition of a well-represented Parliament and why the under-representation of women cannot be considered within the same framework as that of ethnicity as a consideration in the composition of Group Representation Constituencies.

Mr Goh Chok Tong: The Government found it necessary to create GRCs because with all constituencies racially integrated, but with voters still preferring candidates who belong to the same race as themselves, minority candidates were finding themselves at a disadvantage compared to Chinese candidates. There was a risk that one day no minority candidates would be returned to Parliament. This would have caused grave disquiet to the minority communities and threatened the stability of our political system.

Women candidates do not face the same problem. The difficulty with getting enough women MPs is not so much getting them elected, as it is finding suitable female candidates in the first place. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Even in the US and Europe, except for Scandinavia, most legislators are men.

The Nominated MP scheme has helped us get more women into Parliament, because the demands on Nominated MPs are less onerous than on elected MPs. The PAP will make greater efforts to find suitable women to field in elections. But setting a quota on the number of women MPs, through the GRC or a similar scheme, will neither encourage nor help qualified women to enter politics.