WOMEN TO BE ‘EYES AND EARS OF GOVERNMENT’, SAYS NAJIB RAZAK

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched a women community group programme today to enable women to report crime and threats to national security.

The 1 Malaysia Perwani Community programme, which aims to set up 100,000 Perwani groups throughout Malaysia comprising 10 to 20 women each, will be linked to organisations like the Police Families Association (Perkep), the Malaysian Armed Forces Family Welfare Association (Bakat) and the Wives of Civil Servants and Women Civil Servants Association (Puspanita).

“The role of the Perwani group is to be the eyes and ears of the government in fighting crime and threats to national security,” said Najib Razak in a speech at the One Million Women Purple Walk event at Dataran Putrajaya here today.

“This can be achieved through current organisations like residents’ associations, Puspanita, Perkep, Bakat, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs), and other NGOs like women’s and single mothers’ groups,” he added.

Najib Tun Razak also stressed to the crowd of thousands of women dressed in purple that the government wanted to empower women and include them in the mainstream of the country’s development process.

“In our struggle to realise our country’s vision, women play an important role,” he said at the event celebrating International Women’s Day 2013.

Najib Tun Razak  pointed out that 30 out of 62 High Court judges are women.

Najib Razak also urged government-linked corporations to appoint at least one woman in their boards.

However, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) latest Gender Inequality Index released last week showed that Malaysia ranked 42 out of 148 countries surveyed last year.

While Malaysia performed better than Thailand (66), the Philippines (77) and Indonesia (106), the country again trailed Singapore, which placed 13 in the chart that graded countries based on the level of women’s empowerment, their economic activity and their reproductive health.

While women make up half of Malaysia’s 13.1 million-strong registered voters, the UNDP noted that women formed only 13.2 per cent of the elected lawmakers in Parliament.

Political analysts and observers have said that women and young voters form a significant voting bloc that could decide which party wins the 13th general elections due just weeks away.

Najib Razak said today that women made up 62 per cent of university graduates.

The UNDP, however, reported last Friday that women comprised only 43.8 per cent of the Malaysian workforce, showing men still dominated the labour market.

According to the UNDP, 29 Malaysian women died from pregnancy-related problems for every 100,000 who delivered their babies safely.

The global theme for International Women’s Day this year is ending violence against women.

Domestic violence, however, has been on the rise in Malaysia for the past three years, from 3,173 cases in 2010 to 3,488 cases last year, based on police and government statistics provided by NGO Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO).

But rape has declined steadily over the years from 3,626 cases in 2009 to 2,998 cases in 2012.

Najib Razak : Govt has met most goals

KUALA LUMPUR: PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last night  the government has met the majority of its  goals under the National Transformation Programme, and is  on track to meet its goal of becoming a high-income nation earlier than 2020.

Announcing the results of the government's report card for last year in the form of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and Government Transformation Plan (GTP), he said the achievements were proof of the government's dedication to the 1Malaysia philosophy of "People First, Performance Now".

Najib Razak described ETP and GTP as "the bravest experiment undertaken by any government in the world to practise the principles of transparency and responsibility"."The task to become a high-income nation by 2020 is ambitious, but attainable."With this transformation agenda, I am responsible for its success and am bound by its results."I want to help Malaysia realise its exceptional potential," he told the audience at Auditorium Perdana at Angkasapuri.

Najib Razak said initiatives taken to boost the living standards of low-income households had lowered the poverty rate to 1.7 per cent last year from 3.8 per cent in 2009.The income gap narrowed to 0.431 as per the Gini coefficient ratio (a measure of inequality of income or wealth) last year, compared with 0.441 in 2009.A lower Gini coefficient ratio equates to a more equal distribution of wealth, with "0" corresponding to complete equality.

The country's per capita income last year, he said, stood at US$9,970 (RM31,131), compared with US$257 (RM802) in 1957, which is a 4,000 per cent leap in five decades.

In addition, the average household income last year stood at RM5,000, a jump from RM4,025 in 2009.

The construction of 35,000 new homes had also enabled more medium- and low-income families to own their own properties.

The efforts by the government had resulted in 99.9 per cent of households from the extreme poor category moving out of the bracket over the last three years.

"As part of our initiative to ensure that rural communities share in the country's progress, more than 3,300km of roads have been built, more than 1.4 million homes provided with clean water and 470,000 homes enjoy round-the-clock electricity supply."

The government's stand on the importance of early education, he said, had seen more than 2,000 preschool classes established, leading to a more than 80 per cent pre-school enrolment last year compared with 67 per cent the previous year.Touching on the ETP, he said it had continued to meet its targets, with RM32 billion in investments secured via 39 projects last year.

"Since the ETP's launch in 2010, private investment has grown more than three-fold, recording a 22 per cent increase in 2012."

The ETP had since announced 149 projects, worth RM211 billion in investments, and is projected to add another RM136 billion to the gross national income and create 408,443 jobs.

Najib Razak said in line with the government's stand on transparency, the results had been subject to review and verification by international experts on the International Performance Review Panel and auditing house PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia.

"What we have achieved, and failed to achieve, is on display for everyone to see."

Najib Razak reiterated that the Barisan Nasional government was one that kept its promises.

"We place the people's wellbeing above all else.

"That is why before promising something to the people, we study it first as to whether it will benefit the people and not burden them, whether it is temporary or for the long term.

"Secondly, we ask ourselves, is this promise something we can keep? We do not make empty promises."