The former prime minister said parents, especially mothers, who were in high profile careers seemed unable to bring up their children with the right values, inadvertently causing the children to be trapped in various social problems such as the ‘mat rempit’ menace.
“The Government needs to tackle this issue seriously so that the children can be brought up in the right manner, (with) right values, moralities and rejecting bad values.
“If this is corrected, the impact of women will play a bigger role (in the country’s economy),” he said in a keynote address entitled, ‘Women Leading the Future’, in conjunction with the Women Extraordinaire Forum (WEF) 2014 here today.
WEF 2014, a two-day forum which kicked off yesterday saw the participation of many prominent female leaders in Asia, both from the private and public sectors.
Later, during the question-and-answer session, Dr Mahathir was asked whether women in the country could be elected prime minister.
“Nothing in the constitution can stop a woman from becoming a prime minister because in a democratic country (Malaysia), it is majority support from the people and party that counts.
“There is no obstruction, all depends on the majority support. If you (women) win majority support and your party elected you as president, then you can become prime minister,” he said.
Dr Mahathir noted that a Malaysian woman’s integrity was high, as compared to the man, and “I personally believe that the work of enforcement should be given to the ladies.”
“If a customs officer is a woman, she will examine everything. They don’t care how you feel. So, some of the work to tackle corruption should be given to women,” he suggested.
— BERNAMA
