The Clash of the Female Titans

The war of words between the two dowagers have begun. Rafidah issued her tirade against Shahrizat. Shahrizat responded by saying she was forced into going against Rafidah.

The two should not argue and bicker about reasons of this and that. Rafidah will defend her position. She does not have to offer any reasons why she wants to do so. All the reasons are academic now.

Shahrizat doesn’t have to be apologetic about her decision to offer herself for the post.

Wanita needs leadership. That is all.

So all these grandmother stories about promises, broken promises and all that are a waste of time. The time is better served by answering why does wanita need a new leadership?

Why is there now derision towards the loss suffered by Shahrizat? One senses there is jubilation after all in some quarters that Shahrizat lost. Her loss was the outcome of several factors not altogether blameable on her. This fact is now replayed simply to cast doubts on her ability to lead wanita.

Reading through the Mingguan Malaysia interview with Rafidah, she is what she has always been. Uncompromising and sticky. She will not budge. When she says, now is not the time to talk about leadership changes because, these are critical times. Not the times, when UMNO/BN had landslide wins.

On the whole, the interview confirms the general perception that Rafidah believes in her infallibility. She believes she is God’s gift to the wanita and without her to steer wanita during these critical times,, wanita will disintegrate. Because of that, she says if she wins she will stay on as wanita chief for another 3 years.

That raises further questions. if she wins and doesn’t want to relinquish her post, then she wasn’t intending to do it in the first place.

This would then suggest, that should Shahrizat chose to be the pliant and submissive deputy, Rafidah may very well sabotaged her should shahrizat fights it out with Kamilia.

And Kamilia please take note: if Rafidah wins, she will not hand over to you. She regards you as the interloper. That makes you, by default, Shahrizat’s ally.

Shahrizat must not be cloistered with having to answer and respond to Rafidah’s verbal onslaughts. She must offer wanita her blueprint for the future. How to make wanita more relevant to the ruling government and people at large.

Remember, the issue of leadership of wanita must have also contributed to the loss of UMNO as a whole. We lost 5 states and UMNO managed to secure only 2.4 million votes. A portion of those votes came from non Malay voters. During the 2008 elections, there were 5.7 million Malay voters. The loss of over 3 million over Malay voters, including UMNO voters can also be attributed to weak wanita leadership. Because of that, wanita does indeed need new and renewed leadership.