Time to stop self-praises of being progressive on gender equality in politics

"President Halimah takes oath and makes history"– screamed the headline of the national newspaper The Straits Times when President Halimah was sworn in as President on 14 September last year.

A month before that, Channel News Asia headlined its article "Halimah Yacob: First female Speaker could make history again if elected as President" when she declared her candidacy for the Singapore Presidency.

In recent weeks, our national newspaper ST again played up the gender issue with an article headlined "Indranee Rajah promoted, new Cabinet now has 3 women ministers".

What exactly is the big deal?

Look at Malaysia – Madam Wan Azizah is set to become the first female DPM in Malaysia but was this issue, specifically her gender, even played up by their mainstream media?

Let us not kid ourselves by assuming that the presence of three women Ministers in Cabinet or the "election" of our first woman President are indicators of progress.

They are not.

In fact, I'd argue with anyone who insists as such that we are lagging behind other countries in Asia in this area.

At the start of this century, Philippines ELECTED Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as President while Indonesia's Megawati Sukarnoputri was ELECTED as Vice President to Abdurrahman Wahid before succeeding him as president after Wahid was removed from office in 2001.

Since then, other countries and territories such as Thailand, South Korea and Taiwan have ELECTED female heads of government. By ELECTED, I mean a proper electoral process in which at least 2 candidates were available for the voters to choose. Even Hong Kong, whose leader is elected by a committee of 800 persons, today has a female ELECTED head of government.

Even Japan, a typical a patriarchal system for years, have had women taking on top portfolios, including the Defence Ministry!

Across the causeway, Madam Rafidah Aziz was appointed Minister of International Trade and Industry in 1987 when she was 44.

So why exactly are we "celebrating" such appointments?

If the desire is to promote the message that Singapore is progressing well, I think our mainstream media is doing a disservice to both Singaporeans and the Government.

One day, such a human-made bubble will burst as it is never sustainable and is not created on a strong foundation.

That could well be the day Singaporeans wake up to reality and make their voices heard - similar to how Malaysians reacted on 9 May.

Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak insisted just a few days ago that there would be no Malay Tsunami on 9 May. Whether he naively believed so, or was presented a false scenario by his yes-men and perhaps pro-Government media, he has been proven wrong. Very wrong!

The earlier our mainstream media start to present the REAL problems and reality in Singapore, the better it is for this nation and the Government.

No matter how sweet a dream is, the dreamer will eventually have to wake up.

If this Government genuinely wants to implement the TOUGH decisions so that the next Government can have a smooth transition into office, it is time we stop presenting misleading or one-sided pictures to the public. Otherwise, the next batch of Government leaders will probably bear the brunt of the voters' anger. And deservedly so.

The media needs to trust our intelligence. After all, how long can one remain naive for?

It is time to stop the self-praises over trivial matters such as having the first woman President or how many female office holders. Our neighbours are probably laughing at us for having such "ACHIEVEMENTS" when they achieved such "MILESTONES" more than 15 years ago!