Ku Nan: Sorry for likening women to property

The Federal Territories Minister said he meant no malice and claims his statement was misinterpreted by certain quarters.

UPDATED

KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has apologised to those women who felt offended by his recent statement which compared the gender to property.

Nevertheless, he said the statement which was not ill-intention,  was misinterpreted by certain quarters.

“I did not mean that women are property. What I meant was, if we build a house and want it to appear nice, it needs to have make-up, like (how) women (put on make-up),” he told reporters after attending the MCA Annual General Assembly here today.

Tengku Adnan, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general, also denied that he disrespected women as he was a father of six daughters.

“Of course, I respect women…I’ve got six daughters, while in Umno itself, half its members are women. If I have hurt their (women’s) feelings, I apologise as I had no intention of hurting them,” he said.

Yesterday, Tengku Adnan was said to have belittled Malaysian women when he was reported to have stated, “Women are like property, their price increases with make-up and drops without make-up”, when explaining the valuation for property in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, when commenting on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s message at the assembly, he hoped it (message) would inspire all MCA members, especially the party’s new leadership which would be chosen later today.

He said, in efforts to win back the confidence of the Chinese to choose MCA, all BN component parties would join forces to make it happen.

“BN, as a multi-racial party, will continue all efforts and work with the MCA, with hopes that after the election, the MCA will be stronger and represent the Chinese community,” he said.

Najib, who is also Umno president, outlined four measures for the MCA in his official speech today, to garner support for the party which were reunite, re-strategise, re-invigorate and re-establish.

Bernama