Diversity in cabinet leads to better decisions, minister Yeo says

With six ministers and four deputy ministers being women in the new Pakatan Harapan government, critics were quick to highlight the coalition’s failure to fulfil their pledge to have cabinet comprise at least 30 percent women.

However, like other Harapan women leaders, Yeo Bee Yin believes that the coalition has made great progress and that it is working hard towards eventually achieving its target in future elections.

The newly minted energy, green technology, science, climate change and environment minister has expressed hope that more people will realise how having greater women representation at decision-making levels could benefit the country as a whole.

“To me having gender equality or more women's representation is not only about women's rights, but it has to do with making better decisions,” Yeo told Malaysiakini in an interview at her office today.

“There are a lot of studies which show that when there is more diversity in the decision-making process, better decisions are made,” said the 35-year-old, who counts the late US civil rights movement activist Rosa Parks among those who inspire her to continue speaking up for equality.

“If she (Parks) can do it, then I can do it,” said the Johor-born DAP politician who won her Bakri parliamentary seat with a 23,211 majority, the highest majority ever achieved in the history of the constituency.

Commenting on the upcoming new Parliament session beginning July 16, Yeo said she was looking forward to changes resulting from an overall greater women’s representation in the House.

“With 20 percent of women in Cabinet right now, I think the men have to watch their words,” she noted in reference to past verbal attacks and perceived sexist remarks launched against female opposition lawmakers in Parliament.

Of particular infamy was Umno Supreme Council member Bung Mokhtar Radin, who directed a ‘bocor’ slur towards former Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan 10 years ago.

Bung Moktar once again defended his Kinabatangan parliamentary seat for the fifth term in the 14th general election.

Making a change

As the youngest female minister under Pakatan Harapan’s new administration, Yeo noted that she certainly has a lot to prove and a lot more to achieve.

“There are no words that can defend yourself louder than your actions. What I really want to do is make a change in my country.

Yeo, who holds a Masters in Philosophy in Advanced Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University, says that the areas covered in her portfolio are her “fields of interest”, which she knows “quite well”.

Yeo also revealed that even before it was officially confirmed she has been appointed to the position, she had begun to prepare herself, “just in case.”

“It is better that I am prepared, than I am not,” said Yeo who maintained that she had not lobbied for the appointment and as such was in no position to defend herself against those sceptical of her ability to helm a ministry.

“My heart was racing very fast,” said Yeo who recalled the moment she received a phone call from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, confirming earlier rumours of her appointment, which she had dismissed as “fake news”.

In her excitement, Yeo said she was uncertain if she had heard Mahathir correctly, and it was only after she received another call from the Prime Minister’s Office to request her attendance at the swearing-in ceremony on July 2, that it all began to sink in.

Hitting the ground running

Immediately after attending the ceremony held before Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V at Istana Negara, Yeo had clocked in for her first day at work, and the work has not stopped until today.

“I read all of the ministry’s action plans, their strategic plans...I need to come in with my eyes open...I read almost everything that could be read,” she said on her first week in office.

This was on top of organising meetings with various industry stakeholders and experts.

“Do you have enough tape to record it?” she quipped when asked to elaborate on her plans for the ministry now tasked to oversee agencies previously divided under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, as well as the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry.

Yeo explained that agencies in charge of various environment-related policies, meanwhile, will be divided between her ministry and the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry led by Kuala Langat MP Dr Xavier Jayakumar.

She went on to talk at length about how her background as a chemical engineer, combined with a passion to promote greater interest in the fields of science and technology, would be translated into three core values for the ministry - integrity, excellence as well as being future-focused.

As a message to other young women leaders, Yeo said they should learn to fight for their own justice and prove the sceptics wrong.

“Once people have a prejudice against you, if you work hard, if you know your stuff, eventually they will stop.

“So I would rather use my actions to say that ‘I can do it’,” she stressed. -Mkini